Blockchain and Internet of Things in smart cities and drug supply management: Open issues, opportunities, and future directions

Blockchain-based drug supply management (DSM) requires powerful security and privacy procedures for high-level authentication, interoperability, and medical record sharing. Researchers have shown a surprising interest in Internet of Things (IoT)-based smart cities in recent years. By providing a variety of intelligent applications, such as intelligent transportation, industry 4.0, and smart financing, smart cities (SC) can improve the quality of life for their residents. Blockchain technology (BCT) can allow SC to offer a higher standard of security by keeping track of transactions in an immutable, secure, decentralized, and transparent distributed ledger. The goal of this study is to systematically explore the current state of research surrounding cutting-edge technologies, particularly the deployment of BCT and the IoT in DSM and SC. In this study, the defined keywords “blockchain”, “IoT”, drug supply management”, “healthcare”, and “smart cities” as well as their variations were used to conduct a systematic search of all relevant research articles that were collected from several databases such as Science Direct, JStor, Taylor & Francis, Sage, Emerald insight, IEEE, INFORMS, MDPI, ACM, Web of Science, and Google Scholar. The final collection of papers on the use of BCT and IoT in DSM and SC is organized into three categories. The first category contains articles about the development and design of DSM and SC applications that incorporate BCT and IoT, such as new architecture, system designs, frameworks, models, and algorithms. Studies that investigated the use of BCT and IoT in the DSM and SC make up the second category of research. The third category is comprised of review articles regarding the incorporation of BCT and IoT into DSM and SC-based applications. Furthermore, this paper identifies various motives for using BCT and IoT in DSM and SC, as well as open problems and makes recommendations. The current study contributes to the existing body of knowledge by offering a complete review of potential alternatives and finding areas where further research is needed. As a consequence of this, researchers are presented with intriguing potential to further create decentralized DSM and SC apps as a result of a comprehensive discussion of the relevance of BCT and its implementation.© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

A patient agent controlled customized blockchain based framework for internet of things

Although Blockchain implementations have emerged as revolutionary technologies for various industrial applications including cryptocurrencies, they have not been widely deployed to store data streaming from sensors to remote servers in architectures known as Internet of Things. New Blockchain for the Internet of Things models promise secure solutions for eHealth, smart cities, and other applications. These models pave the way for continuous monitoring of patient’s physiological signs with wearable sensors to augment traditional medical practice without recourse to storing data with a trusted authority. However, existing Blockchain algorithms cannot accommodate the huge volumes, security, and privacy requirements of health data. In this thesis, our first contribution is an End-to-End secure eHealth architecture that introduces an intelligent Patient Centric Agent. The Patient Centric Agent executing on dedicated hardware manages the storage and access of streams of sensors generated health data, into a customized Blockchain and other less secure repositories. As IoT devices cannot host Blockchain technology due to their limited memory, power, and computational resources, the Patient Centric Agent coordinates and communicates with a private customized Blockchain on behalf of the wearable devices. While the adoption of a Patient Centric Agent offers solutions for addressing continuous monitoring of patients’ health, dealing with storage, data privacy and network security issues, the architecture is vulnerable to Denial of Services(DoS) and single point of failure attacks. To address this issue, we advance a second contribution; a decentralised eHealth system in which the Patient Centric Agent is replicated at three levels: Sensing Layer, NEAR Processing Layer and FAR Processing Layer. The functionalities of the Patient Centric Agent are customized to manage the tasks of the three levels. Simulations confirm protection of the architecture against DoS attacks. Few patients require all their health data to be stored in Blockchain repositories but instead need to select an appropriate storage medium for each chunk of data by matching their personal needs and preferences with features of candidate storage mediums. Motivated by this context, we advance third contribution; a recommendation model for health data storage that can accommodate patient preferences and make storage decisions rapidly, in real-time, even with streamed data. The mapping between health data features and characteristics of each repository is learned using machine learning. The Blockchain’s capacity to make transactions and store records without central oversight enables its application for IoT networks outside health such as underwater IoT networks where the unattended nature of the nodes threatens their security and privacy. However, underwater IoT differs from ground IoT as acoustics signals are the communication media leading to high propagation delays, high error rates exacerbated by turbulent water currents. Our fourth contribution is a customized Blockchain leveraged framework with the model of Patient-Centric Agent renamed as Smart Agent for securely monitoring underwater IoT. Finally, the smart Agent has been investigated in developing an IoT smart home or cities monitoring framework. The key algorithms underpinning to each contribution have been implemented and analysed using simulators.Doctor of Philosoph

