Towards a Secure and Scalable Maritime Monitoring System Using Blockchain and Low-Cost IoT Technology

Abstract

Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) is a strategic field of study that seeks to provide a coastal country with an effective monitoring of its maritime resources and its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). In this scope, a Maritime Monitoring System (MMS) aims to leverage active surveillance of military and non-military activities at sea using sensing devices such as radars, optronics, automatic Identification Systems (AISs), and IoT, among others. However, deploying a nation-scale MMS imposes great challenges regarding the scalability and cybersecurity of this heterogeneous system. Aiming to address these challenges, this work explores the use of blockchain to leverage MMS cybersecurity and to ensure the integrity, authenticity, and availability of relevant navigation data. We propose a prototype built on a permissioned blockchain solution using HyperLedger Fabric—a robust, modular, and efficient open-source blockchain platform. We evaluate this solution’s performance through a practical experiment where the prototype receives sensing data from a Software-Defined-Radio (SDR)-based low-cost AIS receiver built with a Raspberry Pi. In order to reduce scalability attrition, we developed a dockerized blockchain client easily deployed on a large scale. Furthermore, we determined, through extensive experimentation, the client optimal hardware configuration, also aiming to reduce implementation and maintenance costs. The performance results provide a quantitative analysis of the blockchain technology overhead and its impact in terms of Quality of Service (QoS), demonstrating the feasibility and effectiveness of our solution in the scope of an MMS using AIS data.

Comprehensive Analysis of Maritime Cybersecurity Landscape Based on the NIST CSF v2.0

“…Exploring the role of blockchain technology in maritime cybersecurity, Freire et al [86] suggested its application within maritime monitoring systems to protect navigation data and ensure data integrity. Similarly, Lingtong Min et al [87] proposed secure rate-splitting multiple access (RSMA) cooperation within maritime cognitive unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) networks to enhance data security while optimizing transmission rates.…”

“…There is a consensus on the need for comprehensive education and training programs to build sufficient cybersecurity knowledge across all levels of the industry. • Data Security: Data security has been identified as a critical area of advancement, with the research proposing various strategies to protect data within the maritime sector[60,[81][82][83][84][85][86][87][88][89][90][91][92][93][94][95]. This includes the development of technologies and processes to ensure the integrity and confidentiality of maritime data.…”

Backward-compatible Software Upgrades for ADS-B and AIS To Support ECDSA-Secured Protocols

“…Jegadeesan et al (2021) proposed AIS anonymous authentication scheme. The blockchain-based authentication and integrity schemes for AIS are proposed in (Duan et al, 2022) (Freire et al, 2022).…”

“…AIS is an open standard and due to unauthenticated and unencrypted nature make it vulnerable to threats such as spoofing, hijacking, and availability disruption (Balduzzi et al, 2014) (Hall et al, 2015) (Khandker et al, 2022b) (Tran et al, 2021). To secure AIS, several security schemes have been proposed, including anonymous authentication schemes (Goudosis and Katsikas, 2022) (Jegadeesan et al, 2021), TESLA protocol-based scheme (Sciancalepore et al, 2021) and blockchain based schemes (Duan et al, 2022) (Freire et al, 2022).…”

Navigating the Sea of Data: A Comprehensive Review on Data Analysis in Maritime IoT Applications

“…Additionally, IoT is being used to improve maritime safety and security. Vessel traffic management systems, piracy detection systems, and emergency response systems leveraging IoT technologies are being deployed to enhance maritime security [57,58].…”