Biblio

In recent years, Counterfeit goods play a vital role in product manufacturing industries. This Phenomenon affects the sales and profit of the companies. To ensure the identification of real products throughout the supply chain, a functional block chain technology used for preventing product counterfeiting. By using a block chain technology, consumers do not need to rely on the trusted third parties to know the source of the purchased product safely. Any application that uses block chain technology as a basic framework ensures that the data content is “tamper-resistant”. In view of the fact that a block chain is the decentralized, distributed and digital ledger that stores transactional records known as blocks of the public in several databases known as chain across many networks. Therefore, any involved block cannot be changed in advance, without changing all subsequent block. In this paper, counterfeit products are detected using barcode reader, where a barcode of the product linked to a Block Chain Based Management (BCBM) system. So the proposed system may be used to store product details and unique code of that product as blocks in database. It collects the unique code from the customer and compares the code against entries in block chain database. If the code matches, it will give notification to the customer, otherwise it gets information from the customer about where they bought the product to detect counterfeit product manufacturer.

The widespread utilization of smart grids is due to their flexibility to support the two-way flow of electricity and data. The critical nature of smart grids evokes traditional network attacks. Due to the advantages of blockchains in terms of ensuring trustworthiness and security, a significant body of literature has been recently developed to secure smart grid operations. We categorize the blockchain applications in smart grid into three categories: energy trading, infrastructure management, and smart-grid operations management. This paper provides an extensive survey of these works and the different ways to utilize blockchains in smart grid in general. We propose an abstract system to overcome a critical cyberattack; namely, the fake data injection, as previous works did not consider such an attack.

Transportation of people and goods is important and crucial in the context of smart cities. The trend in regard of people's mobility is moving from privately owned vehicles towards shared mobility. This trend is even stronger in urban areas, where space for parking is limited, and the mobility is supported by the public transport system, which lowers the need for private vehicles. Several challenges and barriers of currently available solutions retard a massive growth of this mobility option, such as the trust problem, data monopolism, or intermediary costs. Decentralizing mobility management is a promising approach to solve the current problems of the mobility market, allowing to move towards a more usable internet of mobility and smart transportation. Leveraging blockchain technology allows to cut intermediary costs, by utilizing smart contracts. Important in this ecosystem is the proof of identity of participants in the blockchain network. To proof the possession of the claimed identity, the private key corresponding to the wallet address is utilized, and therefore essential to protect. In this paper, a blockchain-based shared mobility platform is proposed and a proof-of-concept is shown. First, current problems and state-of-the-art systems are analyzed. Then, a decentralized concept is built based on ERC-721 tokens, implemented in a smart contract, and augmented with a Hardware Security Module (HSM) to protect the confidential key material. Finally, the system is evaluated and compared against state-of-the-art solutions.

Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) generates explanations which are used by regulators to audit the responsibility in case of any catastrophic failure. These explanations are currently stored in centralized systems. However, due to lack of security and traceability in centralized systems, the respective owner may temper the explanations for his convenience in order to avoid any penalty. Nowadays, Blockchain has emerged as one of the promising technologies that might overcome the security limitations. Hence, in this paper, we propose a novel Blockchain based framework for proof-of-authenticity pertaining to XAI decisions. The framework stores the explanations in InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) due to storage limitations of Ethereum Blockchain. Further, a Smart Contract is designed and deployed in order to supervise the storage and retrieval of explanations from Ethereum Blockchain. Furthermore, to induce cryptographic security in the network, an explanation's hash is calculated and stored in Blockchain too. Lastly, we perform the cost and security analysis of our proposed system.