Introductory Computer Forensics

INTERPOL (International Police) built cybercrime programs to keep up with emerging cyber threats, and aims to coordinate and assist international operations for ?ghting crimes involving computers. Although signi?cant international efforts are being made in dealing with cybercrime and cyber-terrorism, ?nding effective, cooperative, and collaborative ways to deal with complicated cases that span multiple jurisdictions has proven dif?cult in practic

A critical literature review of security and privacy in smart home healthcare schemes adopting IoT & blockchain: problems, challenges and solutions

Protecting private data in smart homes, a popular Internet-of-Things (IoT) application, remains a significant data security and privacy challenge due to the large-scale development and distributed nature of IoT networks. Recently, smart healthcare has leveraged smart home systems, thereby compounding security concerns in terms of the confidentiality of sensitive and private data and by extension the privacy of the data owner. However, PoA-based Blockchain DLT has emerged as a promising solution for protecting private data from indiscriminate use and thereby preserving the privacy of individuals residing in IoT-enabled smart homes. This review elicits some concerns, issues, and problems that have hindered the adoption of blockchain and IoT (BCoT) in some domains and suggests requisite solutions using the aging-in-place scenario. Implementation issues with BCoT were examined as well as the combined challenges BCoT can pose when utilised for security gains. The study discusses recent findings, opportunities, and barriers, and provide recommendations that could facilitate the continuous growth of blockchain application in healthcare. Lastly, the study then explored the potential of using a PoA-based permission blockchain with an applicable consent-based privacy model for decision-making in the information disclosure process, including the use of publisher-subscriber contracts for fine-grained access control to ensure secure data processing and sharing, as well as ethical trust in personal information disclosure, as a solution direction. The proposed authorisation framework could guarantee data ownership, conditional access management, scalable and tamper-proof data storage, and a more resilient system against threat models such as interception and insider attacks

Usability and Security in Medication. Administration Applications

The traditional process of filling the medicine trays and dispensing the medicines to the patients in the hospitals is manually done by reading the printed paper medicinechart. This process can be very strenuous and error-prone, given the number of sub-tasksinvolved in the entire workflow and the dynamic nature of the work environment.Therefore, efforts are being made to digitalise the medication dispensation process byintroducing a mobile application called Smart Dosing application. The introduction ofthe Smart Dosing application into hospital workflow raises security concerns and callsfor security requirement analysis. This thesis is written as a part of the smart medication management project at EmbeddedSystems Laboratory, A˚bo Akademi University. The project aims at digitising the medicine dispensation process by integrating information from various health systems, and making them available through the Smart Dosing application. This application is intended to be used on a tablet computer which will be incorporated on the medicine tray. The smart medication management system include the medicine tray, the tablet device, and the medicine cups with the cup holders. Introducing the Smart Dosing application should not interfere with the existing process carried out by the nurses, and it should result in minimum modifications to the tray design and the workflow. The re-designing of the tray would include integrating the device running the application into the tray in a manner that the users find it convenient and make less errors while using it. The main objective of this thesis is to enhance the security of the hospital medicine dispensation process by ensuring the security of the Smart Dosing application at various levels. The methods used for writing this thesis was to analyse how the tray design, and the application user interface design can help prevent errors and what secure technology choices have to be made before starting the development of the next prototype of the Smart Dosing application. The thesis first understands the context of the use of the application, the end-users and their needs, and the errors made in everyday medication dispensation workflow by continuous discussions with the nursing researchers. The thesis then gains insight to the vulnerabilities, threats and risks of using mobile application in hospital medication dispensation process. The resulting list of security requirements was made by analysing the previously built prototype of the Smart Dosing application, continuous interactive discussions with the nursing researchers, and an exhaustive state-of-the-art study on security risks of using mobile applications in hospital context. The thesis also uses Octave Allegro method to make the readers understand the likelihood and impact of threats, and what steps should be taken to prevent or fix them. The security requirements obtained, as a result, are a starting point for the developers of the next iteration of the prototype for the Smart Dosing application.Siirretty Doriast

