As interest in the practical use of cryptocurrencies continues to grow, so does the focus on the (perceived) privacy and anonymity of users within this domain. Despite this attention, there is a notable absence of standardized definitions for these terms. This article aims to address this gap by exploring the various interpretations of privacy, anonymity, and related concepts in the context of cryptocurrencies. Drawing from a thorough review of existing literature, we propose practical definitions for both privacy and anonymity. Utilizing these definitions, we introduce an ontology designed to streamline future research, identify knowledge gaps, and facilitate clearer communication in the field.
Open access
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
Advanced Steganography and Watermarking Techniques
Growing applications of Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) devices have revolutionized the healthcare sector because of remote patient tracking, diagnosis, and data-supported decision-making. The kind of medical data collected from these devices, however, is very sensitive, which makes it very vulnerable to issues of security, privacy, and integrity. This paper suggests a way to keep IoMT data safe using the Algorand blockchain, XChaCha20-Poly1305 encryption, and different types of decentralized storage. Using the platform's fast, highly scalable, and highly secure architecture, Algorand blockchain framework makes sure that encrypted patient medical records are stored permanently and cannot be changed. To properly encrypt sensitive IoMT data before storing the data in DSNs including IPFS, Storj, and Filecoin, a modern stream cipher called 'XChaCha20-Poly1305' is used. Decentralized storage ensures data accessibility and distribution simultaneously, minimizing reliance on associated server points that are susceptible to single points of failure. Besides data secrecy, accuracy, and anti-intrusion attack breakout measures, this work explores the security measures implied by this architecture. Additionally, it assesses the efficacy of various decentralized storage options and highlights their benefits and drawbacks when it comes to storing large amounts of medical data. It can be concluded that the proposed framework is cost-effective and capable of expansion and implementation in the modern healthcare environment of IoMT data protection.
Open access
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
IoT and Edge/Fog Computing
Advanced Steganography and Watermarking Techniques
Cryptocurrencies, particularly Bitcoin, continue to be the most prevalent use case within the blockchain ecosystem. One of the inherent limitations of blockchain is that it can create a false sense of privacy. All transaction history and the amount of cryptocurrency held are publicly available, and this information can be easily associated with specific individuals. Many works have proposed fully-private solutions, which are ideal but not realistic in many scenarios. This paper proposes a technical solution that enables private Bitcoin payments by default, but with the option to conditionally disclose payment data. To do so, this solution relies on unlinkability by a decentralized mixer, which can be reversed by a conditional discloser using a trapdoor unlinkability function. The conditional discloser, which also provides accountability of requests, obeys the payer's policies regarding who can access payment data. To ensure compliance, we propose a mixer that does not learn anything about the payment link, but is guaranteed by Zero-Knowledge Proofs that the payment can be relinked by a specific conditional discloser. Furthermore, we provide a proof-of-concept implementation of the proofs, using Circom and SnarkJS. We also present a benchmark that demonstrates the feasibility of this solution. It incurs only one additional parameter per on-chain transaction, while the remainder of the verification data is managed off-chain.
Open access
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
Cryptography and Data Security
Advanced Steganography and Watermarking Techniques
H. Mohammed Ali, William J. Buchanan, Jawad Ahmad, Mwrwan Abubakar · 6 authors
We introduce TrustShare, a novel blockchain-based framework designed to enable secure, privacy-preserving, and trust-aware cyber threat intelligence (CTI) sharing across organizational boundaries. Leveraging Hyperledger Fabric, the architecture supports fine-grained access control and immutability through smart contract-enforced trust policies. The system combines Ciphertext-Policy Attribute-Based Encryption (CP-ABE) with temporal, spatial, and controlled revelation constraints to grant data owners precise control over shared intelligence. To ensure scalable decentralized storage, encrypted CTI is distributed via the IPFS, with blockchain-anchored references ensuring verifiability and traceability. Using STIX for structuring and TAXII for exchange, the framework complies with the GDPR requirements, embedding revocation and the right to be forgotten through certificate authorities. The experimental validation demonstrates that TrustShare achieves low-latency retrieval, efficient encryption performance, and robust scalability in containerized deployments. By unifying decentralized technologies with cryptographic enforcement and regulatory compliance, TrustShare sets a foundation for the next generation of sovereign and trustworthy threat intelligence collaboration.
