Security Enhancement of IoT and Fog Computing Via Blockchain Applications

Blockchain technology is now becoming highly appealing to the next generation because it is better tailored to the information age. Blockchain technologies can also be used in the Internet of Things (IoT) and fog computing. The development of IoT and Fog Computing technologies in different fields has resulted in a major improvement in distributed networks. Blockchain technology is now becoming highly appealing to the next generation because it is better tailored to the information age. Blockchain technologies can also be used in IoT and fog computing.  The blockchain principle necessitates a transparent data storage mechanism for storing and exchanging data and transactions throughout the network. In this paper, first, we explained Blockchain, its architecture, and its security. Then we view Blockchain application in IoT security. Then we explained Fog computing, Generic Security Requirements for Fog Computing, and we also discuss Blockchain applications that enhance Fog Computing Security. Finally, we conduct a review of some recent literature on using Blockchain applications to improve the security of IoT and fog computing and a comparison of the methods proposed in the literature

Architecting a Blockchain-Based Framework for the Internet of Things

Traditionally, Internet-of-Things (IoT) solutions are based on centralized infrastructures, which necessitate high-end servers for handling and transferring data. Centralized solutions incur high costs associated to maintaining centralized servers, and do not provide built-in guarantees against security threats and trust issues. Therefore, it is an essential research problem to mitigate the aforementioned problems by developing new methods for IoT decentralisation. In recent years, blockchain technology, the underlying technology of Bitcoin, has attracted research interest as the potential missing link towards building a truly decentralized, trustless and secure environment for the IoT. Nevertheless, employing blockchain in the IoT has significant issues and challenges, related to scalability since all transactions logged in a blockchain undergo a decentralized consensus process. This thesis presents the design and implementation of a blockchain-based decentralized IoT framework that can leverage the inherent security characteristics of blockchains, while addressing the challenges associated with developing such a framework. This decentralized IoT framework aims to employ blockchains in combination with other peer-to-peer mechanisms to provide: access control; secure IoT data transfer; peer-to-peer data-sharing business models; and secure end-to-end IoT communications, without depending upon a centralized intermediary for authentication or data handling. This framework uses a multi-tiered blockchain architecture with a control-plane/data-plane split, in that the bulk data is transferred through peer-to-peer data transfer mechanisms, and blockchains are used to enforce terms and conditions and store relevant timestamped metadata. Implementations of the blockchain-based framework have been presented in a multitude of use-cases, to observe the framework's viability and adaptability in real-world scenarios. These scenarios involved traceability in supply chains, IoT data monetization and security in end-to-end communications.With all the potential applications of the blockchain-based framework within the IoT, this thesis takes a step towards the goal of a truly decentralized IoT

Blockchain Technology for Enhancing Supply Chain Performance and Reducing the Threats Arising from the COVID-19 Pandemic

A rigorous examination of the most recent advancements in blockchain technology (BCT) and artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled supply chain networks is provided in this book. The edited book brings together the perspectives of a number of authors who have presented their most recent views on blockchain technology and its applications in a variety of disciplines. The submitted papers contribute to a better understanding of how blockchain technology can improve the efficacy of human activities during a pandemic, improve traceability and visibility in the automotive supply chain, support food safety and reliability through digitalisation of the food supply chain, and increase the performance of next-generation digital supply chains, among other things. The book attempts to address and prepare a way to address the complicated issues that supply chains are encountering as a result of the global pandemic

The Metaverse: Survey, Trends, Novel Pipeline Ecosystem & Future Directions

The Metaverse offers a second world beyond reality, where boundaries are non-existent, and possibilities are endless through engagement and immersive experiences using the virtual reality (VR) technology. Many disciplines can benefit from the advancement of the Metaverse when accurately developed, including the fields of technology, gaming, education, art, and culture. Nevertheless, developing the Metaverse environment to its full potential is an ambiguous task that needs proper guidance and directions. Existing surveys on the Metaverse focus only on a specific aspect and discipline of the Metaverse and lack a holistic view of the entire process. To this end, a more holistic, multi-disciplinary, in-depth, and academic and industry-oriented review is required to provide a thorough study of the Metaverse development pipeline. To address these issues, we present in this survey a novel multi-layered pipeline ecosystem composed of (1) the Metaverse computing, networking, communications and hardware infrastructure, (2) environment digitization, and (3) user interactions. For every layer, we discuss the components that detail the steps of its development. Also, for each of these components, we examine the impact of a set of enabling technologies and empowering domains (e.g., Artificial Intelligence, Security & Privacy, Blockchain, Business, Ethics, and Social) on its advancement. In addition, we explain the importance of these technologies to support decentralization, interoperability, user experiences, interactions, and monetization. Our presented study highlights the existing challenges for each component, followed by research directions and potential solutions. To the best of our knowledge, this survey is the most comprehensive and allows users, scholars, and entrepreneurs to get an in-depth understanding of the Metaverse ecosystem to find their opportunities and potentials for contribution

