Secure Cloud Storage for IoT Devices Using Blockchain Technology

By: Soo Nee Kee^1,2

¹Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

²International Center for AI and Cyber Security Research and Innovations, Asia University, Taiwan, Email: nee.kee2001.nks@gmail.com

Abstract

IoT devices are widely used in the 21st century, creating a network by interconnecting devices together and allows seamless communication and data sharing without restrictions of place and time. With the increasing number of interconnected devices and the increasing amount of data generated, the security issue is the major concern. Besides, most of the existing cloud storage are centralized such as Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, Dropbox and Amazon Web Services (AWS). These centralized cloud storages provide convenience, ease to manage, and seamless integration with various devices and platforms. The single point of failure is the critical issue faced by these kinds of cloud storages. In addition, the stored data will be encoded as ciphertext and stored in cloud server, which results in a third-party is needed to encrypt and decrypt the data. This will jeopardise the security of cloud storage. Thus, a secured storage system by using blockchain and ciphertext-policy attribute-based encryption (ABE) is purposed to enhance the security of data storage, dynamic access control and fine-grained access control.

Keywords: Blockchain, InterPlanetary File System (IPFS), Attribute-based Encryption (ABE), Secure Cloud Storage, IoT Devices

Introduction

Blockchain technology is a distributed database that maintains a continuously growing amount of data via hash pointer scheme. Blockchain contains chain of blocks, which linked together using cryptography. It fosters trust by enabling users to maintain a consistent view of the entire system. [1] Blockchain can be used in many aspects, such as blockchain-based smart contracts for decentralized applications and blockchain-as-a-service and off-chain. [1] In this paper, we will focus on the off-chain, which is usually used in the applications that require to store a large amount of distributed data. To address the limitation of storage and processing power requirement of blockchain, InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) is proposed. IPFS is a kind of off-chain and decentralised peer-to-peer file-sharing network, which data will be stored based on blockchain while the blockchain maintains the hash of transactions. [1]

Attributed-based encryption (ABE) is a type of encryption method based on ciphertext policy. Data will be encrypted and decrypted based on different attributes and policies. This means that users meet the criteria in the access control policies can obtain the encrypted content and use the secret key to decrypt it for their own use. [2] ABE can effectively improve the dynamic access control and fine-grained access control of the data.

Techniques

There are five main entities in this model: IoT Devices, Data User (DU), Data Owner (DO), IPFS with ABE, Cloud Server. [3] The IPFS is used to store the encrypted data, while the cloud server is used to store the hashes (CIDs) returned by IPFS and the access control policies of ABE. Before storing data in the IPFS, data will be encrypted using ABE, a ciphertext will be returned. In this process, DO can set the access control policies. The ciphertext will then be stored on IPFS network, the ciphertext is split into smaller blocks. Each block is hashed using cryptographic hash function (SHA-256). These hashes also known as Content Identifiers (CIDs). The CIDs serves as a unique fingerprint, ensuring that if the content changes, its CID also will change. The CIDs will be stored in the cloud server. Unlike traditional storage systems, IPFS stores data across multiple nodes in the network, avoiding single point failure. When retrieving the data, DU who matches the access policies set by DO can retrieve the data. The node requests the CID and IPFS searches the network for nodes that have the data or parts of it. [4] Once found, the nodes holding the content will serve it to the requesting node.

Conclusion

This paper purposed a secure cloud storage integrated with IPFS and ABE in order to improve security, avoid single point failure, as well as enhance dynamic access control and fine-grained access control. IPFS and Cloud are used to store the data in worldwide peer-to-peer network of linked nodes whereas ABE is implemented to provide dynamic access control and fine-grained access. Only authenticated users can decrypt and access the data based on access policies set by data owner.

References

1. “Exploring the integration of edge computing and blockchain IoT: Principles, architectures, security, and applications – ScienceDirect.” Accessed: Oct. 04, 2024. [Online]. Available: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1084804524000614
2. “A Secure Data Sharing Platform Using Blockchain and Interplanetary File System.” Accessed: Oct. 04, 2024. [Online]. Available: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/24/7054
3. A. Kumar and G. Verma, “Secure Cloud Storage Access Framework Using Blockchain Technology,” in 2023 11th International Conference on Intelligent Systems and Embedded Design (ISED), Dec. 2023, pp. 1–5. doi: 10.1109/ISED59382.2023.10444539.
4. “An improved P2P file system scheme based on IPFS and Blockchain | IEEE Conference Publication | IEEE Xplore.” Accessed: Oct. 04, 2024. [Online]. Available: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8258226
5. Gupta, B. B., Gaurav, A., Panigrahi, P. K., & Arya, V. (2023). Analysis of cutting-edge technologies for enterprise information system and management. Enterprise Information Systems, 17(11), 2197406.
6. Gupta, B. B., Gaurav, A., & Panigrahi, P. K. (2023). Analysis of retail sector research evolution and trends during COVID-19. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 194, 122671.

Cite As

Kee S.N. (2024) Secure Cloud Storage for IoT Devices Using Blockchain Technology, Insights2Techinfo, pp.1

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