Open access
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
IoT and Edge/Fog Computing
Advanced Steganography and Watermarking Techniques
In the age of deepfakes and Artificial Intelligence (AI) generated content, the authenticity of digital media has become an increasingly pressing concern. Deepfake technology, which leverages advanced machine learning algorithms, such as generative adversarial networks (GANs), enables seamless manipulation of video content, leading to the rapid spread of misinformation, erosion of public trust, and significant potential for reputational harm. This growing threat to the integrity of the media requires innovative verification methods that can reliably establish the provenance and authenticity of digital content. This paper investigates the transformative role of blockchainbased Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) as a means of ensuring video authenticity. By tokenizing videos and linking them to a verifiable decentralized blockchain ledger, the proposed approach creates an immutable record that details the entire life cycle of a video from creation to any subsequent transfers of ownership. This digital certificate of authenticity not only preserves the original metadata and provenance of the content, but also safeguards against unauthorized alterations and tampering. Furthermore, the paper presents a comprehensive framework for NFT-based video tokenization, providing a practical implementation using Python and Ethereum smart contracts. This implementation demonstrates how blockchain technology can be harnessed to embed secure and tamper-proof ownership data directly into video content, thus establishing a transparent and reliable method for content verification. By integrating robust cryptographic techniques with decentralized ledger systems, the proposed solution addresses the limitations of traditional centralized verification methods, which are often susceptible to hacking and other forms of manipulation. Ultimately, this paper argues that in an era where digital content is under constant threat from sophisticated AI manipulations, adopting blockchain-based NFT tokenization is not merely an innovative technological solution, but a critical requirement for maintaining the integrity of digital media on modern internet platforms.
Digital Media Forensic Detection
Advanced Steganography and Watermarking Techniques
Generative Adversarial Networks and Image Synthesis
True democracy, strong trust of people in the government and legal transfer of power in the country are possible only when elections are held honestly and correctly. Modern information technologies contribute to innovative restructuring of electoral processes, ensuring optimization of the voting process, minimizing human errors, increasing accessibility for voters. At the same time, the introduction of digital technologies creates significant problems with information security, in particular, possible changes in voting results, manipulation, threats to integrity, availability, confidentiality and anonymity. One of the effective solutions for ensuring information security in electronic voting (e-voting) is blockchain technology. This study is devoted to the problem of developing a website for electronic voting using blockchain technology. Based on the study of scientific literature, the essence, principles, advantages and disadvantages of this technology are revealed. A comparative analysis of the best practices for implementing blockchain technology in the e-voting process is presented. As an example, the process of developing a website for electronic voting using blockchain technology is described: functional requirements for this system are established, the architecture of the software application is described, and a use case diagram is modeled. TypeScript was used as the main programming language for the backend development, Nest.js as a framework, PostgreSQL for data management, and Web3.js for implementing the backend functionality. The frontend was implemented using the TypeScript programming language, the React framework, and Tailwind CSS for interface design. The developed electronic voting platform demonstrates high flexibility and can be implemented for various electoral procedures. Its functionality covers both elections of officials (for example, the rector of the university) and local votes (for example, the election of the head of an academic group), as well as referendums to evaluate the activities of structural units. The data identified during the study can enrich educational materials for students of the 12th Information Technology branch.
Open access
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
Internet Traffic Analysis and Secure E-voting
Advanced Steganography and Watermarking Techniques
Zero-knowledge succinct non-interactive arguments of knowledge (zk-SNARK) schemes have been a promising technique in verified computation. Zk-SNARK schemes were designed to be mathematically secure against cryptographic attacks and it remains unclear whether they are vulnerable to fault injection attacks. In this work, we provide a positive answer by presenting ZK-Hammer, which leaks secrets from zk-SNARK schemes via Rowhammer. We incur faults in the exponentiate variables in the Quadratic Arithmetic Program (QAP) problem. Then we analyze the faulty proof using the bilinear pairing technique and manage to recover the secret. We employ a Rowhammer fault evaluation in libsnark and identify 3 CVEs.