Most of the existing identity systems are built on top of centralized storage systems. Storing identity data on these types of centralized storage platforms(e.g cloud storage, central servers) becomes a major privacy concern since various types of attacks and data breaches can happen. With this research, we are proposing blockchain and self-sovereign identity based digital identity (KYC - Know Your Customer) platform “Casper” to address the issues on centralized identity systems. “Casper ” is an Android/iOS based mobile identity wallet application that combines the integration of blockchain and a self-sovereign identity-based approach. Unlike centralized identity systems, the actual identities of the customer/users are stored in the customers’ mobile wallet application. The proof of these identities is stored in the blockchain-based decentralized storage as a self-sovereign identity proof. Casper platforms’ Self-Sovereign Identity(SSI)-based system provides a Zero Knowledge Proof(ZKP) mechanism to verify the identity information. Casper platform can be adopted in various domains such as healthcare, banking, government organization etc. As a use case, we have discussed building a digital identity wallet for banking customers with the Casper platform. Casper provides a secure, decentralized and ZKP verifiable identity by using blockchain and SSI based approach. It addresses the common issues in centralized/cloud-based identity systems platforms such as the lack of data immutability, lack of traceability, centralized control etc.

Data are the basis in Digital Twin (DT) to set up bidirectional mapping between physical and virtual spaces, and realize critical environmental sensing, decision making and execution. Thus, trustworthiness is a necessity in data content as well as data operations. A dual blockchain framework is proposed to realize comprehensive data security in various DT scenarios. It is highly adaptable, scalable, evolvable, and easy to be integrated into Digital Twin Network (DTN) as enhancement.

Blockchain is opening up new avenues for the development of new sorts of digital services. In this article, we'll employ the transparent Blockchain method to propose a system for collecting data from many sources and databases for use in local and national elections. The Blockchain-based system will be safe, trustworthy, and private. It will assist to know the overall count of the candidates who participated and it functions in the same way as people's faith in their governments does. Blockchain technology is the one that handles the actual vote. We use the secure hash algorithm for resolving this problem and tried to bring a solution through the usage of this booming technology. A centralized database in a blockchain system keeps track of the secure electronic interactions of users in a peer-to-peer network.

Fog Computing was envisioned to solve problems like high latency, mobility, bandwidth, etc. that were introduced by Cloud Computing. Fog Computing has enabled remotely connected IoT devices and sensors to be managed efficiently. Nonetheless, the Fog-Cloud paradigm suffers from various security and privacy related problems. Blockchain ensures security in a trustless way and therefore its applications in various fields are increasing rapidly. In this work, we propose a Fog-Cloud architecture that enables Blockchain to ensure security, scalability, and privacy of remotely connected IoT devices. Furthermore, our proposed architecture also efficiently manages common problems like ever-increasing latency and energy consumption that comes with the integration of Blockchain in Fog-Cloud architecture.

As an innovative type of decentralized model, blockchain is a growing list of blocks linked by cryptography. Blockchain incorporates anonymity protocol, distributed data storage, consensus algorithm, and smart contract. The anonymity protocols in blockchain are significant in that they could protect users from leaking their personal information. In this paper, we will conduct a detailed review and comparison of anonymity protocols used in three famous cryptocurrencies, namely Bitcoin, Zcash, and Ethereum.

Multi-stage Proof-of-Work is a recently proposed protocol which extends the Proof-of-Work protocol used in Bitcoin. It splits Proof-of-Work into multiple stages, to achieve a more efficient block generation and a fair reward distribution. In this paper we study some of the Multi-stage Proof-of-Work security vulnerabilities. Precisely, we present two attacks: a Selfish Mining attack and a Selfish Stage-Withholding attack. We show that Multi-stage Proof-of-Work is not secure against a selfish miner owning more than 25% of the network hashing power. Moreover, we show that Selfish Stage-Withholding is a complementary strategy to boost a selfish miner's profitability.

