Introduction: The Identity of a user in digital world is an important factor for an individual. Identity management has been handled by various models which, over the period of time have been prone various security breaches. The foremost integral part of any identity model is the centralized storage, access of data. Considering this, in recent years, there has been evolution from centralization to de-centralization of Identity management. With respect to this new aspect, this paper proposes a solution to the centralized management problems, as a decentralized Identity Management System. The said approach utilizes Ethereum blockchain, IPFS, both supporting distributed data accessibility and data storage respectively. This paper also sheds light on the W3C specification of DID (De-centralized Identifier) which supports the Self-Sovereign Identity principles of Identity Management and are vital for de-centralization of Identity Management
In the context of the rapid development of Internet of Things (IoT) technology and the extensive proliferation of the global Internet, the authenticity of data has become a focal point of societal demand. It plays a decisive role in enhancing the quality of decision-making and operational efficiency. However, the storage and authenticity verification of large-scale IoT real-time data present unprecedented technical challenges. Faced with the inherent data security risks of traditional centralized cloud storage, blockchain technology reveals its unique potential for solutions with its inherent immutability and decentralization. Nevertheless, current blockchain-based data storage solutions are still restricted by high costs and inefficiency. To address these challenges, this paper innovatively proposes the BI-TSFID framework, which leverages the benefits of Ethereum and IPFS and optimizes the Merkle Tree structure and verification mechanisms. The BI-TSFID framework adopts a strategy of on-chain data summary storage and off-chain computation. This approach provides IoT with efficient and reliable data storage, reduces operational costs, and simplifies the verification process. This research has improved the data computation efficiency by refining the structure of the Merkle Tree and analyzed its optimal branch number. Additionally, the study introduces a sampling-based data integrity verification method that significantly reduces resource consumption during the verification process. Experimental results show that the solutions proposed in this paper effectively enhance the efficiency and security of IoT data management and provide valuable guidance for the theory and practice of real-time data storage and verification, further promoting the development and innovation in the related technological fields.
The use of digital certificates is crucial for verifying the authenticity of various credentials in our digital age.However, traditional digital certificate systems suffer from centralization, vulnerability to tampering, and the risk of loss.This paper presents an approach to issuing and managing certificates as Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) on the Ethereum blockchain, ensuring their immutability and perpetual existence.The proposed system aims to overcome the limitations of traditional methods by utilizing decentralized storage through the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) and implementing a robust incentive mechanism for voting and Proof of Stake; the goal is to achieve true permanence and enhanced security for digital certificates.A first phase of a smart contract and front-end interface was achieved, to preserve diplomas and provide a reliable method for verifying their authenticity for employers and other stakeholders.This paper is part of an ongoing effort to develop a robust system, create a prototype to validate the perpetuity assumption, and propose improvements for a global, enduring repository of certificates.
The emergence of the Internet of Vehicles (IoVs) has also exposed security challenges that require advanced strategies to maintain secure data provenance (SDP) and ensure data credibility and anomaly detection. This paper introduces an innovative framework tailored for the dynamic and distributed nature of IoVs that enables the secure tracing of data origins and ensures the reliability of data through plausibility checks. Our approach leverages the principles of decentralized SDP using Verifiable Credentials (VCs) and distributed ledger technology (DLT) to establish a traceable and tamper-evident data lineage, enhancing the integrity and authenticity of vehicular communications. To address the complexities of anomaly detection, we integrate checks that scrutinize data streams for abnormal patterns, enabling the timely identification and mitigation of potential security breaches. We also propose a robust mechanism to assess data plausibility, ensuring that only credible and verifiable data influence the decision-making processes in the IoVs ecosystem. Through detailed experimentation and analysis, our methodology demonstrates significant improvements in securing IoVs against common threats such as impersonation, data tampering, and privacy breaches. This fosters a trustworthy and resilient vehicular network environment.
