Untung Rahardja, Achmad Nizar Hidayanto, Panca O. Hadi Putra, Marviola Hardini
A new paradigm regarding a significant technological development has been introduced, each individual gets full trust in controlling an asset and can see the level of authenticity of a particular asset. Through qualitative methods, it is possible to have structured results as the first step to the perfection of the digitalisation era, in which the current revolutionary technology called blockchain has come into play. One of the main innovations found through this research is the role of blockchain in enhancing e-certificate data security, it is proven that administration can be well distributed and reduce operational costs for every field in the world. It is clear that blockchain, especially in the world of education certification, has a big impact, because it can create a global trust network, immutable, authenticated ubiquitous, and can shape a better world for Indonesia as a superpower. With good execution using the SHA-256 hash, e-certificate blockchain technology can be of high value and have an impact on the quality of potential human resources in educational institutions.
Mwrwan Abubakar, Zakwan Jaroucheh, Ahmed Al Dubai, Bill Buchanan
Recent years have seen an increase in medical big data, which can be attributed to a paradigm shift experienced in medical data sharing induced by the growth of medical technology and the Internet of Things. The evidence of this potential has been proved during the recent covid-19 pandemic, which was characterised by the use of medical wearable devices to help with the medical data exchange between the healthcare providers and patients in a bid to contain the pandemic. However, the use of these technologies has also raised questions and concerns about security and privacy risks. To assist in resolving this issue, this paper proposes a blockchain-based access control framework for managing access to users’ medical data. This is facilitated by using a smart contract on the blockchain, which allows for delegated access control and secure user authentication. This solution leverages blockchain technology’s inherent autonomy and immutability to solve the existing access control challenges. We have presented the solution in the form of a medical wearable sensor prototype and a mobile app that uses the Ethereum blockchain in a real data sharing control scenario. Based on the empirical results, the proposed solution has proven effective. It has the potential to facilitate reliable data exchange while also protecting sensitive health information against potential threats. When subjected to security analysis and evaluation, the system exhibits performance improvements in data privacy levels, high security and lightweight access control design compared to the current centralised access control models.
Modern IT technologies shaped the shift in economic models with many advantages on cost, optimization, and time to market. This economic shift has increased the need for transparency and traceability in supply chain platforms to achieve trust among partners. Distributed ledger technology (DLT) is proposed to enable supply chains systems with trust requirements. In this paper, we investigate the existing DLT-based supply chain projects to show their technical part and limitations and extract the tools and techniques used to avoid the DLT scalability issue. We then set the requirements for a typical DLT-based supply chain in this context. The analyses are based on the scalability metrics such as computing, data storage, and transaction fees that fit the typical supply chain system. This paper highlights the effects of Blockchain techniques on scalability and their incorporation in supply chains systems. It also presents other existing solutions that can be applied to the supply chain. The investigation shows the necessity of having such tools in supply chains and developing them to achieve an efficient and scalable system. The paper calls for further scalability enhancements throughout introducing new tools and/or reutilize the current ones. Doi: 10.28991/esj-2021-SP1-04 Full Text: PDF
Industry 4.0 connects the latest technologies such as cloud computing, Internet of things (IoT), machine learning and artificial intelligence (ML/AI), and blockchain to provide more automation in the industrial process and also bridges the gap between the physical and digital worlds through the cyber-physical system. The inherent feature of IoT devices creates the industry to smart industry (referred to as industrial IoT, i.e., IIoT) through its data-driven decision policies. However, several challenges such as decentralization, security and privacy vulnerability, single point of failure (SPOF), and trust issues exist in the IoT system. Blockchain is one of the promising technologies that can bring about opportunities for addressing the challenges of IoT systems. In this article, we have investigated the integration of IoT with blockchain technology and provided an in-depth study of the blockchain-enabled IoT and IIoT systems. The state-of-the-art research is categorized into data storage and management technique, big data and cloud computing technique (finance and data auditing), and industrial sectors (supply chain, energy, and healthcare sector). The insightful discussion based on the different categories is also presented in the paper. In particular, first, we introduce the IoT and IIoT and then discuss the need for smart contracts in IoT and IIoT systems. Next, we concentrate on the convergence of blockchain and IoT with state-of-the-art research. In addition, this article also provides the open and future research directions towards this era with the highlighted observations.