Benford’s Law and Fraud Detection
Cryptographic Implementations and Security
Advanced Steganography and Watermarking Techniques
The purpose of the covert communication scheme is to conceal the communication behavior entirely. In such schemes, the sender and receiver rely on secret keys to establish a covert channel. However, conventional key exchange protocols would expose the key exchange process between them. An adversary who observes the key exchange would be aware of the existence of communication behavior. The keys used in covert communication are not suitable to be generated through conventional key exchange schemes. To address this, we propose a blockchain-based covert elliptic-curve Diffie-Hellman key exchange scheme (BCDH) to conceal the process of the key exchange in blockchain transactions. Following a straightforward setup, BCDH allows the sender and receiver to covertly exchange a secret key on a blockchain without direct communication. Furthermore, we expand the BCDH approach to operate across multiple blockchains, further enhancing its covertness and stability. We analyze BCDH from several perspectives, including covertness, security, randomness, etc. Additionally, we implement a prototype of BCDH on the Ethereum platform to assess its feasibility and performance. Our evaluation demonstrates that BCDH is efficient and well-suited for real-world applications.
Open access
Cryptography and Data Security
Advanced Steganography and Watermarking Techniques
Mourya Gowda S, C S Kushal, K. Nikhil, M Niranjanamurthy
In democratic governance, elections play a major role but the current voting systems encounter serious problems like insecurity, inefficiency and lack of openness. In order to overcome these issues, the project introduces a secure voting system built on blockchain which uses its key features of decentralization, unchanging records and transparency to improve how voting takes place. Online voting through the Ethereum blockchain is considered safe, visible and unalterable. Using Ethereum, Snap Vote is designed for open voting, that is, without third-party intervention, participants can take part and review the outcome of voting. It shows how, through the blockchain, votes are recorded in a way that makes results manipulation impossible. With the help of smart contracts, voting is entirely automatic, easy to view and safe. The adoption of a blockchain and a decentralized method ensures elections are trustworthy and economical. Based on the results of simulations, the system has been found feasible and ensures higher security, greater efficiency and greater trust from voters. This project helps us see how changes in voting systems led by blockchain can benefit democracies all over the world.
Internet Traffic Analysis and Secure E-voting
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
Advanced Steganography and Watermarking Techniques
Blockchain, as a distributed ledger, inherently possesses tamper-resistant capabilities, creating a natural channel for covert communication. However, the immutable nature of data storage might introduce challenges to communication security. This study introduces a blockchain-based covert communication model utilizing dynamic Base-K encoding. The proposed encoding scheme utilizes the input address sequence to determine K to encode the secret message and determines the order of transactions based on K, thus ensuring effective concealment of the message. The dynamic encoding parameters enhance flexibility and address issues related to identical transaction amounts for the same secret message. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method maintains smooth communication and low susceptibility to tampering, achieving commendable concealment and embedding rates.
Internet Traffic Analysis and Secure E-voting
Advanced Steganography and Watermarking Techniques
Jadyn Kimber, Enrico Branca, Andrei Natadze, Natalia Stakhanova
The increasing number of Ethereum scams is causing significant concern within the blockchain community, costing users millions of dollars annually. Yet, our understanding of how these scams operate remains limited. In this study, we present the first end-to-end analysis of crypto scams using a large set of malicious Ethereum accounts as a case study. We examine the tactics these scams employ on social media platforms to deceive users and convince them to transfer funds to malicious accounts. Our analysis explores the full life cycle of these scams, considering both their distribution through social media and their activity on the Ethereum blockchain. We identify several unique aspects of Ethereum phishing scams that have not been documented in prior literature and find that these scams generally persist significantly longer and result in greater financial losses compared to traditional phishing scams studied in earlier research.