Faton Kabashi, Halil Snopçe, Artan Luma, Vehbi Neziri
The increasing demand for a secure and transparent mechanism for verifying academic credentials has led to the exploration of blockchain technology (BT) as a viable solution. This paper presents a three-layered application for the reliable verification of academic credentials, leveraging the immutable and decentralized nature of BT. The system includes a data layer (DL), a blockchain layer (BL), and an application layer (AL). The DL records student records, faculty staff records, and credentials. The BL utilizes smart contracts to record and verify academic records, ensuring their authenticity and integrity. The AL provides a userfriendly interface for various stakeholders, such as students, educational institutions, and employers, to communicate with the system. This effort aims to determine how BT can be utilized to enhance the security, transparency, and efficiency of academic credential verification processes. Efficiency in academic credential verification processes ultimately contributes to a more reliable and effective educational ecosystem.
The rapid growth of electronic health (eHealth) systems has led to serious security and privacy challenges, highlighting the critical importance of protecting sensitive healthcare data. Although researchers have employed blockchain to tackle data management and sharing within eHealth systems, substantial privacy concerns persist as a primary challenge. In this paper, we introduce TrustHealth, a secure data sharing system that leverages trusted execution environment (TEE) and blockchain technology. TrustHealth leverages blockchain to design smart contracts to offer robust hashing protection for patients’ healthcare data. We provide a secure execution environment for SQLCipher, isolating all sensitive operations of healthcare data from the untrusted environment to ensure the confidentiality and integrity of the data. Additionally, we design a TEE-empowered session key generation protocol that enables secure authentication and key sharing for both parties involved in data sharing. Finally, we implement TrustHealth using Hyperledger Fabric and ARM TrustZone. Through security and performance evaluation, TrustHealth is shown to securely process massive encrypted data flows at a rate of 5000 records per second, affirming the feasibility of our proposed scheme. We believe that TrustHealth offers valuable guidelines for the design and implementation of similar systems, providing a valuable contribution to ensuring the privacy and security of eHealth systems.
Dincy R. Arikkat, Mert Cihangiroglu, Mauro Conti, Rafidha Rehiman K. A. · 7 authors
The rise of IT-dependent operations in modern organizations has heightened their vulnerability to cyberattacks. Organizations are inadvertently enlarging their vulnerability to cyber threats by integrating more interconnected devices into their operations, which makes these threats both more sophisticated and more common. Consequently, organizations have been compelled to seek innovative approaches to mitigate the menaces inherent in their infrastructure. In response, considerable research efforts have been directed towards creating effective solutions for sharing Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI). Current information-sharing methods lack privacy safeguards, leaving organizations vulnerable to proprietary and confidential data leaks. To tackle this problem, we designed a novel framework called SeCTIS (Secure Cyber Threat Intelligence Sharing), integrating Swarm Learning and Blockchain technologies to enable businesses to collaborate, preserving the privacy of their CTI data. Moreover, our approach provides a way to assess the data and model quality and the trustworthiness of all the participants leveraging some validators through Zero Knowledge Proofs. Extensive experimentation has confirmed the accuracy and performance of our framework. Furthermore, our detailed attack model analyzes its resistance to attacks that could impact data and model quality. • Definition of a Swarm Learning approach for collaborative CTI. • Definition of a Blockchain-based solution for privacy preservation in CTI sharing. • Secure CTI validation using a consensus mechanism and Zero-Knowledge Proof.
The concept of the Internet of Medical Robotics Things (IoMRT) is where intelligent robots assess surrounding events, combine information from their sensors, use both local and dispersed intelligence to determine the best course of action, and move or command objects. Telesurgery is one application of IoMRT (TS). With 5G-enabled Tactile Internet (TI) enabling telesurgery (TS), there is ample opportunity to provide exceptional, accurate, ultra-responsive, and real-time virtual surgical procedures. The potential for accurate surgical diagnosis involving the exchange of patient electronic medical records (EMR) with several doctors using an assistant robot (AR) could be greatly useful in the medical field. As a part of this, permission delegation has emerged as a novel approach for data sharing in TI. Robust control of access guidelines combined with a configurable permission scheme promise secure EMR exchange. The present research proposes a multi-hop permission delegation strategy for EMR exchange based on blockchain technology and with configurable delegation depth. Furthermore, the original EMRs are stored on the interplanetary file system (IPFS). Permission delegation uses smart contracts and proxy re-encryption technology. Attribute-based encryption, which offers fine-grained management of access, is used to guarantee data security. Blockchain is also utilized to accomplish immutability and traceability. Delegators may regulate the depth of delegation by using smart contracts. The suggested approach satisfies the intended aims, according to analysis of the protocol. Lastly, the Ethereum test chain is used to assess and put the suggested method into practice. The outcomes of the conducted experiments demonstrate that the suggested protocol operates better than the competitors.