Aitizaz Ali, Hasliza A. Rahim, Muhammad Fermi Pasha, Rafael Dowsley · 7 authors
According to the security breach level index, millions of records are stolen worldwide on every single day. Personal health records are the most targeted records on the internet, and they are considered sensitive, and valuable. Security and privacy are the most important parameters of cryptography and encryption. They reduce the availability of data on patients and healthcare to the appropriate personnel and ultimately lead to a barrier in the transfer of healthcare into a digital health system. Using a permission blockchain to share healthcare data can reduce security and privacy issues. According to the literature, most healthcare systems rely on a centralized system, which is more prone to security vulnerabilities. The existing blockchain-based healthcare schemes provide only a data-sharing framework, but they lack security and privacy. To cope with these kinds of security issues, we have designed a novel security algorithm that provides security as well as privacy with much better efficiency and a lower cost. Hence, in this research, we have proposed a patient healthcare framework that provides greater security, reliability, and authentication compared to existing blockchain-based access control.
The core vision of the Internet of Things (IoT) is to connect objects into a broad network and establish interactions between them to enhance society and human life through the society of objects. As this network expands and the number of connected objects increases continuously, more efficient, secure, and scalable architectures will be needed. Social IoT (SIoT) is a promising IoT architecture, which is based on establishing social relationships between objects. However, being centralized is one of its drawbacks, which leads to challenges like scalability, latency, and privacy issues. Distributed ledger technologies, especially blockchain, are distributed architectures that have received attention in recent years. This paper proposes a fully decentralized SIoT-based architecture for the IoT, exploiting a two-layer distributed ledger structure. This architecture is privacy-preserving and scalable; besides, it provides social relationships between objects. These social relationships are stored as transactions on the ledger. This study also calculates the required space to store ledger data locally. The number of established relationships between the objects is estimated by simulation. The results indicate that less than 10% of all possible relationships are based after 1000 days. Hence, it is possible to store ledger data locally. This approach leads to ten times less latency comparing to previous SIoT-based architectures for 10000 devices.
The Internet of Things (IoT) and the integration of medical devices perform hand-to-hand solutions and comfort to their users. With the inclusion of IoT under medical devices a hybrid (IoMT) is formulated. This features integrated computation and processing of data via dedicated servers. The IoMT is supported with an edge server to assure the mobility of data and information. The backdrop of IoT is a networking framework and hence, the security of such devices under IoT and IoMT is at risk. In this article, a framework and prototype for secure healthcare application processing via blockchain are proposed. The proposed technique uses an optimized Crow search algorithm for intrusion detection and tampering of data extraction in IoT environment. The technique is processed under deep convolution neural networks for comparative analysis and coordination of data security elements. The technique has successfully extracted the instruction detection from un-peer source with a source validation of 100 IoT nodes under initial intervals of 25 nodes based on block access time, block creation, and IPFS storage layer extraction. The proposed technique has a recorded performance efficiency of 92.3%, comparable to trivial intrusion detection techniques under Deep Neural Networks (DNN) supported algorithms.
Eugenio Balistri, Francesco Casellato, Carlo Giannelli, Cesare Stefanelli
To identify health risks in working environments, it is crucial for companies to share personal health data demonstrating to clients and suppliers their employees are healthy, while being compliant with data protection legislation. Based on these considerations, our Blockchain-based BlockHealth solution allows personal health data sharing with tamper proofing and data protection. Traditionally, the Blockchain guarantees data immutability but not confidentiality. On the contrary, BlockHealth stores in the Blockchain only hash values of data. Health data is stored in private databases managed by companies, thus also allowing to delete data in compliance with the right to be forgotten.
Ikechi Saviour Igboanusi, Kevin Putra Dirgantoro, Jae‐Min Lee, Dong‐Seong Kim
This article proposes an electronic payment architecture named Pure Wallet (PW), which extends the concept of Blockchain cryptocurrency for offline transactions. The process is divided into three steps. The first step requires the use of Internet connection, to convert cryptocurrency into a token at the token manager. The token manager initiates a transaction that requires the information in the token to complete. Then offline transactions step is performed between electronic devices like mobile phones through a secure Near Field Communication (NFC) using the token in senders device. The financial value in the form of a token is encrypted by the sender and sent to the receiver’s device via NFC. In the third step, the receiver converts the received token into cryptocurrency in the presence of Internet connection by sending the information required to complete the transaction to the token manager. The goal is to propose an electronic payment architecture utilizing Blockchain, which will enable financial transactions without instant connection to the Internet. The Blockchain implementation in this work utilizes smart contract in Ethereum Blockchain. The result shows a successful transfer of value without instant Internet connection. The open issues related to Blockchain in offline transactions are listed for further research works.
