Editorial

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4 pages, 165 KiB

Open AccessEditorial

Special Issue on Security and Privacy in Blockchains and the IoT

by Christoph Stach

Future Internet 2022, 14(11), 317; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/fi14110317 - 01 Nov 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1396

Abstract

The increasing digitalization in all areas of life is leading step-by-step to a data-driven society [...] Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Security and Privacy in Blockchains and the IoT)

Research

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16 pages, 1446 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Bidirectional Trust Model for Service Delegation in Social Internet of Things

by Lijun Wei, Yuhan Yang, Jing Wu, Chengnian Long and Yi-Bing Lin

Future Internet 2022, 14(5), 135; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/fi14050135 - 29 Apr 2022

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2039

Abstract

As an emerging paradigm of service infrastructure, social internet of things (SIoT) applies the social networking aspects to the internet of things (IoT). Each object in SIoT can establish the social relationship without human intervention, which will enhance the efficiency of interaction among [...] Read more.

As an emerging paradigm of service infrastructure, social internet of things (SIoT) applies the social networking aspects to the internet of things (IoT). Each object in SIoT can establish the social relationship without human intervention, which will enhance the efficiency of interaction among objects, thus boosting the service efficiency. The issue of trust is regarded as an important issue in the development of SIoT. It will influence the object to make decisions about the service delegation. In the current literature, the solutions for the trust issue are always unidirectional, that is, only consider the needs of the service requester to evaluate the trust of service providers. Moreover, the relationship between the service delegation and trust model is still ambiguous. In this paper, we present a bidirectional trust model and construct an explicit approach to address the issue of service delegation based on the trust model. We comprehensively consider the context of the SIoT services or tasks for enhancing the feasibility of our model. The subjective logic is used for trust quantification and we design two optimized operators for opinion convergence. Finally, the proposed trust model and trust-based service delegation method are validated through a series of numerical tests. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Security and Privacy in Blockchains and the IoT)

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17 pages, 1106 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Utilizing Blockchain for IoT Privacy through Enhanced ECIES with Secure Hash Function

by Yurika Pant Khanal, Abeer Alsadoon, Khurram Shahzad, Ahmad B. Al-Khalil, Penatiyana W. C. Prasad, Sabih Ur Rehman and Rafiqul Islam

Future Internet 2022, 14(3), 77; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/fi14030077 - 28 Feb 2022

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 3115

Abstract

Blockchain technology has been widely advocated for security and privacy in IoT systems. However, a major impediment to its successful implementation is the lack of privacy protection regarding user access policy while accessing personal data in the IoT system. This work aims to [...] Read more.

Blockchain technology has been widely advocated for security and privacy in IoT systems. However, a major impediment to its successful implementation is the lack of privacy protection regarding user access policy while accessing personal data in the IoT system. This work aims to preserve the privacy of user access policy by protecting the confidentiality and authenticity of the transmitted message while obtaining the necessary consents for data access. We consider a Modified Elliptic Curve Integrated Encryption Scheme (ECIES) to improve the security strength of the transmitted message. A secure hash function is used in conjunction with a key derivation function to modify the encryption procedure, which enhances the efficiency of the encryption and decryption by generating multiple secure keys through one master key. The proposed solution eliminates user-dependent variables by including transaction generation and verification in the calculation of computation time, resulting in increased system reliability. In comparison to previously established work, the security of the transmitted message is improved through a reduction of more than 12% in the correlation coefficient between the constructed request transaction and encrypted transaction, coupled with a decrease of up to 7% in computation time. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Security and Privacy in Blockchains and the IoT)

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31 pages, 575 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Query Processing in Blockchain Systems: Current State and Future Challenges

by Dennis Przytarski, Christoph Stach, Clémentine Gritti and Bernhard Mitschang

Future Internet 2022, 14(1), 1; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/fi14010001 - 21 Dec 2021

Cited by 16 | Viewed by 5355

Abstract

When, in 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto envisioned the first distributed database management system that relied on cryptographically secured chain of blocks to store data in an immutable and tamper-resistant manner, his primary use case was the introduction of a digital currency. Owing to this [...] Read more.