The traditional Proof of Existence blockchain service on the Bitcoin network can be used to verify the existence of any research data at a specific point of time, and to validate the data integrity, without revealing its content. Several variants of the blockchain service exist to certify the existence of data relying on cryptographic fingerprinting, thus enabling an efficient verification of the authenticity of such certifications. However, nowadays research data is continuously changing and being modified through different processing steps in most scientific research workflows such that certifications of individual data objects seem to be constantly outdated in this setting. This paper describes how the blockchain and distributed ledger technology can be used to form a new certification model, that captures the research process as a whole in a more meaningful way, including the description of the used data through its different stages and the associated computational pipeline, code for analysis and the experimental design. The scientific blockchain infrastructure bloxberg, together with a deep learning based analysis from the behavioral science field are used to show the applicability of the approach.

In recent years, the commodities industry has grown rapidly under the stimulus of domestic demand and the expansion of cross-border trade. It has also been combined with the rapid development of e-commerce technology in the same period to form a flexible and efficient e-commerce system for bulk commodities. However, the hasty combination of both has inspired a lack of effective regulatory measures in the bulk industry, leading to constant industry chaos. Among them, the problem of lagging evidence in regulatory platforms is particularly prominent. Based on this, we design a blockchain-based evidential and secure bulk-commodity supervisory system (abbr. BeBus). Setting different privacy protection policies for each participant in the system, the solution ensures effective forensics and tamper-proof evidence to meet the needs of the bulk business scenario.

Blockchain started with Bitcoin, but it is higher than Bitcoin. With the deepening of applied research on blockchain technology, this new technology has brought new vitality to many industries. People admire the decentralized nature of the blockchain and hope to solve the problems caused by the operation of traditional centralized institutions in a more fair and effective way. Of course, as an emerging technology, blockchain has many areas for improvement. This article explains the blockchain technology from many aspects. Starting from the typical architecture of the blockchain, the data structure and system model of the blockchain are first introduced. Then it expounds the development of consensus algorithms and compares typical consensus algorithms. Later, the focus will be on smart contracts and their application platforms. After analyzing some of the challenges currently faced by the blockchain technology, some scenarios where the blockchain is currently developing well are listed. Finally, it summarizes and looks forward to the blockchain technology.

The blockchain technology evolution in recent times has a hopefulness regarding the impression of self-sovereign identity that has a significant effect on the method of interacting with each other with security over the network. The existing system is not complete and procedural. There arises a different idea of self-sovereign identity methodology. To develop to the possibility, it is necessary to guarantee a better understanding in a proper way. This paper has an in-depth analysis of the attributes of the self-sovereign identity and it affects over the laws of identity that are being explored. The Identity management system(IMS) with no centralized authority is proposed in maintaining the secrecy of records, where as traditional systems are replaced by blockchains and identities are generated cryptographically. This study enables sharing of user data on permissioned blockchain which uses identity-based encryption to maintain access control and data security.

In this work a data provenance system for grid-oriented applications is presented. The proposed Keyless Infrastructure Security Solution (KISS) provides mechanisms to store and maintain digital data fingerprints that can later be used to validate and assert data provenance using a time-based, hash tree mechanism. The developed solution has been designed to satisfy the stringent requirements of the modern power grid including execution time and storage necessities. Its applicability has been tested using a lab-scale, proof-of-concept deployment that secures an energy management system against the attack sequence observed on the 2016 Ukrainian power grid cyberattack. The results demonstrate a strong potential for enabling data provenance in a wide array of applications, including speed-sensitive applications such as those found in control room environments.

With the widespread deployment of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, hackers can use IoT devices to launch large-scale distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, which bring great harm to the Internet. However, how to defend against these attacks remains to be an open challenge. In this paper, we propose a novel prevention method for IoT DDoS attacks based on blockchain and obfuscation of IP addresses. Our observation is that IoT devices are usually resource-constrained and cannot support complicated cryptographic algorithms such as RSA. Based on the observation, we employ a novel authentication then communication mechanism for IoT DDoS attack prevention. In this mechanism, the attack targets' IP addresses are encrypted by a random security parameter. Clients need to be authenticated to obtain the random security parameter and decrypt the IP addresses. In particular, we propose to authenticate clients with public-key cryptography and a blockchain system. The complex authentication and IP address decryption operations disable IoT devices and thus block IoT DDoS attacks. The effectiveness of the proposed method is analyzed and validated by theoretical analysis and simulation experiments.