The use of digital health records, stricter health laws and the growing need for health records exchange points towards the need for an efficient security and privacy preserving mechanism. For Health Insurance management systems, multiple entities exchange health information which is used for decision making. Since multiple authoritative entities are involved, a secure and efficient information sharing protocol is required as extremely sensitive health information is exchanged among the entities. Hence this paper aims to put forward a novel a decentralized authentication system based on Blockchain known as Insurance Claim Blockchain (ICBChain) system. The proposed system ensures privacy of patients, provides secure information exchange and authentication of entities. An implementation of the proposed system is provided using Ethereum Blockchain. The security and performance analysis of the system shows its potential to satisfy Healthcare security requirements and its efficiency respectively
The cutting-edge technology, namely Cloud of Things (CoT) has shaped the existing business process into a new orientation in terms of performance, usability, and reliability. Among different business processes, online education is one of the prime areas where CoT can be used to make it more agile in the context of performance and usability. In this endeavor, a novel methodology has been proposed for an online higher education framework based on CoT. The proposed framework is made agile using Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). Furthermore, in order to make the proposed framework more reliable, a Zero Knowledge Proof (ZKPF) system has been introduced here. The proposed ZKPF algorithm is based on the Hadamard matrix. Experimental results have shown to lay bare the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms.
Mohammad Saidur Rahman, Ibrahim Khalil, Nour Moustafa, Aditya Pribadi Kalapaaking · 5 authors
Advanced Industrial Internet-of-Things (IIoT), such as smart grids, 5G-enabled unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), and supply chain 4.o, can be used to facilitate smart management. Nevertheless, IIoT systems generate huge amounts of data that need to be outsourced to the cloud for storing and providing real-time search facilities to end-users. Outsourcing IIoT data to a third-party cloud service provider (CSP) introduces several data privacy and integrity issues related to verifying the reliability of users’ queries and aggregated outcomes. In this article, we propose a blockchain-based framework for provisioning a privacy-preserving and verifiable query facility to end-users in IIoT systems. The framework uses blockchain to store IoT data as on-chain data and the cloud to store extensive data (e.g., image) as off-chain data and provisioning search services to users by executing a query in both on-chain and off-chain data and generating an aggregated result. Besides, it introduces a new privacy-preserving query mechanism for ensuring sensitive data privacy during query execution. A data owner encrypts both on-chain and off-chain data in the privacy-preserving query mechanism before sending it to the blockchain and cloud. A CSP can perform search operations on the encrypted on-chain and off-chain data to ensure sensitive data privacy. A multisignature-powered query verification model is also built for the blockchain. The query verification model allows each blockchain node to endorse the query result individually and a user to verify the endorsement of the query result before use. The experiments revealed the high efficiency and scalability of the proposed framework.
Considering the computation resources available with sensor devices and the value and validity of Cognitive Wireless Communication Network (CWCN), traditional blockchain is not feasible for CWCN. Further, considering the security and privacy for CWCN that can directly impact human life (as in the case of ambient assisted living applications), blockchain provides a good solution for such applications, however, with some simplicity in the computation of Proof of Work (PoW). Therefore, the fourth objective solution comes up with a simplified energy-efficient blockchain implementation for CWCN that consumes less energy in computation time. The energy-hungry blockchain has been implemented on resource-constrained CWCN for ambient assisted living applications specialized for elderly care. The process includes a collection of physical environmental parameters on a single board computer-based CWCN. The implementation includes possible simplification in the most energy-consuming process, i.e., the mining process, which makes it energy efficient in computation time as energy consumption is a computation time factor.
Even though the wireless network of 5G has not been investigated exhaustively, the sixth generation (6G) echo systems’ visionaries are already being debated. Therefore, to solidify and consolidate privacy and security within 6G networks, this paper examines edge computing and its convergence with blockchain in 6G: security challenges. Moreover, the paper examines how security might affect the wireless systems of the 6G, potential obstacles characterizing various 6G technologies, alongside possible remedies. This paper unveils the 6G security vision alongside key indicators of performance with tentative landscape threat premised upon predicted sixth generation infrastructure. Furthermore, a discussion of the privacy and security challenges that might emerge from the existing sixth generation applications and demands is presented. Additionally, the paper sheds light into the research-level projects and standardization efforts. Specific attention is accorded to discussion on the security consideration with 6G enhancing technologies, including quantum computing, visible light communication (VLC), distributed ML/AI, physical layer security, and distributed ledger technology (DLT). Overall, this paper seeks to guide the subsequent investigation of sixth generation privacy and security in the early stage of envisioning to practicality.
