The Next Layer: A Blockchain Manifesto
By: Patrick Kijek
Tags: Blockchain, Security, Cybersecurity, Ethereum, Bitcoin

Abstract

The future of computer and network security lies in blockchain technology. Blockchains integrate security between network endpoints through the use of smart contracts. This architecture creates integrity, autonomy, and a decentralization of data throughout its network.

Due to added complexity required to run blockchain code, many current applications and networks have been limited by storage restrictions. Although applications do not always require blockchain technology, a new layer added to the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model can secure a decentralized network to include distributed security.

Current OSI Model

Decentralized networks crafted with blockchain technology can verify and authorize each endpoint with distributed ledgers: Internet of Things (IoT) devices can process data and access information from any authorized location on the blockchain. The distributed ledger in the code of a blockchain-based technology has almost endless applicability, such as IoT devices in offices, schools, and hospitals. These devices were built with little to no security in mind. To secure these networks, the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model should add a blockchain layer on top of the network layer for a new standard that provides native security.

Basic Blockchains

A network of peer-to-peer systems created to share a computational burden, Blockchain applications behave like any distributed system. Although most developers have not implemented blockchain technology, many people have heard of it due to the rise of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency. Standard protocols in network security like SMTP or HTTPS are used to transfer data with TCP/IP in the OSI Network Layer, even though these protocols require constant maintenance to reduce vulnerabilities. Blockchains can automate security, which allows Network Development Operatives to focus on content creation. Adding this layer to IoT devices would store immutable data, and transfer it with cryptographically secure encryption.

A Blockchain Layer Added to the OSI Model

Blockchain’s first use was to encrypt and transfer cryptocurrency like Bitcoin. Developers have begun to expand its scope to include other financial services like options and bonds, or handling financial assets beyond the original scope of a transaction in the present. Escrow contracts can be configured to schedule payments and hold cryptocurrency until a specified condition is met. Nevertheless, the biggest evolution came when developers began to utilize smart contracts for application in the government and medical fields where security, encryption and speed can improve the performance of an existing network. This phase in the blockchain revolution is still in its infancy.

Unfortunately, a volatile market in cryptocurrency has slowed the adoption of this architecture. Digital currencies have been frozen or stolen due to undeveloped protocols and indefinite regulations. Millions of coins can be lost due to insecure programming: $300 million worth of cryptocurrencies was frozen when Parity’s wallet solution was exploited due to insecure code.

Media outlets tend to emphasize the negative effects of poorly managed wallet systems like Parity. Wallets were frozen when one developer executed a contract with a kill() command at the top of a tree with transaction records. It was reported as if it were Ethereum’s fault on the backend, yet the reason behind this volatile shake to the market was only made possible by a digital wallet with previously identified vulnerabilities that a program could have prevented with standardized security on an IoT blockchain. Hackers had already exploited an earlier version of the Parity software for $30 million worth of the same cryptocurrency, but it was the attempted patch to the wallet.sol Solidity code that allowed these vulnerabilities to persist. People who stored their Ethereum elsewhere can still access their funds.

If the Parity developers had limited the users’ rights, with assertions coded to check the contract for exploits, the transaction could have reverted to its previous state. Instead, the smart contract executed with a lack of foresight about edge cases like the negative effect a kill() command can have on all subsequent blocks on the chain.

Major malfunctions like these illustrate the need for a better understanding with regard to blockchain technology.

1) Users should understand their wallets’ limitations with accessible documentation.

2) Users should move funds to a private address after an exchange or trade.

3) Users should understand how distributed ledgers operate in networks.

4) Developers should automate security for ledgers and contracts.

5) Blockchain security tools should be included natively.

Data stored for each transaction is immutable, so the data cannot be changed or undone. If someone attempts malicious activity, a distributed ledger with a record of every transaction can still authenticate and authorize owners to access the information safely. This information can be made private or internal with modifiers after each functions’ parameters, but their execution must be hardened to prevent immutable errors in their design.

Developers must agree upon a framework to test for outliers and edge cases that have broken blockchains. It will alleviate the risk of malicious activity before data is transmitted. Developers could utilize the technology if it were included in a library, as an API, or if it were added as a new layer to the OSI model. Securing IoT devices on the network with a distributed ledger and smart contracts will enable more efficient development on private or public blockchains without having to add code to solidify each program.

Distributed Ledger and Smart Contract Implementation

Distributed ledgers and smart contracts can be applied to any type of data transfer or network to create attributes for security checks. When data has been authenticated and authorized, blockchains can confirm the integrity of the data across the network. It authenticates the data by chaining it to a previous block with a combination of private and public key cryptography. Ledgers and contracts can be configured for confidentiality as well as ensure the data’s availability on every network node.

Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability are known as the CIA triad of information protection. Various forms of symmetric and asymmetric cryptography are used to achieve safe transfers and data storage; in Bitcoin and Ethereum, transactions are stored in the form of a hashed Merkle tree: “The Merkle tree data structure is used to record the canonical order of transactions, which is then hashed into a “fingerprint” that serves as a basis of comparison for computers on the network, and around which they can quickly synchronize” (Dannen, 38). Since that fingerprint will change if any information is appended to the blockchain, the distributed ledger is secure. While the entire history of transactions is recorded and hashed in this example, the ledger of transactions could be modded easily for use to secure and scale any economic network.