The critical nature of smart grids (SGs) attracts various network attacks and malicious manipulations. Existent SG solutions are less capable of ensuring secure and trustworthy operation. This is due to the large-scale nature of SGs and reliance on network protocols for trust management. A particular example of such severe attacks is the false data injection (FDI). FDI refers to a network attack, where meters' measurements are manipulated before being reported in such a way that the energy system takes flawed decisions. In this paper, we exploit the secure nature of blockchains to construct a data management framework based on public blockchain. Our framework enables trustworthy data storage, verification, and exchange between SG components and decision-makers. Our proposed system enables miners to invest their computational power to verify blockchain transactions in a fully distributed manner. The mining logic employs machine learning (ML) techniques to identify the locations of compromised meters in the network, which are responsible for generating FDI attacks. In return, miners receive virtual credit, which may be used to pay their electric bills. Our design circumvents single points of failure and intentional FDI attempts. Our numerical results compare the accuracy of three different ML-based mining logic techniques in two scenarios: focused and distributed FDI attacks for different attack levels. Finally, we proposed a majority-decision mining technique for the practical case of an unknown FDI attack level.

Payment systems are a critical component of everyday life in our society. While in many situations payments are still slow, opaque, siloed, expensive or even fail, users expect them to be fast, transparent, cheap, reliable and global. Recent technologies such as distributed ledgers create opportunities for near-real-time, cheaper and more transparent payments. However, in order to achieve a global payment system, payments should be possible not only within one ledger, but also across different ledgers and geographies.In this paper we propose Secure Payments with Overlay Networks (SPON), a service that enables global payments across multiple ledgers by combining the transaction exchange provided by the Interledger protocol with an intrusion-tolerant overlay of relay nodes to achieve (1) improved payment latency, (2) fault-tolerance to benign failures such as node failures and network partitions, and (3) resilience to BGP hijacking attacks. We discuss the design goals and present an implementation based on the Interledger protocol and Spines overlay network. We analyze the resilience of SPON and demonstrate through experimental evaluation that it is able to improve payment latency, recover from path outages, withstand network partition attacks, and disseminate payments fairly across multiple ledgers. We also show how SPON can be deployed to make the communication between different ledgers resilient to BGP hijacking attacks.

The traditional data storage method often adopts centralized architecture, which is prone to trust and security problems. This paper proposes a trusted data storage and access control scheme combining blockchain and attribute-based encryption, which allow cyber-physical system (CPS) nodes to realize the fine-grained access control strategy. At the same time, this paper combines the blockchain technology with distributed storage, and only store the access control policy and the data access address on the blockchain, which solves the storage bottleneck of blockchain system. Furthermore, this paper proposes a novel multi-authority attributed-based identification method, which realizes distributed attribute key generation and simplifies the pairwise authentication process of multi-authority. It can not only address the key escrow problem of one single authority, but also reduce the problem of high communication overhead and heavy burden of multi-authority. The analyzed results show that the proposed scheme has better comprehensive performance in trusted data storage and access control for power cyber-physical system.

As the traditional inverters are transforming toward more intelligent inverters with advanced information and communication technologies, the cyber-attack surface has been remarkably expanded. Specifically, securing firmware of smart inverters from cyber-attacks is crucial. This paper provides expanded firmware attack surface targeting smart inverters. Moreover, this paper proposes a security module for transforming a conventional inverter to a firmware security built-in smart inverter by preventing potential malware and unauthorized firmware update attacks as well as fast automated inverter recovery from zero-day attacks. Furthermore, the proposed security module as a client of blockchain is connected to blockchain severs to fully utilize blockchain technologies such as membership service, ledgers, and smart contracts to detect and mitigate the firmware attacks. The proposed security module framework is implemented in an Internet-of-Thing (IoT) device and validated by experiments.