Yehia Ibrahim Alzoubi, Ahmad Al‐Ahmad, Ashraf Jaradat
<span lang="EN-US">Due to the expansion growth of the IoT devices, Fog computing was proposed to enhance the low latency IoT applications and meet the distribution nature of these devices. However, Fog computing was criticized for several privacy and security vulnerabilities. This paper aims to identify and discuss the security challenges for Fog computing. It also discusses blockchain technology as a complementary mechanism associated with Fog computing to mitigate the impact of these issues. The findings of this paper reveal that blockchain can meet the privacy and security requirements of fog computing; however, there are several limitations of blockchain that should be further investigated in the context of Fog computing.</span>
Blockchain-based applications are gaining traction in various application fields, including supply chain management, health care, and finance. The Internet of Things (IoT) is a critical component of these applications since it allows for data collection from the environment. In this work, we integrate the Hyperledger Fabric blockchain and IoT devices to demonstrate the access control and establish the root of trust for IoT devices. The Hyperledger Fabric is designed to be secure against unwanted access and use through encryption protocols, access restrictions, and cryptography algorithms. An attribute-based access control (ABAC) mechanism was created using Hyperledger Fabric components only to gain access to the IoT device. Single board computers based on the ARM architecture are becoming increasingly powerful and popular in automation applications. In this study, the Raspberry Pi 4 Model B based on ARM64 architecture is used as the IoT device. Because the ARM64 architecture is not supported by default, we build executable binaries and Docker images for the ARM64 architecture, using the Hyperledger Fabric source code. On an IoT device, we run the fabric node in native mode to evaluate the executable binaries generated for the ARM64 architecture. Through effective chaincode execution and testing, we successfully assess the Hyperledger fabric blockchain implementation and access control mechanism on the ARM64 architecture.
The traditional cloud-based Internet of Things (IoT) architecture places extremely high demands on computers and storage on cloud servers. At the same time, the strong dependence on centralized servers causes major trust problems. Blockchain provides immutability, transparency, and data encryption based on safety to solve these problems of the IoT. In this paper, we present a distributed secure edge computing architecture using multiple data storages and blockchain agents for the real-time context data integrity in the IoT environment. The proposed distributed secure edge computing architecture provides reliable access and an unlimited repository for scalable and secure transactions. The architecture eliminates traditional centralized servers using an edge computing framework that represents cloud computing for computer and security issues. Also, blockchain-based edge computing-compatible IoT design is supported to achieve the level of security and scalability required for data integrity. Furthermore, we present the blockchain agent to provide internetworking between blockchain networks and edge computing. For experimenting with the proposed architecture in the IoT environment, we implement and perform a concrete IoT environment based on the EdgeX framework and Hyperledger Fabric. The evaluation results are collected by measuring the performance of the edge computing and blockchain platform based on service execution time to verify the proposed architecture in the IoT environment.
Sarath Sabu, Hariharan Ramalingam, M Vishaka, H Swapna · 5 authors
Medical applications are fast growing in popularity, both for professional use and for patient-centered apps. The current Health record and IoT data sharing systems however have a fair amount of problems associated with privacy and security. The secure and privacy aware E-Health record to propose a mechanism using blockchain and IPFS (InterPlanetary File System) which offers a solution to all these problems. It also includes limitations and safeguards on what can be done and cannot be done with your personal information in some cases. The IPFS data will be dispersed among the nodes. Use of IPFS (Interplanetary File System) to store health records, which has the benefit of being distributed which in turn makes record tamper-free. In addition, the proposed model keeps track of disease statistics without invading any patient's privacy. This is conceivable not only for web pages, but for any type of file that a computer might save, whether it's a document, an email, or even a database record, thanks to IPFS.
Through the Bitcoin application, the innovative technology was miraculously launched in the markets, influencing numerous industries. Bitcoin is nothing but a form of digital currency (cryptocurrency) that can be used for trading in place of fiat money, where the underlying infrastructure is called Blockchain. The Blockchain is an open ledger that provides decentralization, transparency, immutability, and confidentiality. Blockchain can be used in massive, beneficial applications such as healthcare, logistics, supply chain management, the Internet of Things (IoT), etc. Most of the industrial applications rely on the permissioned Blockchain. However, the permissioned Blockchain fails in some aspects, such as scalability and throughput. This paper suggests a system to solve the scalability issue of permissioned Blockchain by incorporating data science techniques. The scalability analysis of the proposed solution is done in the hyperledger fabric framework with a variable number of transactions and results in scalability improvement.