Open access
2 source records
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
Advanced Malware Detection Techniques
Advanced Steganography and Watermarking Techniques
This paper presents a legal and privacy-preserving use of a covert channel built over BLE, specifically between two Android devices. A custom communication protocol has been designed and implemented through a dedicated mobile application, leveraging BLE advertisement packets for unidirectional message exchange. The protocol integrates non-interactive Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs) to strengthen the authentication mechanism while preserving anonymity. This allows the receiver to verify the sender’s legitimacy without revealing or exchanging identifying information, achieving blind authentication in a fully connectionless and decentralized architecture. The resulting system enables encrypted, anonymous, and verifiable communication over BLE without pairing or persistent sessions. Experimental validation confirms the protocol’s feasibility, efficiency, and resilience against common wireless threats like spoofing, replay, and message injection. This work demonstrates how BLE and ZKP can be combined to form a secure, privacy-preserving covert communication framework applicable in real-world mobile environments.
Internet Traffic Analysis and Secure E-voting
Advanced Steganography and Watermarking Techniques
With the rapid growth of digital multimedia content and sophisticated adversary technologies, ensuring authenticity and security has become a critical challenge. Traditional methods,such as digital watermarks and cryptographic signatures, help verify authenticity. However, they come with various limitations, including challenges in key management, reliance on central authorities, and the implicit trust placed in these authorities, which can undermine security and authenticity. To address these challenges, this article presents a Blockchain (BC)-based approach using Ethereum for the authentication of multimedia content. Using Ethereum’s secure and transparent ledger, we create an immutable record of ownership and modifications, ensuring that digital content remains tamperproof and verifiable. Our analysis shows that the use of Ethereum Smart Contracts (ESC) improves the reliability of digital content authentication, making it more secure and decentralized. Experiments reveal that our executed ESC consumes 0.0011 SepoliaETH to store the metadata in BC and zero gas for authentication verification. This research highlights how EBC can provide a robust and transparent solution to protect multimedia content, ensuring its integrity and authenticity in a trustless environment.
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
Advanced Steganography and Watermarking Techniques
Advances in Web 3.0 technologies, such as blockchain and AI, are increasing demand for stronger authentication solutions. This study introduces a decentralized digital passport system based on blockchain and Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs). The method converts user identity data into hashed images, combines them, and stores them in distributed storage. A smart contract then registers the image address and user details as an NFT on the blockchain, forming a secure digital passport. This method enhances security, transparency, and decentralized data management. NFT-based digital passports can significantly improve authentication efficiency and security, even with repeated verification, while simplifying access to systems requiring authentication.
Advanced Steganography and Watermarking Techniques
The developing Sixth-Generation (6G) network aims to establish seamless global connectivity for billions of humans, machines, and devices. However, the rich digital service and explosive heterogeneous connection between various entities in 6G networks can not only induce increasing complications of digital identity management but also raise material concerns about the security and privacy of user identity. In this paper, we design a user-centric identity management that returns the sole control to the user self and achieves identity sovereignty towards 6G networks. Specifically, we propose a blockchain-based Identity Management (IDM) architecture for 6G networks, which provides a practical method to secure digital identity management. Subsequently, we develop a fully privacy-preserving identity attribute management scheme by using zero-knowledge proof to protect the privacy-sensitive identity attribute. In particular, the scheme achieves an identity attribute hiding and verification protocol to support users in obtaining and applying their identity attributes without revealing concrete data. Finally, we analyze the security of the proposed architecture and implement a prototype system to evaluate its performance. The result shows that our proposed architecture can ensure that users effectively manage their digital identity in 6G networks.
Open access
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
IoT and Edge/Fog Computing
Advanced Steganography and Watermarking Techniques
Digital systems, networks, and data require robust cyber security measures to counter evolving cyber threats and unauthorized intrusions. Steganography enhances secure communication by embedding information within digital media such as images, audio, and video, rendering hidden messages nearly undetectable. However, traditional steganography suffers from vulnerabilities to steganalysis, limited data capacity, and exposure to statistical and machine learning-based attacks. To overcome these limitations, modern steganography systems integrate advanced cryptographic methods to enhance security and resilience. This review examines solutions combining the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) for symmetric encryption, Rivest-Shamir- Adelman (RSA) for asymmetric encryption, Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) for secure key exchange, Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA) for lightweight authentication, and Zero-Knowledge Proof (ZKP) for privacy-preserving verification. These integrated techniques improve data confidentiality, prevent unauthorized access, and strengthen defences against steganalysis attacks. The study evaluates the performance, limitations, and prospects of these intelligent cybersecurity applications, highlighting their potential to advance secure data transmission in the digital landscape.
