Securing IoT with Blockchain

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Internet of Things (IoT) has gained tremendous popularity and is creating new opportunities for businesses in the existing and future markets. It has touched everything, right from traffic monitoring to home appliances controlling. The underlying technology on IoT has changed the internet and devices such that they can interact easily without human intervention.

IoT operates on huge amounts of data collected from different devices and shared among these devices. Since this generation and sharing is of prime importance to IoT, considerable security measures need to be taken to secure this data during its life cycle. Managing the data flow among devices at different levels is a complex and challenging task.

But, do you know that as this centralized technology advances the threats to the security of data also increase? Yes, existing security measures aren’t enough to deal with threats. Blockchain can prove to be an effective solution to this since it’s a decentralized solution offering security to data. Before we look at how blockchain can help in securing IoT data, let us look in detail at the challenges of securing IoT data.

The challenge of securing IoT data

IoT technology revolves around sharing real-time data among devices and connections. For the privacy and security of a business, the greatest challenge is to make sure that the entire data and communication is protected.

We know that the data flows across different integrated systems, platforms, and devices. It also flows across different administrative layers; each having its own policy. In such a case, it is tricky to ensure the reliable functioning of the IoT system and secure management of data. Equally challenging is the secure delivery of data to the right place at the right time.

Organizations will have to provide security to all IoT deployments based on the special capabilities of each device and the risks associated with these devices and networks. The spending on securing IoT solutions and systems is expected to increase five folds in the coming years.

The centralized nature of IoT

Currently, the IoT ecosystem works as a centralized model. The various devices are connected and confirmed through a cloud that provides high data storage capability. Even if these devices are placed close to each other, still the Internet is the channel of information flow. The infrastructure and maintenance cost is very high for integrated IoT solutions in this centralized model.

One of the major problems to be considered is the count of IoT devices. Think about how the cost will increase when the count of devices goes to millions or billions. This will also introduce the scalability and engineering challenges. Even if these challenges are overcome, another obstacle that will disrupt the whole network is the cloud service and storage. Thus, securing the IoT devices will be much more difficult.

This essentially means that a centralized model of IoT can be applied to small-scale solutions only. Implementing IoT on a small-scale may keep the challenges of scalability, maintenance, and cost at bay. But, for implementing large-scale IoT projects, the centralized model will pose critical challenges.  

The complications of large IoT solutions can only be overcome by following the decentralized approach.

Blockchain comes into the picture

One of the important emerging and most talked about trends is the fusion of blockchain technology and Internet of Things. Decentralizing IoT with blockchain will overcome all the major challenges including scalability, cost, security, and anonymity. Decentralization will be an important component of the IoT ecosystem.

Applying blockchain to IoT will guarantee

•  Successful processing of transactions
• Coordination of all smart devices
•  Proper management of data at various levels
• Added privacy and security
• Records of connected devices
•  No involvement of any third-party

Blockchain can be implemented in two ways. First, an organization can deploy its IoT solution on a blockchain network. All IoT devices will be connected to the blockchain network and the data transactions will be carried out through blockchain. It will give the devices the ability to exchange messages, place orders, and carry out transactions.

The second way is to use an Ethereum smart contract and automate the process. It will provide a safe means to exchange information among the connected devices. Any unauthorized access to information will not be possible.

Conclusion

Blockchain has the potential to secure IoT and make it decentralized. It will also add to the scalability and reduction in cost of the IoT solution. Only the authorized devices will be able to transmit and receive information.

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