Role of blockchain in IoT security

To begin with, let’s define what exactly IoT (Internet of Things) is. IoT is a complex ecosystem, which unites all devices connected to the Web (be it a mobile phone, a laptop or a teapot). IoT technologies are used in many spheres of life, not only in house or office environments but also in huge industries such as agriculture or urban planning. It helps to automate lots of processes such as manufacturing, equipment condition control or cleaning and recycling, and even making automated emergency calls when necessary.

It is a very useful innovative solution and sounds like heaven for humans. Is it so or is there still a lot to improve?

What’s the issue?

Unfortunately there is much space for improvement. It goes without saying that the technical side has issues, but security issues were also discovered. Stanford university along with Avast company carried out a research which uncovered unpleasant statistics. It turned out that more than seven percent (out of 83 million devices) of all home appliances had vulnerabilities by design and were running outdated protocols. Almost twenty percent were using default logins and passwords (such as ‘admin’-’admin’). Another issue was that the majority (about 90 percent) of devices are produced by top companies, which means a lack of diversification, making IoT systems susceptible to standardized attacks. A hacker does not need to be a genius to take such a system over, to say nothing of technical errors and failures. There were some egregious cases, when hackers successfully attacked home networks through security cameras and emergency systems, making the owners’ lives a living hell. Hackers feel absolutely scot-free and dare to share their experience and advice on how to crack down systems such as ‘Ring’. More than that, companies producing smart equipment tend to store sensitive client information in centralized databases which leads to unprecedented leaks such as the Wize leak in 2019. Needless to say, no one wants to become a victim of such a case.

How can blockchain help?

Blockchain helps out with security issues in various spheres, and such innovations as IoT are obviously not an exception. Blockchain may solve various problems and improve existing security models. The following features of blockchain help to get rid of the main cyberthreats:

• Decentralization. Data is stored on various nodes on the blockchain so there is no single owner or a server which controls it all,  possibility of a ‘one nail’ failure or man-in-the-middle attack. Hackers can no longer get between the device and the owner.
• Encryption. IoT data and devices are vulnerable due to using traditional ways of collecting and storing data. Blockchain provides encryption standards which allow IoT devices to send and receive encrypted information in the same way as during cryptocurrency transactions, which ensures security from malicious activity.
• Privacy. Only authorized parties (users or services) can get access to the data. IoT data, once recorded on a blockchain, can not be altered, which strengthens security and privacy.
• Accessibility and transparency. Blockchain is public. Any participant can follow the blocks’ history, but to see the content they need a private key. It gives transparency and ensures data safety at the same time. IoT users can verify the authenticity of the collected information and have no concern about its immutability.
• Identity management. Every device on a blockchain has a unique identity, and the data collected by the devices and stored on the blockchain is identified the same way.

Existing solutions

There are several existing blockchain solutions for IoT, which can give a helping hand to its users. They are not numerous yet, as long as strong collaboration of advanced technologies is only emerging. Nevertheless there is something that awakens hope. Here are some of the examples:

• IoTeX. One of examples of such collaboration. It aims at creating the so-called ‘Internet of Trusted Things (IoTT), uniting blockchain technologies and Internet of things and making a particular kind of network where physical and virtual objects, organizations and decentralized applications can exchange data and assets. Each participant (no matter human or not) receives a unique decentralized identification (or DID) which allows to build P2P interaction. One of the first devices of the ecosystem based on IoTeX is a blockchain security camera Ucam. It uses public and private keys instead of traditional login-password combinations, which helps to reduce the threat of attacks exploiting traditional camera system vulnerabilities. Decentralized delivery of encryption keys guarantees security and privacy of the access to personal data, which belongs to the user only. There is no need to store data in traditional centralized cloud services either, because the device has its own storage, which helps to prevent leaks.
• Modum.io. A Swiss-based startup, combining blockchain and IoT technologies to track package temperature at post services. It traces the temperature, reports it regularly and helps the service to trace the origin of temperature-related issues. The data is recorded on a blockchain.
• ADEPT (Autonomous Decentralized P2P Telemetry). An ‘daughter’ of Samsung and IBM collaboration. It builds distributed networks with the help of smart contracts and P2P interaction. For example, it allows home appliances to perform self-maintenance and inform the necessary services if anything goes wrong. The devices can interact with each other and manage the switching on and off, for example, in order to save electricity. The system can even order necessary spare parts from the warehouse. The device owner receives notifications on the smartphone.
• Chronicled. A medical secure platform. An IoT and blockchain lab combined to make pharmaceutical supply chains more efficient. It helps all participants of the chain follow the medicine shipment and prevent any criminal activity.

Summing it up

Internet-of-things is a rather young technology to collaborate with blockchain, however, it seems to be able to make the future of humanity more secure and comfortable. IoT makes human life easier, allowing people to not worry about mundane things such as housekeeping or office routine, which is time-consuming and usually quite complicated. But attaching devices to the Web makes them and their users vulnerable to errors, malware and criminal activity. This is where blockchain comes to the rescue, bringing security and transparency. Thus, collaboration of Internet-of-things with blockchain makes the former more reliable and trusted and will only grow and capture more fields in the near future.