CS-17-07 Networked Identity Management of Internet of Things using Blockchain

Description:

Sybil attacks, eavesdropping, unauthorized data manipulation etc., have been increasingly affecting the performance of IOT entities. Blockchain technology is a distributed peer-to-peer ledger-like service and every participant in the network can share, but no entity can control. The distributed nature of IOT entities along with their dynamic connectivity aligns with the blockchain architecture, where each connected entity participates in maintaining the state of shared ledger with the help of robust consensus mechanism. Having distinct requirements for each IOT entity, it is important to define the right digital identity for each of them, so that the transactions can be appropriately scheduled and prioritized. The concerns of identity compromise prohibits the adoption of traditional centralized server to keep track of the component identification attributes. Blockchain allows distribution to the cryptic/hashed identity of the IOT components by including it as a transaction in the ledger and uses the transaction identifier for identity verification purposes. Since the device specific details are not stored anywhere centrally, the chances of compromising identity details are nullified. A special smart contract, a piece of code running on blockchain, can be used as a tool that takes transaction id of “identity registration” as input to verify the component’s identity. This approach efficiently avoids leaking of personal/device-specific information and helps in anonymizing the components’ identities. Additionally, use of public/private blockchain can enable the cyber-physical systems to achieve more than just identity management, such as keyless authentication, data provenance, and tracking supply chain etc.