Cryptographic Approaches To Security and Privacy Issues In Pervasive Computing

Technological innovation has enabled tiny devices to participate in pervasive com- puting. Such devices are particularly vulnerable to security and privacy threats, because of their limited computing resources and relatively weak physical security. We investigate possible cryptographic solutions to security and privacy problems arising in two kinds of emerging pervasive computing networks: Personal Area Net- works (PANs) and the EPCglobal Network. A number of key management schemes have been proposed for use in PANs, but these schemes only support key management within a PAN. However, as people are increasingly equipped with multiple wireless devices, PANs are likely to be intercon- nected to share information or services. We introduce a term, iPANs, to name such interconnected PANs. We define system models and design goals for key manage- ment in iPANs, and propose a novel security initialisation scheme for use in iPANs. The proposed scheme achieves desirable security and efficiency properties by making use of the unique characteristics of PANs. The EPCglobal Network is designed to give efficiency and cost savings in and beyond the supply chain using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology; however, privacy threats affecting such networks are particularly serious. We construct a formal privacy model for RFID systems accurately reflecting adversarial threats and power. We then give brief privacy analysis for the existing privacy-enhanced RFID schemes which have received wide attention in the literature. We then construct a secure refresh-based RFID system based on re-encryption techniques, and prove its privacy using the defined privacy model. Finally, we show that the proposed scheme can greatly enhance the security and privacy of EPC tags, making the maximum use of given tag functionalities as specified in the standards

