IoT Security and Blockchain

Goutam K. Saha
Senior Member IEEE
sahagk@gmail.com gksaha@ieee.org

IoT touches everything not only data but how, when, where and why we collect it. We may consider the IoT as a system-of-systems. Enterprise architect works to design integrated solutions that include edge devices, applications, transports, protocols and analytics capabilities that produce a fully functioning IoT system. Such complexity introduces challenges to keeping the IoT secure and ensuring that a particular instance of the IoT cannot be used as branching off point to attack other enterprise IT system. IOT solutions development requires large collaboration, coordination and connectivity for each piece in the system and throughout the system as a whole. All of the devices must work together. They need to be integrated with all other devices and all devices should communicate and interact seamlessly with connected systems and infrastructures in a secure way.

New approach to IoT security emerged away from the present centralized model. Existing IoT solutions are expensive because of the high infrastructure and maintenance cost associated with centralized clouds, large server farms and networking equipment. For critical tasks cloud servers will remain a bottleneck and point of failure that can disrupt the entire network. The diversity of ownership between devices and their supporting cloud infrastructure makes machine-to-machine communication difficult. There is no guarantee that cloud services offered by various manufacturers are interoperable and compatible. IoT solution needs to maintain privacy and security in huge IoT networks. It should offer validation and consensus for transactions to prevent spoofing and theft.

Blockchain, the distributed ledger technology is decentralized. There is no single authority that can approve the transactions or set specific rules to have transactions accepted. It means there is a huge amount of trust involved since all the participants in the network need to reach a consensus to accept transactions. It is secure. The database can only be extended, and previous records cannot be changed without incurring high cost.

Blockchain provides scalability, privacy and reliability of IoT. Blockchain technology can be used in tracking billion of connected devices, enable the processing of transactions and coordination between devices. This decentralized approach would eliminate single points of failure, creating a more resilient ecosystem for devices to run on. The cryptographic algorithms used in blockchain would make consumer data more private. The ledger is tamper-proof and cannot be manipulated by malicious actors because it does not exist in any single location. Man-in-the-middle attacks cannot be staged because there is no single thread of communication that can be intercepted.

Blockchain’s decentralized, autonomous and trust-less capabilities make it an ideal component to become a fundamental element of IoT solutions. In the IoT network the blockchain keeps an immutable record of the history of smart devices without the need for centralized authority. By leveraging it IoT solutions can enable secure, trust-less messaging between devices in an IoT network. The blockchain will treat message exchanges between devices similar to financial transactions in a bitcoin network. In order to enable message exchanges, devices will leverage smart contracts which then model the agreement between two parties. It has the ability to maintain a duly decentralized trusted ledger of all transactions occurring in a network.

References:

http://www.blockchaintechnologies.com
http://techcrunch.com
http://dupress.com