Advanced Steganography and Watermarking Techniques
Shanmuga Sundaram Palaniswamy, M Jayaprakash, S. Loganathan, E. D. T. · 6 authors
The Internet of Things, commonly known as IoT, has transformed many sectors by allowing devices to connect and communicate effortlessly. Despite these benefits, this connectivity also leads to major concerns regarding privacy and security, especially when it comes to sensitive information. This paper offers an in-depth review of privacy-centric protocols based on blockchain technology that aim to tackle these issues and protect the sharing of IoT data. The research investigates how different blockchain systems (such as public, private, and consortium types), along with smart contracts, zero-knowledge proofs, and various encryption strategies, can be applied. By analysing numerous case studies and real-life instances, the review assesses how effectively these protocols maintain the confidentiality and integrity of data. It highlights important elements like transaction speed, scalability, and resource allocation. The results suggest that protocols utilizing blockchain provide enhanced data privacy and a lower risk of data breaches compared to conventional methods. For example, smart contracts streamline business transactions, while encryption safeguards data both during transmission and when stored. Nonetheless, issues regarding scalability, integration, and user acceptance still exist. This review offers critical insights for researchers, industry experts, and policymakers focused on enhancing the security of IoT solutions with the help of blockchain technology. This paper evaluates blockchain-based privacy-preserving protocols that facilitate secure IoT data exchange, concentrating on how well they maintain data confidentiality and integrity. By using case studies and practical assessments, the research identifies Hyperledger Fabric as the most effective protocol for IoT applications with high demands. The paper also addresses difficulties concerning scalability, performance, and integration, offering suggestions for future investigation.
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
Advanced Steganography and Watermarking Techniques
Many people do not view elections as a serious worry for democracy, but they are one of the key events for a strong democratic system of a nation. As this study is concerned with the planning, carrying out, and evaluating the goal of the E-Voting system is to improve the scalability, transparency, and dependability of online voting procedures. The authors suggested a paradigm for electronic voting in this study, which might address these problems. The process consists of three primary stages: Development of Prototypes, Smart Contracts, and the Selection of Blockchain Platforms Application. The current web is used to create the prototype development frameworks that guarantee accessibility and usability for a range of users. A good blockchain platform, Ethereum, is selected to implement the component of the distributed ledger, taking into account variables such protection and scalability. The invention of smart contracts in voting is governed by platform-specific languages, and withstand rigorous tests.
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
Internet Traffic Analysis and Secure E-voting
Advanced Steganography and Watermarking Techniques
Since Diffie and Hellman's pioneering work on asymmetric cryptography in 1976, digital signature technology has evolved through three phases—theoretical foundation, standardization, and diversified innovation—emerging as a cornerstone of trust in digital societies. Theoretically, foundational frameworks were established by RSA, DSA, and Schnorr algorithms. Standardization efforts, including NIST DSS, ISO/IEC series, and national systems (e.g., China's SM2/SM9, Russia's GOST), fostered a multipolar ecosystem. Extended-attribution technologies (blind, group, and ring signatures) addressed privacy and scenario-specific demands. Current challenges, such as quantum computing threats and privacy-regulation trade-offs, drive advancements in post-quantum cryptography (lattice-based signatures, hash-based XMSS) and privacy-enhancing mechanisms (verifiably encrypted signatures, homomorphic signatures), guided by ISO/IEC redactable standards and NIST's post-quantum initiative. Moving forward, digital signatures will deepen capabilities in provable security, quantum resistance, and adaptive policy control, underpinning trust architectures for emerging ecosystems like Web3 and the metaverse.
Open access
Cryptography and Data Security
Digital and Cyber Forensics
Advanced Steganography and Watermarking Techniques