This research introduces the Blockchain Academic Credential Interoperability Protocol (BACIP), designed to significantly enhance the security, privacy, and interoperability of verifying academic credentials globally, addressing the widespread issue of academic fraud. BACIP integrates dual blockchain architecture, smart contracts, and zero-knowledge proofs to offer a scalable and transparent framework aimed at reducing fraud and improving the mobility and opportunities for students and professionals worldwide. The research methodology adopts a mixed-methods approach, involving a rigorous review of pertinent literature and systematic integration of advanced technological components. This includes both qualitative and quantitative analyses that underpin the development of a universally compatible system. Preliminary evaluations suggest that BACIP could enhance verification efficiency and bolster security against tampering and unauthorized access. While the theoretical framework and practical implementations have laid a solid foundation, the protocol's real-world efficacy awaits empirical validation in a production environment. Future research will focus on deploying a prototype, establishing robust validation policies, and defining precise testing parameters. This critical phase is indispensable for a thorough assessment of BACIP's operational robustness and its compliance with international educational standards. This work contributes significantly to the academic field by proposing a robust model for managing and safeguarding academic credentials, thus laying a strong foundation for further innovation in credential verification using blockchain technology.
Leonardo Juan RamÃrez López, David Millan Mayorga, Luis Hernando Martinez Poveda, Andres Amaya · 5 authors
The management of large medical files poses a critical challenge in the health sector, with conventional systems facing deficiencies in security, scalability, and efficiency. Blockchain ensures the immutability and traceability of medical records, while the cloud allows scalable and efficient storage. Together, they can transform the data management of electronic health record applications. The method used was the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) methodology to choose and select the relevant studies that contribute to this research, with special emphasis set on maintaining the integrity and security of the blockchain while tackling the potential and efficiency of cloud infrastructures. The study’s focus is to provide a comprehensive and insightful examination of the modern landscape concerning the integration of blockchain and cloud advances, highlighting the current challenges and building a solid foundation for future development. Furthermore, it is very important to increase the integration of blockchain security with the dynamic potential of cloud computing while guaranteeing information integrity and security remain uncompromised. In conclusion, this paper serves as an important resource for analysts, specialists, and partners looking to delve into and develop the integration of blockchain and cloud innovations.
Nowadays, technology is increasingly being adopted in different kinds of businesses to process, store, and share sensitive information in digital environments that include enormous numbers of users. However, this has also increased the likelihood of cyberattacks and misuse of information, potentially causing severe damage. One promising technology, which can provide the required security services with an improved level of efficiency, is blockchain. This research explores the use of Ethereum blockchain and smart contracts to create a secure and efficient quality assurance system (QAS) for academic programs. By utilizing blockchain and smart contracts, the proposed approach improves the integrity and reliability of sensitive information processed by the QAS, promotes transparency and governance, and reduces the time and effort required for quality operations. The current approach uses an additional access control layer to further enhance user privacy. Smart contracts automate various quality transactions and saves time and resources, and hence increases the efficiency of the QAS. The interplanetary file system (IPFS) is used to address the challenge of size limitations in blockchain. Additionally, this research investigates the use of various cryptographic schemes to provide robust security services at the application layer. The experimental results showed that the use of a hybrid cryptosystem relying on an Elliptic curve digital signature and AES encryption (AES_ECCDSA) outperforms other counterparts’ cryptosystems using an RSA digital signature and AES encryption (AES_RSADSA) and Elliptic Curve Integrated Encryption Scheme (ECIES) in terms of speed. The performance results showed that AES_ECCDSA consumes 188 ms to perform the required cryptographic operations for a standard-quality document with a size of 8088 KB, compared to the 231 ms and 739 ms consumed by the AES_RSADSA and ECIES schemes, respectively. This study presents a prototype implementation of the blockchain-based QAS, which outlines the processing model and system requirements for key QAS processes. It has been found that the cost and time required for blockchain operations vary depending on the size of the input data—a larger data size requires more time and costs more to process. The results of the current study showed that the time delay for blockchain transactions ranges from 15 to 120 s, while the cost ranges from USD 50 to USD 400. This research provides evidence that blockchain and smart contract technologies have the potential to create a secure, efficient, and trustworthy QAS environment for academic programs.