This paper presents a decentralized messaging system based on blockchain technology. This system allows their users to securely send and receive digital messages in the network. Since the messages stored in a conventional blockchain could be easily read by everyone in the network, under the proposed approach these messages are previously encrypted using public-key cryptography, while the sender and recipient remain anonymous. The proposed system incorporates a browser-based user interface that enable their users to interact seamlessly in a peer-to-peer fashion.

The transmission and storage process for the power data in an intelligent grid has problems such as a single point of failure in the central node, low data credibility, and malicious manipulation or data theft. The characteristics of decentralization and tamper-proofing of blockchain and its distributed storage architecture can effectively solve malicious manipulation and the single point of failure. However, there are few safe and reliable data transmission methods for the significant number and various identities of users and the complex node types in the power blockchain. Thus, this paper proposes a collaborative control scheme between on-chain and off-chain power data based on the distributed oracle technology. By building a trusted on-chain transmission mechanism based on distributed oracles, the scheme solves the credibility problem of massive data transmission and interactive power data between smart contracts and off-chain physical devices safely and effectively. Analysis and discussion show that the proposed scheme can realize the collaborative control between on-chain and off-chain data efficiently, safely, and reliably.

Nowadays, the increasing complexity of digital applications for social and business activities has required more and more advanced mechanisms to prove the identity of subjects like those based on the Two-Factor Authentication (2FA). Such an approach improves the typical authentication paradigm but it has still some weaknesses. Specifically, it has to deal with the disadvantages of a centralized architecture causing several security threats like denial of service (DoS) and man-in-the-middle (MITM). In fact, an attacker who succeeds in violating the central authentication server could be able to impersonate an authorized user or block the whole service. This work advances the state of art of 2FA solutions by proposing a decentralized Microservices and Blockchain Based One Time Password (MBB-OTP) protocol for security-enhanced authentication able to mitigate the aforementioned threats and to fit different application scenarios. Experiments prove the goodness of our MBB-OTP protocol considering both private and public Blockchain configurations.

In this study, a novel decentralized authentication model is proposed for establishing a secure communications structure in VoIP applications. The proposed scheme considers a distributed architecture called the blockchain. With this scheme, we highlight the multimedia data is more resistant to some of the potential attacks according to the centralized architecture. Our scheme presents the overall system authentication architecture, and it is suitable for mutual authentication in terms of privacy and anonymity. We construct an ECC-based model in the encryption infrastructure because our structure is time-constrained during communications. This study differs from prior work in that blockchain platforms with ECC-Based Biometric Signature. We generate a biometric key for creating a unique ID value with ECC to verify the caller and device authentication together in blockchain. We validated the proposed model by comparing with the existing method in VoIP application used centralized architecture.

Cloud federation is the evolution of modern cloud computing. It provides better resource-sharing, perfect resource-utilization, and load-balancing. However, the heterogeneity of security policies and configurations between cloud service providers makes it hard for users to totally trust them. Further, the severe impact of modern cloud attacks such as cross-side channels on federated environments is a major roadblock against such evolution. Securing users' capsules (Virtual Machines and containers) against cross-side channel attacks is considered as a big challenge to cloud service providers. Moving-target Defense (MtD) by live capsule migration was introduced as an effective mechanism to overcome such challenge. However, researchers noted that even with MtD, migrated capsules can still be tracked via routing information. In this paper, we propose a novel Blockchain-based routing mechanism to enable trace-resistant Moving-target Defence (BMtD) to enable anonymous live cross-cloud migrations of running capsules in federated cloud environments. Exploiting the Vulnerable, Exposed, Attacked, Recovered (VEAR) model, simulation results demonstrated the effectiveness of BMtD in minimizing viral attack dispersion.