Eugenio Balistri, Francesco Casellato, Salvatore Collura, Carlo Giannelli · 6 authors
The advent of the Internet of Things (IoT) and its spread in industrial environments has changed production lines by dramatically fostering the dynamicity of data sharing and the connectivity of machines. However, such increased flexibility (also pushed by the adoption of edge devices) must not negatively affect the security and safety of industrial environments. The proposed solution adopts the blockchain to securely store in distributed ledgers topology information and access rules, maximizing the cyber resiliency of industrial networks. Topology information and access rules are stored and queried in a completely distributed manner, ensuring data availability even in case a centralized controller is temporarily down or the network partitioned. Moreover, blockchain consensus algorithms foster a participative validation of topology information, to ensure the identity of interacting machines/nodes, to securely distribute topology information and commands in a privacy-preserving manner, and to trace any past modification in a nonrepudiable manner. Finally, the adoption of configurable edge gateways allows to take prompt countermeasures in case potential threats are identified, by activating access rules stored in ledgers in a secure and distributed manner. In addition to solution design guidelines and architectural considerations, the article also presents performance results achieved with our CyberChain working prototype, with the goal of not only demonstrating the feasibility of the proposed solution but also its suitability in industrial environments.
Santiago Figueroa-Lorenzo, Javier Añorga, Saioa Arrizabalaga
Security is the main challenge of the Modbus IIoT protocol. The systems designed to provide security involve solutions that manage identity based on a centralized approach by introducing a single point of failure and with an ad hoc model for an organization, which handicaps the solution scalability. Our manuscript proposes a solution based on self-sovereign identity over hyperledger fabric blockchain, promoting a decentralized identity from which both authentication and authorization are performed on-chain. The implementation of the system promotes not only Modbus security, but also aims to ensure the simplicity, compatibility and interoperability claimed by Modbus.
Energy management and exchange have increasingly shifted from concentrated to hierarchical modes. Numerous issues have arisen in the decentralized energy sector, including the storage of customer data and the need to ensure data integrity, fairness, and accountability in the transaction phase. The problem is that in the field of the innovative technology of blockchain and its applications, with the energy sector still in the developmental stages, there is still a need for more research to understand the full capacity of the technology in the field. The main aim of this work was to investigate the state of the current research of blockchain technologies as well as their application within the field of energy. This work also set out to identify certain research gaps and provide a set of recommendations for future directions. Among these research gaps is the application of blockchain in decentralized storage, the integration of blockchain with artificial intelligence, and security and privacy concerns, which have not received much attention despite their importance. An analysis of fifty-seven carefully reviewed studies revealed that the emerging blockchain which provides privacy-protection technologies in cryptography and other areas that can be integrated to address users’ privacy concerns is another aspect that needs further investigation. Grid operations, economies, and customers will all learn from blockchain technology as it provides disintermediation, confidentiality, and tamper-proof transfers. Moreover, it provides innovative ways for customers and small solar generators to participate more actively in the electricity sector and to benefit from their properties. Blockchains are a rapidly evolving field of research and growth. A study of this emerging technology is necessary to increase comprehension, to educate the body of expertise on blockchains, and to realize its potential. This study recommends that future work investigates the potential application of blockchain in the energy sector as well as the challenges that face its implementation from the perspective of policy makers. This future approach will enable researchers to direct their focus to the case studies approach, which will facilitate and ease the application of blockchain technology.
Varshinee Chukowry, Geeaneswari Nanuck, Roopesh Kevin Sungkur
Continuous Learning is seen as the key to remain competitive and effective at work. Very often, this also takes place outside the walls of a classroom. Nowadays Digital Badges and microcredentials are pathways to acknowledge and recognize achievements and specific skills of a learner. In this research, the different techniques used in existing blockchain-based educational systems have been reviewed and in the end, a novel web-based digital badge and microcredentials system which helps the learners to acquire the desired skills is proposed. For the Blockchain, Ethereum has been used and to develop the front end ReactJS has been used. A digital badging and micro-credential system consisting of quizzes and digital badges was built with Ethereum blockchain together with ipfs to store the badge image and firebase for examination, registration, and storing courses. The proposed system proved to be very much beneficial and addressed the inherent limitations of traditional learning content management systems (LCMS).