Privacy in rfid and mobile objects

Los sistemas RFID permiten la identificación rápida y automática de etiquetas RFID a través de un canal de comunicación inalámbrico. Dichas etiquetas son dispositivos con cierto poder de cómputo y capacidad de almacenamiento de información. Es por ello que los objetos que contienen una etiqueta RFID adherida permiten la lectura de una cantidad rica y variada de datos que los describen y caracterizan, por ejemplo, un código único de identificación, el nombre, el modelo o la fecha de expiración. Además, esta información puede ser leída sin la necesidad de un contacto visual entre el lector y la etiqueta, lo cual agiliza considerablemente los procesos de inventariado, identificación, o control automático. Para que el uso de la tecnología RFID se generalice con éxito, es conveniente cumplir con varios objetivos: eficiencia, seguridad y protección de la privacidad. Sin embargo, el diseño de protocolos de identificación seguros, privados, y escalables es un reto difícil de abordar dada las restricciones computacionales de las etiquetas RFID y su naturaleza inalámbrica. Es por ello que, en la presente tesis, partimos de protocolos de identificación seguros y privados, y mostramos cómo se puede lograr escalabilidad mediante una arquitectura distribuida y colaborativa. De este modo, la seguridad y la privacidad se alcanzan mediante el propio protocolo de identificación, mientras que la escalabilidad se logra por medio de novedosos métodos colaborativos que consideran la posición espacial y temporal de las etiquetas RFID. Independientemente de los avances en protocolos inalámbricos de identificación, existen ataques que pueden superar exitosamente cualquiera de estos protocolos sin necesidad de conocer o descubrir claves secretas válidas ni de encontrar vulnerabilidades en sus implementaciones criptográficas. La idea de estos ataques, conocidos como ataques de “relay”, consiste en crear inadvertidamente un puente de comunicación entre una etiqueta legítima y un lector legítimo. De este modo, el adversario usa los derechos de la etiqueta legítima para pasar el protocolo de autenticación usado por el lector. Nótese que, dada la naturaleza inalámbrica de los protocolos RFID, este tipo de ataques representa una amenaza importante a la seguridad en sistemas RFID. En esta tesis proponemos un nuevo protocolo que además de autenticación realiza un chequeo de la distancia a la cual se encuentran el lector y la etiqueta. Este tipo de protocolos se conocen como protocolos de acotación de distancia, los cuales no impiden este tipo de ataques, pero sí pueden frustrarlos con alta probabilidad. Por último, afrontamos los problemas de privacidad asociados con la publicación de información recogida a través de sistemas RFID. En particular, nos concentramos en datos de movilidad que también pueden ser proporcionados por otros sistemas ampliamente usados tales como el sistema de posicionamiento global (GPS) y el sistema global de comunicaciones móviles. Nuestra solución se basa en la conocida noción de k-anonimato, alcanzada mediante permutaciones y microagregación. Para este fin, definimos una novedosa función de distancia entre trayectorias con la cual desarrollamos dos métodos diferentes de anonimización de trayectorias.Els sistemes RFID permeten la identificació ràpida i automàtica d’etiquetes RFID a través d’un canal de comunicació sense fils. Aquestes etiquetes són dispositius amb cert poder de còmput i amb capacitat d’emmagatzematge de informació. Es per això que els objectes que porten una etiqueta RFID adherida permeten la lectura d’una quantitat rica i variada de dades que els descriuen i caracteritzen, com per exemple un codi únic d’identificació, el nom, el model o la data d’expiració. A més, aquesta informació pot ser llegida sense la necessitat d’un contacte visual entre el lector i l’etiqueta, la qual cosa agilitza considerablement els processos d’inventariat, identificació o control automàtic. Per a que l’ús de la tecnologia RFID es generalitzi amb èxit, es convenient complir amb diversos objectius: eficiència, seguretat i protecció de la privacitat. No obstant això, el disseny de protocols d’identificació segurs, privats i escalables, es un repte difícil d’abordar dades les restriccions computacionals de les etiquetes RFID i la seva naturalesa sense fils. Es per això que, en la present tesi, partim de protocols d’identificació segurs i privats, i mostrem com es pot aconseguir escalabilitat mitjançant una arquitectura distribuïda i col•laborativa. D’aquesta manera, la seguretat i la privacitat s’aconsegueixen mitjançant el propi protocol d’identificació, mentre que l’escalabilitat s’aconsegueix per mitjà de nous protocols col•laboratius que consideren la posició espacial i temporal de les etiquetes RFID. Independentment dels avenços en protocols d’identificació sense fils, existeixen atacs que poden passar exitosament qualsevol d’aquests protocols sense necessitat de conèixer o descobrir claus secretes vàlides, ni de trobar vulnerabilitats a les seves implantacions criptogràfiques. La idea d’aquestos atacs, coneguts com atacs de “relay”, consisteix en crear inadvertidament un pont de comunicació entre una etiqueta legítima i un lector legítim. D’aquesta manera, l’adversari utilitza els drets de l’etiqueta legítima per passar el protocol d’autentificació utilitzat pel lector. Es important tindre en compte que, dada la naturalesa sense fils dels protocols RFID, aquests tipus d’atacs representen una amenaça important a la seguretat en sistemes RFID. En aquesta dissertació proposem un nou protocol que, a més d’autentificació, realitza una revisió de la distància a la qual es troben el lector i l’etiqueta. Aquests tipus de protocols es coneixen com a “distance-boulding protocols”, els quals no prevenen aquests tipus d’atacs, però si que poden frustrar-los amb alta probabilitat. Per últim, afrontem els problemes de privacitat associats amb la publicació de informació recol•lectada a través de sistemes RFID. En concret, ens concentrem en dades de mobilitat, que també poden ser proveïdes per altres sistemes àmpliament utilitzats tals com el sistema de posicionament global (GPS) i el sistema global de comunicacions mòbils. La nostra solució es basa en la coneguda noció de privacitat “k-anonymity” i parcialment en micro-agregació. Per a aquesta finalitat, definim una nova funció de distància entre trajectòries amb la qual desenvolupen dos mètodes diferents d’anonimització de trajectòries.Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is a technology aimed at efficiently identifying and tracking goods and assets. Such identification may be performed without requiring line-of-sight alignment or physical contact between the RFID tag and the RFID reader, whilst tracking is naturally achieved due to the short interrogation field of RFID readers. That is why the reduction in price of the RFID tags has been accompanied with an increasing attention paid to this technology. However, since tags are resource-constrained devices sending identification data wirelessly, designing secure and private RFID identification protocols is a challenging task. This scenario is even more complex when scalability must be met by those protocols. Assuming the existence of a lightweight, secure, private and scalable RFID identification protocol, there exist other concerns surrounding the RFID technology. Some of them arise from the technology itself, such as distance checking, but others are related to the potential of RFID systems to gather huge amount of tracking data. Publishing and mining such moving objects data is essential to improve efficiency of supervisory control, assets management and localisation, transportation, etc. However, obvious privacy threats arise if an individual can be linked with some of those published trajectories. The present dissertation contributes to the design of algorithms and protocols aimed at dealing with the issues explained above. First, we propose a set of protocols and heuristics based on a distributed architecture that improve the efficiency of the identification process without compromising privacy or security. Moreover, we present a novel distance-bounding protocol based on graphs that is extremely low-resource consuming. Finally, we present two trajectory anonymisation methods aimed at preserving the individuals' privacy when their trajectories are released