A blockchain-based protocol for message exchange in a ICS network
Ricardo Brandão · 2020
The Internet and the Internet of Things (IoT) are fostering the evolution of Industrial Control Systems (ICS). The devices in this new ICS are highly interconnected but also more exposed to security problems due the lack of security primitives in devices and communication protocols. This paper presents a communication protocol that combines the blockchain technology and the Secure Scuttlebutt protocol (SSB), which was developed for decentralized message exchange applications. The proposed approach provides (a) a straightforward identification mechanism based on invitation; (b) a flexible signature-based authentication method; (c) the use of a chained feed of encrypted private messages to support integrity and confidentiality of communication; (d) a pruning strategy to reduce device storage constraint problems.