Securing Environmental IoT Data Using Masked Authentication Messaging Protocol in a DAG-Based Blockchain: IOTA Tangle

Abstract

The demand for the digital monitoring of environmental ecosystems is high and growing rapidly as a means of protecting the public and managing the environment. However, before data, algorithms, and models can be mobilized at scale, there are considerable concerns associated with privacy and security that can negatively affect the adoption of technology within this domain. In this paper, we propose the advancement of electronic environmental monitoring through the capability provided by the blockchain. The blockchain’s use of a distributed ledger as its underlying infrastructure is an attractive approach to counter these privacy and security issues, although its performance and ability to manage sensor data must be assessed. We focus on a new distributed ledger technology for the IoT, called IOTA, that is based on a directed acyclic graph. IOTA overcomes the current limitations of the blockchain and offers a data communication protocol called masked authenticated messaging for secure data sharing among Internet of Things (IoT) devices. We show how the application layer employing the data communication protocol, MAM, can support the secure transmission, storage, and retrieval of encrypted environmental sensor data by using an immutable distributed ledger such as that shown in IOTA. Finally, we evaluate, compare, and analyze the performance of the MAM protocol against a non-protocol approach.

A smart mask to enforce social contracts based on IOTA Tangle

“…MAM is a lightweight data transmission protocol designed by IOTA foundation. It enables nodes (any IoT device that can send or propagate transactions) to share encrypted data streams to each other node over the IOTA Tangle [38]. MAM is an important method for securing the transfer or accessing of the data stored in the IOTA Tangle.…”

PUFchain 3.0: Hardware-Assisted Distributed Ledger for Robust Authentication in Healthcare Cyber–Physical Systems

“…Each transaction on the MAM channel has a reference to the next transaction address, which links all the transactions on that channel. However, each MAM mode has a different way of working to access the new transaction address as illustrated below: [42][43][44]. MAM works mainly in three modes: public, private, and restricted.…”

A Generalized Blockchain-Based Government Data Sharing Protocol

“…Hassija et al [19] introduce a blockchain-based framework for lightweight data sharing and energy trading. Gangwani et al [20] facilitate data sharing among Internet of things devices with the help of IOTAbased blockchain. Abdullah et al [21] emphasize secure sharing of health data in the digital healthcare system by exploring the potential of a IOTA Tangle [30].…”

“…Some protocols (e.g., [4,11,17,18]) are constructed on blockchains which provide smart contract functionality. Some protocols (e.g., [19][20][21]) are built based on the Internet of things application-based (IOTA-based) blockchain. Some protocols (e.g., [22][23][24]) are constructed relying on the permissioned blockchain.…”