When, in 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto envisioned the first distributed database management system that relied on cryptographically secured chain of blocks to store data in an immutable and tamper-resistant manner, his primary use case was the introduction of a digital currency. Owing to this use case, the blockchain system was geared towards efficient storage of data, whereas the processing of complex queries, such as provenance analyses of data history, is out of focus. The increasing use of Internet of Things technologies and the resulting digitization in many domains, however, have led to a plethora of novel use cases for a secure digital ledger. For instance, in the healthcare sector, blockchain systems are used for the secure storage and sharing of electronic health records, while the food industry applies such systems to enable a reliable food-chain traceability, e.g., to prove compliance with cold chains. In these application domains, however, querying the current state is not sufficient—comprehensive history queries are required instead. Due to these altered usage modes involving more complex query types, it is questionable whether today’s blockchain systems are prepared for this type of usage and whether such queries can be processed efficiently by them. In our paper, we therefore investigate novel use cases for blockchain systems and elicit their requirements towards a data store in terms of query capabilities. We reflect the state of the art in terms of query support in blockchain systems and assess whether it is capable of meeting the requirements of such more sophisticated use cases. As a result, we identify future research challenges with regard to query processing in blockchain systems. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Security and Privacy in Blockchains and the IoT)

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19 pages, 11251 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Securing Environmental IoT Data Using Masked Authentication Messaging Protocol in a DAG-Based Blockchain: IOTA Tangle

by Pranav Gangwani, Alexander Perez-Pons, Tushar Bhardwaj, Himanshu Upadhyay, Santosh Joshi and Leonel Lagos

Future Internet 2021, 13(12), 312; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/fi13120312 - 06 Dec 2021

Cited by 35 | Viewed by 4414

Abstract

The demand for the digital monitoring of environmental ecosystems is high and growing rapidly as a means of protecting the public and managing the environment. However, before data, algorithms, and models can be mobilized at scale, there are considerable concerns associated with privacy [...] Read more.

The demand for the digital monitoring of environmental ecosystems is high and growing rapidly as a means of protecting the public and managing the environment. However, before data, algorithms, and models can be mobilized at scale, there are considerable concerns associated with privacy and security that can negatively affect the adoption of technology within this domain. In this paper, we propose the advancement of electronic environmental monitoring through the capability provided by the blockchain. The blockchain’s use of a distributed ledger as its underlying infrastructure is an attractive approach to counter these privacy and security issues, although its performance and ability to manage sensor data must be assessed. We focus on a new distributed ledger technology for the IoT, called IOTA, that is based on a directed acyclic graph. IOTA overcomes the current limitations of the blockchain and offers a data communication protocol called masked authenticated messaging for secure data sharing among Internet of Things (IoT) devices. We show how the application layer employing the data communication protocol, MAM, can support the secure transmission, storage, and retrieval of encrypted environmental sensor data by using an immutable distributed ledger such as that shown in IOTA. Finally, we evaluate, compare, and analyze the performance of the MAM protocol against a non-protocol approach. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Security and Privacy in Blockchains and the IoT)

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17 pages, 1110 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Enable Fair Proof-of-Work (PoW) Consensus for Blockchains in IoT by Miner Twins (MinT)

by Qian Qu, Ronghua Xu, Yu Chen, Erik Blasch and Alexander Aved

Future Internet 2021, 13(11), 291; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/fi13110291 - 19 Nov 2021

Cited by 15 | Viewed by 2300

Abstract

Blockchain technology has been recognized as a promising solution to enhance the security and privacy of Internet of Things (IoT) and Edge Computing scenarios. Taking advantage of the Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus protocol, which solves a computation intensive hashing puzzle, Blockchain ensures the security [...] Read more.

Blockchain technology has been recognized as a promising solution to enhance the security and privacy of Internet of Things (IoT) and Edge Computing scenarios. Taking advantage of the Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus protocol, which solves a computation intensive hashing puzzle, Blockchain ensures the security of the system by establishing a digital ledger. However, the computation intensive PoW favors members possessing more computing power. In the IoT paradigm, fairness in the highly heterogeneous network edge environments must consider devices with various constraints on computation power. Inspired by the advanced features of Digital Twins (DT), an emerging concept that mirrors the lifespan and operational characteristics of physical objects, we propose a novel Miner Twins (MinT) architecture to enable a fair PoW consensus mechanism for blockchains in IoT environments. MinT adopts an edge-fog-cloud hierarchy. All physical miners of the blockchain are deployed as microservices on distributed edge devices, while fog/cloud servers maintain digital twins that periodically update miners’ running status. By timely monitoring of a miner’s footprint that is mirrored by twins, a lightweight Singular Spectrum Analysis (SSA)-based detection achieves the identification of individual misbehaved miners that violate fair mining. Moreover, we also design a novel Proof-of-Behavior (PoB) consensus algorithm to detect dishonest miners that collude to control a fair mining network. A preliminary study is conducted on a proof-of-concept prototype implementation, and experimental evaluation shows the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed MinT scheme under a distributed byzantine network environment. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Security and Privacy in Blockchains and the IoT)

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9 pages, 363 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Securing SDN-Based IoT Group Communication

by Bander Alzahrani and Nikos Fotiou

Future Internet 2021, 13(8), 207; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/fi13080207 - 09 Aug 2021

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2148

Abstract

IoT group communication allows users to control multiple IoT devices simultaneously. A convenient method for implementing this communication paradigm is by leveraging software-defined networking (SDN) and allowing IoT endpoints to “advertise” the resources that can be accessed through group communication. In this paper, [...] Read more.