Abstract Electronic health records (EHRs) are important for the efficient management of healthcare data. However, Healthcare data travels across an open route, i.e., the Internet, making EHR security a difficult process to do. This puts healthcare data vulnerable to cyber assaults. A possible method for protecting EHRs is blockchain technology. In this work, we develop an EHR architecture based on blockchain, which ensures all stakeholder's safety and privacy. We analyze various security architectures used for EHRs and the standard encryption system is integrated with quantum computing (QC). To safeguard the conventional traditional encrypting system against quantum assaults, we provide a hybrid signature technique that combines the Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA) and Dilithium within the anti-quantum lattice-based blind signature. Based on the difficulty of lattice problems over finite fields, Dilithium is a lattice-based signature method that is substantially safe against selected message assaults. The developed technique creates high entropy secret keys using the lattice basis delegation mechanism. The combination of ECDSA and Dilithium provides an efficient and secure signature system that is resilient to quantum attacks. The proposed scheme ensures that only authorized users with a defined role can use the database to access the data. We evaluate the efficiency of our scheme by comparing its performance to other state-of-the-art solutions in terms of transaction throughput, resource utilization, and communication cost. Results demonstrate that the developed technique outperforms the existing techniques in terms of efficiency and security.
Blockchain deployments require efficient consensus models in order to be scaled for larger networks. Existing consensus models either use stake-levels, trust-levels, authority-levels, etc. or their combinations in order to reduce mining delay while maintaining higher security levels. But these models either have higher energy requirements, lower security, or have linear/exponential relationship between mining delay and length of the chains. Due to these restrictions, the applicability of these models is affected when deployed under real-time network scenarios. To overcome these issues, this text proposes design of an efficient novel trust-based hybrid consensus model for securing blockchain deployments. The proposed model initially uses a hybrid consensus model that fuses Proof-of-Work (PoW), Proof-of-Stake (PoS) with Proof-of-Temporal-Trust (PoTT) for improving security while maintaining higher Quality of Service (QoS) levels. The PoTT Model fuses together temporal mining delay, temporal mining energy, throughput and block mining efficiency in order to generate miner-level trusts. These trust values are fused with Work efficiency and Stake levels and used for selection of miners. The selected miners are used for serving block addition requests, which assists in improving mining speed by 3.2%, reducing energy consumption 4.5%, and improving throughput by 8.5%, while improving block mining efficiency by 2.9% when compared with existing mining optimization models. This performance was validated under Sybil, Finney, Man-in-the-Middle, and Spoofing attacks. Performance of the model was observed to be consistent even under attacks, thereby making it useful for real-time network scenarios.
Anuj Nepal, Mohamed Ahzam Amanullah, Robin Doss, Frank Jiang
The evolution of the Internet of Vehicles (IoVs) presents many opportunities for intelligent transport systems; however, it brings significant security challenges that threaten the security and reliability of the data. Security, reliability, and trustworthiness are the essential critical requirements for the IoVs to ensure secure and efficient decision-making processes in an accurate, secure, and trustworthy manner. Traditional research paradigms have predominantly focused on data integrity, overlooking the essential need for data to be realistic, consistent, trustworthy, and reliable. Addressing this gap, our paper introduces a decentralized secure data provenance (SDP) protocol for the dynamic and distributed nature of IoVs to ensure verifiable security properties regarding data plausibility, source identity, data privacy, location authenticity, and data integrity, properties that are fundamental for achieving SDP. Our protocol integrates Verifiable Credentials (VCs) with distributed ledger technology (DLT), Road-Side Unit (RSU) infrastructure, cryptographic techniques, and plausibility checks to ensure secure, traceable, and tamper-evident data lineage. This comprehensive approach enables the timely identification and mitigation of potential security breaches, such as impersonation, data tampering, and privacy violations which are crucial for maintaining SDP and ensuring data credibility through anomaly detection and plausibility checks. Through detailed security analysis and validation, our methodology demonstrates improved resilience against common threats, ensuring that only credible and verifiable data inform its decision-making processes.