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

HANDLING WORK FROM HOME SECURITY ISSUES IN SALESFORCE

Security is a vital component when it is identified with an endeavor record or our genuine materials. To protect our home or valuable things like gold, cash we use bank storage administrations or underground secret storage spaces at home. Similarly, IT enterprises put tremendous measure of capital in expanding security to its business and the archives. Associations use cryptography procedures to get their information utilizing progressed encryption calculations like SHA-256, SHA-512, RSA-1024, RSA-2048 pieces’ key encryption and Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) calculations. These industry standard calculations are difficult to break. For instance, to break RSA-2048-piece encryption key, an old-style PC needs around 300 trillion years. As indicated by the continuous examination, a quantum PC can break it in 10seconds, yet such a quantum PC doesn\u27t yet exist. Despite the fact that these cryptographic calculations guarantee an awesome degree of safety, there will be dependably a space for breaking the security. Programmers will attempt new techniques to break the security. Thus, the association likewise should continue to utilize new strategies to build the level and nature of the security. Now it is time to check how the security aspect is taken care of when the IT employees are at work from home. The 2020 year has made many professionals work from home because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Covid-19 has transformed almost all organizations to work from home, this has become standard advice, and technology plays an important role during work from home to monitor the employee works and provide security when the work is being carried away from their respective organization. Employees\u27 information security awareness will become one of the most important parts of safeguarding against nefarious information security practices during this work from home. Most of the workers like the expediency of work from home and the flexibility provided for the employees. But in this situation, workers need guarantees that their privacy is secured when using company laptops and phones. Cyber security plays an important role in maintaining a secured environment when working from home. This work focusses on managing the security break attack in the course of work from home. The focus of the study is on dealing with security breaches that occur when salespeople operate from home. The problem of security isn\u27t new. Security issues existed prior to the lockdown or pandemic, but because the staff was working from the office at the time, the system administrator was available to address them. However, how can an employee\u27s laptop and account be secured when working from home? MFH\u27s salesforce has leveraged a variety of innovative technologies to address security concerns during their tenure. Because the IT behemoth Salesforce has made it possible for all employees, including freshly hired ones, to seek WFH on a permanent basis. To address the security breach difficulties faced by employees, the organization used a number of new approaches, including tracking working hours, raising password difficulty, employing VPN (virtual private network), mandating video during meetings, continuously checking right to use control, and MFA (multi-factor authentication). Improvement of existing multi-factor authentication (MFA) is the focused topic discussed in the thesis. To add an additional step of protection to the login process Blockchain technology is proposed and to identify the employee identification a hybrid recognition model is proposed using face and fingerprint recognition. This leads to the employee going through multiple processes to authenticate his or her identity in numerous ways in order to access the business laptop. This procedure entails connecting his or her laptop to his or her mobile phone or email account. Keywords: MFA, WFH, Cyber Security, Encryption, Decryption

A Multi-Agent Architecture for An Intelligent Web-Based Educational System

An intelligent educational system must constitute an adaptive system built on multi-agent system architecture. The multi-agent architecture component provides self-organization, self-direction, and other control functionalities that are crucially important for an educational system. On the other hand, the adaptiveness of the system is necessary to provide customization, diversification, and interactional functionalities. Therefore, an educational system architecture that integrates multi-agent functionality [50] with adaptiveness can offer the learner the required independent learning experience. An educational system architecture is a complex structure with an intricate hierarchal organization where the functional components of the system undergo sophisticated and unpredictable internal interactions to perform its function. Hence, the system architecture must constitute adaptive and autonomous agents differentiated according to their functions, called multi-agent systems (MASs). The research paper proposes an adaptive hierarchal multi-agent educational system (AHMAES) [51] as an alternative to the traditional education delivery method. The document explains the various architectural characteristics of an adaptive multi-agent educational system and critically analyzes the system’s factors for software quality attributes

Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies: a Classification and Comparison of Architecture Drivers

Blockchain is a decentralized transaction and data management solution, the technological leap behind the success of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. As the variety of existing blockchains and distributed ledgers continues to increase, adopters should focus on selecting the solution that best fits their needs and the requirements of their decentralized applications, rather than developing yet another blockchain from scratch. In this paper we present a conceptual framework to aid software architects, developers, and decision makers to adopt the right blockchain technology. The framework exposes the interrelation between technological decisions and architectural features, capturing the knowledge from existing academic literature, industrial products, technical forums/blogs, and experts' feedback. We empirically show the applicability of our framework by dissecting the platforms behind Bitcoin and other top 10 cryptocurrencies, aided by a focus group with researchers and industry practitioners. Then, we leverage the framework together with key notions of the Architectural Tradeoff Analysis Method (ATAM) to analyze four real-world blockchain case studies from industry and academia. Results shown that applying our framework leads to a deeper understanding of the architectural tradeoffs, allowing to assess technologies more objectively and select the one that best fit developers needs, ultimately cutting costs, reducing time-to-market and accelerating return on investment.Comment: Accepted for publication at journal Concurrency and Computation: Practice and Experience. Special Issue on distributed large scale applications and environment