IoT group communication allows users to control multiple IoT devices simultaneously. A convenient method for implementing this communication paradigm is by leveraging software-defined networking (SDN) and allowing IoT endpoints to “advertise” the resources that can be accessed through group communication. In this paper, we propose a solution for securing this process by preventing IoT endpoints from advertising “fake” resources. We consider group communication using the constrained application protocol (CoAP), and we leverage Web of Things (WoT) Thing Description (TD) to enable resources’ advertisement. In order to achieve our goal, we are using linked-data proofs. Additionally, we evaluate the application of zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) for hiding certain properties of a WoT-TD file. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Security and Privacy in Blockchains and the IoT)

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Review

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18 pages, 1421 KiB

Open AccessReview

A Review of Blockchain Technology Applications in Ambient Assisted Living

by Alexandru-Ioan Florea, Ionut Anghel and Tudor Cioara

Future Internet 2022, 14(5), 150; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/fi14050150 - 12 May 2022

Cited by 12 | Viewed by 4494

Abstract

The adoption of remote assisted care was accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. This type of system acquires data from various sensors, runs analytics to understand people’s activities, behavior, and living problems, and disseminates information with healthcare stakeholders to support timely follow-up and intervention. [...] Read more.

The adoption of remote assisted care was accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. This type of system acquires data from various sensors, runs analytics to understand people’s activities, behavior, and living problems, and disseminates information with healthcare stakeholders to support timely follow-up and intervention. Blockchain technology may offer good technical solutions for tackling Internet of Things monitoring, data management, interventions, and privacy concerns in ambient assisted living applications. Even though the integration of blockchain technology with assisted care is still at the beginning, it has the potential to change the health and care processes through a secure transfer of patient data, better integration of care services, or by increasing coordination and awareness across the continuum of care. The motivation of this paper is to systematically review and organize these elements according to the main problems addressed. To the best of our knowledge, there are no studies conducted that address the solutions for integrating blockchain technology with ambient assisted living systems. To conduct the review, we have followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) methodology with clear criteria for including and excluding papers, allowing the reader to effortlessly gain insights into the current state-of-the-art research in the field. The results highlight the advantages and open issues that would require increased attention from the research community in the coming years. As for directions for further research, we have identified data sharing and integration of care paths with blockchain, storage, and transactional costs, personalization of data disclosure paths, interoperability with legacy care systems, legal issues, and digital rights management. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Security and Privacy in Blockchains and the IoT)

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18 pages, 16095 KiB

Open AccessReview

CNN for User Activity Detection Using Encrypted In-App Mobile Data

by Madushi H. Pathmaperuma, Yogachandran Rahulamathavan, Safak Dogan and Ahmet Kondoz

Future Internet 2022, 14(2), 67; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/fi14020067 - 21 Feb 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2837

Abstract

In this study, a simple yet effective framework is proposed to characterize fine-grained in-app user activities performed on mobile applications using a convolutional neural network (CNN). The proposed framework uses a time window-based approach to split the activity’s encrypted traffic flow into segments, [...] Read more.

In this study, a simple yet effective framework is proposed to characterize fine-grained in-app user activities performed on mobile applications using a convolutional neural network (CNN). The proposed framework uses a time window-based approach to split the activity’s encrypted traffic flow into segments, so that in-app activities can be identified just by observing only a part of the activity-related encrypted traffic. In this study, matrices were constructed for each encrypted traffic flow segment. These matrices acted as input into the CNN model, allowing it to learn to differentiate previously trained (known) and previously untrained (unknown) in-app activities as well as the known in-app activity type. The proposed method extracts and selects salient features for encrypted traffic classification. This is the first-known approach proposing to filter unknown traffic with an average accuracy of 88%. Once the unknown traffic is filtered, the classification accuracy of our model would be 92%. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Security and Privacy in Blockchains and the IoT)

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