Blockchain Based Privacy Preserving Authentication and Malicious Node Detection in Internet of Underwater Things (IoUT) Networks

Abstract

Internet of Underwater Things (IoUT) Networks are used to sense different aquatic parameters like temperature, pressure, pollution, etc. They are also used to forecast the ocean's weather to collect information about natural disasters. However, they are easily compromised by attackers due to deployment in unattended environments. To overcome these issues, security is required in IoUT networks to avoid unauthorized access and ensure network credibility. This work proposes an authentication and a malicious node detection mechanism to restrict the unauthorized external nodes from accessing the network and the internal nodes from acting maliciously, respectively. Moreover, blockchain stores the hashes of sensor nodes' credentials during the registration process to make the system secure and traceable. Meanwhile, a weighted trust evaluation mechanism is implemented for data aggregation and detection of malicious nodes. Moreover, an additive increase multiplicative decrease algorithm puts malicious nodes in an intensive observation queue to verify the data of malicious nodes before aggregating. Moreover, weights are assigned to sensor nodes based on their behaviour. If the weight of a sensor node becomes zero, it is revoked by the blockchain. The simulation results show the efficiency of our proposed malicious node detection mechanism in terms of energy consumption and propagation delay.

BEKMP: A Blockchain-Enabled Key Management Protocol for Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks

“…Blockchain technology is increasingly recognized for its potential to improve communication security in IoT environments [11], [67], including the specific domain of the IoUT [9], [10]. The focus of several studies was on resolving the single point of failure problem of conventional PKI that relies on a centralized CA for issuing, maintaining, and revoking public key certificates [13], [18], [21].…”

“…A blockchain-based privacy-preserving authentication protocol and malicious node detection mechanism for IoUT were proposed in [9]. Similar to our approach, the authors utilize sink nodes on the surface as blockchain network for the registration and authentication of sensor nodes.…”

“…Implementing blockchain not only safeguards against potential breaches targeting databases managed by a central entity but also reduces inter-domain communication overhead [12]. Motivated by these facts several blockchain-based authentication approaches have been proposed for Internet of Things (IoT) networks [12]- [22], including Internet of Underwater Things (IoUT) [8], [9]. These methods address authentication by means of asymmetric cryptography, mostly relying on certificates from trusted Certificate Authorities (CAs) to establish a verifiable association between an entity and its corresponding public key.…”

Digital Incontrovertible Multi Level Key Set Based Node Authentication Model for Malicious Node Detection for Secure Data Transmission in WSN

“…Security in IoUT networks is necessary to prevent unwanted access and to ensure network credibility, which is essential for overcoming these challenges. To prevent hostile internal nodes and untrusted external nodes from accessing the network, respectively, Abbas et al [5] suggested an authentication and harmful node detection technique. As an added layer of security and auditability, blockchain records credential hashes of registered sensor nodes.…”

“…The inherent limitations of their batteries render the nodes with finite storage, memory, and processing capabilities, thereby increasing their susceptibility to security breaches [4]. Energy conservation within WSNs is paramount, as the network lifetimethe duration from deployment until the depletion of the first node's energy -directly impacts the effectiveness and longevity of the network [5]. Hierarchical clustering has emerged as a prominent strategy to mitigate energy consumption and prolong the operational span of WSNs [6].…”