The relationship between doctors and patients is reinforced through the expanded communication channels provided by remote healthcare services, resulting in heightened patient satisfaction and loyalty. Nonetheless, the growth of these services is hampered by security and privacy challenges they confront. Additionally, patient electronic health records (EHR) information is dispersed across multiple hospitals in different formats, undermining data sovereignty. It allows any service to assert authority over their EHR, effectively controlling its usage. This paper proposes a blockchain enforced attribute-based access control in healthcare service. To enhance the privacy and data-sovereignty, the proposed system employs attribute-based access control, zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) and blockchain. The role of data within our system is pivotal in defining attributes. These attributes, in turn, form the fundamental basis for access control criteria. Blockchain is used to keep hospital information in public chain but EHR related data in private chain. Furthermore, EHR provides access control by using the attributed based cryptosystem before they are stored in the blockchain. Analysis shows that the proposed system provides data sovereignty with privacy provision based on the attributed based access control.
Avni Rustemi, Fisnik Dalipi, Vladimir Atanasovski, Aleksandar Risteski
Abstract Nowadays, the centralized systems used in higher education institutions are sophisticated and have high security mechanisms, offering secure data transfer and real-time encryption. Despite the prevalent usage of centralized systems in many institutions, particularly those within the realm of higher education, some unresolved concerns persist pertaining to privacy, potential abuse, transparency, and the limited capacity to digitize numerous services. Blockchain systems are considered as a potential solution for addressing these constraints. This study begins by highlighting the significance of implementing blockchain systems in higher education institutions, while also outlining the obstacles encountered by researchers in this domain. Centralized systems and blockchain systems are distinguished, with a description of the challenges related to data transfer and adaptation to different platforms. A thorough explanation of the proposed blockchain system begins with a presentation of the conceptual model, followed by a detailed architecture of the processes that would be executed by the system, with particular emphasis on the generation and authentication of academic credentials. Additionally, an analysis is provided on the significance of smart contracts in the programming of blockchain systems. This includes a detailed explanation of the main smart contract architecture used in the proposed blockchain system. This article aims to explore the development of a proposed blockchain system and its practical implementation for testing purposes using specific scenarios and data in the foreseeable future.
With the rapid development of modern medical technology and the dramatic increase in the amount of medical data, traditional centralized medical information management is facing many challenges. In recent years blockchain, which is a peer-to-peer distributed database, has been increasingly accepted and adopted by different industries and use cases. Key areas of healthcare blockchain applications include electronic medical record (EMR) management, medical device supply chain management, remote condition monitoring, insurance claims and personal health data (PHD) management, among others. Even so, there are a number of challenges in applying blockchain concepts to healthcare and its data, including interoperability, data security privacy, scalability, TPS and so on. While these challenges may hinder the development of blockchain in healthcare scenarios, they can be improved with existing technologies In this paper, we propose a blockchain-based healthcare operations management framework that is combined with the Interplanetary File System (IPFS) for managing EMRs, protects data privacy through a distributed approach while ensuring that this medical ledger is tamper-proof. Doctors act as full nodes, patients can participate in network maintenance either as light nodes or as full nodes, and the hospital acts as the endpoint database of data, i.e., the IPFS node, which saves the arithmetic power of nodes and allows the data stored in the hospitals and departments to be shared with the other organizations that have uploaded the data. Therefore, the integration of blockchain and zero-knowledge proof proposed in this paper helps to protect data privacy and is efficient, better scalable, and more throughput.
