Blockchain-based Security Framework for Internet-of-things Through Isolation of Malicious Devices

Internet of Things (IoT) devices are distributed and spread geographically and situated in proximity to those systems where they are deployed. In contrast to this conventional servers are deployed in secured and centralized premises. IoT devices, due to their resource-constrained design, has limited options of deploying security features that are sophisticated. It is assumed in this proposed approach that any IoT devices within a small network can be compromised and the compromised devises has to be isolated automatically. In this approach, blockchain is utilized as the basis of the framework. The security policies are enforced even in the event of presence of compromised devices, with the help of the blockchain. The proposed blockchain based framework enforces the security policies as long as the majority of the devices are not compromised. The proposed framework consists of permissioned blockchain based on hyperledger Fabric and add-on hardware modules. The framework performs wells in terms of low latency when compared to permission less blockchain frameworks (e.g. Ethereum), and allows existing IoT devices to join the framework without modification.