Blockchain-Enabled Security and Privacy Schemes in IoT Technologies
Siddhant Banyal, Mayank Saxena, Deepak Kumar Sharma · 2020
A blockchain in the simplest of terms is a time-stamped series of ineradicable and unchangeable data that is processed by a number of computing machines that are not owned by a singular institution. With the authors of “Blockchain Revolution” stating that the blockchain technology has the potential to be programmed to record not only financial transactions but virtually everything of value, its applications and needs in almost all sectors of technology, service, banking and even day-to-day life are effectively limitless. The Internet of Things (IoT) is basically a vast network of interconnected devices and systems with inbuilt sensors connected to an algorithm over the internet that integrates information from various appliances and implements analytics to construct the most pertinent information in order to address the specific needs of the user. From Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) to Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) and now to IoT, this disruptive technology has emerged as a field of tremendous growth, impact and potential. With Cisco predicted to have more than 50 billion devices connected by the end of 2020, it is important to note and hence address that IoT technology and its connected devices are more prone to attacks than other endpoint devices such as smartphones, tablets, or computers due to their limited storage, computing and network capabilities. With the advent of integrating the Internet of Things with Blockchain technology for several purposes—mainly the security sector, for example: data reliability—challenges the technical community is expected to face are multifold. A review of security issues with regard to the IoT layered architecture, as well as protocols and infrastructure used for networking, communication, and management, is needed with the focus on how blockchain can be a key enabler to solving the lack of safety and reliability in IoT-based technologies. IoT devices inherently have a myriad of systemic vulnerabilities including but not limited to scalability challenges, lack of tamper resistance, weak embedded crypto algorithms, weak hardware implementations, firmware layer issues, operating system issues, link and network layer protocol threats, application layer protocol threats and network design flaws. Blockchain-enabled security schemes aim to provide novel solutions to the above-mentioned vulnerabilities and challenges and prove to be a systemic solution for these. The existing security schemes in IoT are primarily split between intrusion detection and prevention schemes, and different approach-based and varied network-based schemes. These established schemes have paved the way for various other security systems such as predictive techniques, collaborative techniques and other blockchain-enabled protocols. In this book chapter, we delineate the methodologies used in the assessment and analysis of vulnerabilities and security challenges in IoT devices. The significance and contribution of this piece are manifold as this chapter details not only for IoT-based devices but also introduces future scope using blockchain-enabled security schemes. Section 1.1 addresses the confluence of blockchain and IoT whereas Section 1.2 presents the challenges in implementing blockchain in IoT. Sections 1.3 and 1.4 focus on security schemes in IoT enabled by blockchain technology. The last section summarizes the chapter by drawing relevant conclusions and subsequently covers open challenges in this domain and the possibility of future work for improving the existing technologies in the domain.