In multi-stakeholder systems, such as healthcare, the Internet of Things, and supply chain management, there is frequent data generation, exchange, and sharing. As a result, data owners often desire control over their data and maintain privacy, while data consumers require methods to ascertain the origins and creators of the data. These conflicts of interest require developing data governance systems that guarantee data provenance, privacy protection, consent management, and selective disclosure. This research proposed a decentralized data governance system utilizing blockchain technology, proxy re-encryption (PRE), and Boneh, Boyen, and Shacham (BBS) signatures to address these challenges. The proposed system enables data owners to control, selectively share, and track their data through privacy-enhancing, consent management, and selective disclosure mechanisms while also allowing data consumers to understand the lineage of the data through a blockchain-based provenance mechanism. As a case study, the research examined and evaluated electronic prescriptions involving sensitive data and multiple stakeholders, including patients as data owners and doctors and pharmacists as data consumers. The research was structured as a collection of published articles organized in the following sequence: problem formulation and developing smart contracts, implementing privacy and consent management through PRE, and applying BBS signatures for selective data sharing. The proof-of-concept implementation and evaluations, conducted using CosmWasm, Hyperledger Besu, Ethereum, pyUmbral PRE, and BBS signatures, demonstrate that the proposed decentralized system is platform-agnostic, scalable, and capable of providing a higher level of transparency, privacy, and trust with minimal overhead.
Joel Sousa, Emerson B. Tomaz, Allysson Allex Araújo
Authenticity represents an essential facet of information security explored across various Information Systems (IS), including Internet of Things (IoT) devices in Industry 4.0. However, deploying authentication mechanisms in specific IoT devices poses significant challenges, particularly for those with energy, memory, and computational power constraints. Given this context, this ongoing research project aims to compare conventional authentication mechanisms for low-resource IoT devices and identify the most efficient one among them. As an initial result, this paper aims to present our methodological scope and discuss preliminary empirical results derived from a computational experiment using the Non Interactive Zero Knowledge Proofs (NIZKP), algorithm in Arduino Nano. This research seeks to enhance the comprehension of authentication mechanisms in low-resource IoT devices, thus facilitating better decision-making processes in IS settings and contributing to academia and practice.
With the application of robotics in security monitoring, medical care, image analysis, and other high-privacy fields, vision sensor data in robotic operating systems (ROS) faces the challenge of enhancing secure storage and transmission. Recently, it has been proposed that the distributed advantages of blockchain be taken advantage of to improve the security of data in ROS. Still, it has limitations such as high latency and large resource consumption. To address these issues, this paper introduces PrivShieldROS, an extended robotic operating system developed by InterPlanetary File System (IPFS), blockchain, and HybridABEnc to enhance the confidentiality and security of vision sensor data in ROS. The system takes advantage of the decentralized nature of IPFS to enhance data availability and robustness while combining HybridABEnc for fine-grained access control. In addition, it ensures the security and confidentiality of the data distribution mechanism by using blockchain technology to store data content identifiers (CID) persistently. Finally, the effectiveness of this system is verified by three experiments. Compared with the state-of-the-art blockchain-extended ROS, PrivShieldROS shows improvements in key metrics. This paper has been partly submitted to IROS 2024.
C. Li, Sidi Mohamed Beillahi, Guang Yang, Ming Wu · 6 authors
Authenticated storage access is the performance bottleneck of a blockchain, because each access can be amplified to potentially O (log n ) disk I/O operations in the standard Merkle Patricia Trie (MPT) storage structure. In this article, we propose a multi-Layer Versioned Multipoint Trie (LVMT), a novel high-performance blockchain storage with significantly reduced I/O amplifications. LVMT uses the authenticated multipoint evaluation tree vector commitment protocol to update commitment proofs in constant time. LVMT adopts a multi-layer design to support unlimited key–value pairs and stores version numbers instead of value hashes to avoid costly elliptic curve multiplication operations. In our experiment, LVMT outperforms the MPT in real Ethereum traces, delivering read and write operations 6× faster. It also boosts blockchain system execution throughput by up to 2.7×.