When smart contracts are deployed in tandem with distributed ledgers, events can be configured for financial transactions, digital assets and identities, voting, and sensitive record management for governments and heath care providers. Smart contracts can be compared to classes in an object-oriented language, because they are created to describe, modify, and execute actions. Events are created in smart contracts that distribute copies of data to specified nodes.

Smart contracts can be written with attributes for self-contained computer programs to utilize specific features in the underlying blockchain. Daniel Dresher outlines blockchain’s generic features in Blockchain Basics, which provide a “Proof of existence, proof of nonexistence, proof of time, proof of order, proof of identity, proof of authorship, [and] proof of ownership” (Dresher, 393). With possibilities as widely applicable as these, it will often be beneficial to engineer networks with a blockchain embedded in each device’s architecture.

Blockchain Possibilities in Network Security Architecture

From the time that Satoshi Nakamoto published his white paper on Bitcoin, a network infrastructure has been outlined, which is applicable for any software or hardware that might benefit from the additional security. The Bitcoin paper outlined a network in six steps:

1) A network broadcasts information about a transaction to all nodes,

2) The nodes record this data on a block,

3) The proof-of-work has to be computed for the block,

4) A node will broadcast the block to other nodes when solved

5) Nodes check its validity and accept if it has yet to occur

6) The node creates the next block with the hash of the previous block.

While the architecture was originally meant to validate the authenticity of a source attempting to exchange cryptocurrency, the distributed ledger can be repurposed to store hashes of other important data within each node on a network.

The example provided in Nakamoto’s white paper creates each node for financial transactions, however, blocks can be chained to connect the network with added security as well. Smart contracts can use this knowledge for new applications like validating the packets that come through points on the network such as routers and modems. The can be configured to register identities for authorization on IoT devices, which will strengthen overall IoT device security.

Some developers have already begun to implement blockchain features into new models of modems. Solutions like these are in their research and development phases. Nodio’s router was the first IoT device to get media coverage incorporate blockchain technology, although it has not . IOTA has been building a distributed ledger for IoT devices, incorporating fee-less micro transactions in permission-less environments. They use a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) to send information more efficiently on IoT networks, which has the potential to solve the scalability problem: when IoT devices can store all of the required information, they will be able to scale globally.

An example of a DAG

Other major companies have announced partnerships across the industry to research and develop network solutions for IoT devices. Cisco and Bosch have an unnamed conglomerate where they are attempting to link all of their devices to a private blockchain. They aim to link odometer readings to digital identities.

These competing standards in development at small and big businesses should be consolidated into one framework for a security standard built into the OSI model. Currently, the overall landscape of IoT devices has incorporated security as an afterthought, or not at all.

Companies like Microsoft and Mediatek have only incorporated security in the hardware of their machines recently with the MT3620, yet the proprietary nature of the Pluton Security Subsystem, and early stage of the development cycle have yet to be adopted accross the industry. A consortium of industry leaders should decide on a framework that can be universally adopted, so developers, users and IoT devices can work as one to keep each other safe.

In some ways these companies have been programming toward a singularity where all of their devices are connected. These autonomous networks work similar to network security protocols like Border Gateway Protocol (BPG) does with its autonomous systems today. Nevertheless, this technology has not been widely implemented, because companies like CISCO do not have incentive to deploy it globally: a lack of monetary incentive means a company would understandably have to focus their research and developments elsewhere.

On the other hand, if a blockchain were implemented among all connected devices, the global network could be solidified with transparency and integrity. A universal blockchain would connect the world with a network that could govern itself.

The addition of a blockchain to network security infrastructure has benefits for ingress and egress traffic. When a point within the network goes down, its smart contract can send the vulnerability to all other points on the distributed ledger. The point of failure can be tracked and verified due to its unique address; a private key is encrypted within a public key, so the other points of the system will know if the transmission was authentic when it is decrypted.

Nodes can even revert to a previous state stored on an adjacent node. A copy of the node from before a malicious event can be referenced from other points, so a previous image could be sent to revert to its previous state. Its most recent configurations would already be installed, rather than a case where a router would have to be restarted in its default state: rebooted routers are devoid of any rules, commands or changes to the filtering and forwarding packet process. Reconfiguring routers and other IoT devices will become much easier with this new standard. Each device’s unique address can provide a proof of ownership to verify nodes in the network.

The benefits can similarly apply to people’s identification. When implemented in academia, each college and university will be able to transfer this data instantly. For example, one decentralized application called MEthereum runs on top of an Ethereum network to encrypt and transfer Student contracts. It holds transcripts, visas, and financial aid information. The weeks of waiting for transcripts, legal documentation and loan money never have to exist again in a network programmed under this model.

Soon an iteration of MEthereum will solve this problem for good. As more devices deploy within a blockchain framework, blockchains will become accepted as the industry standard. The Internet of Things will be able to secure itself, and people will be able to choose what information they store on their unique ID within a universal blockchain.

The Next OSI Layer

Connected devices can take advantage of blockchains throughout the OSI model. The Application, Management, Network, Device and Physical Layers would benefit directly from the addition of a Blockchain Layer. This new layer will be where smart contracts execute functions to provide security and efficiency across its network.

As the global economy moves toward a future where every device is connected in the Internet of Things, blockchains will be able to secure all connected devices. A single, omnipresent network could trust itself completely and accurately: the open source community should refine and oversee the security checks coded into the IoT blockchain.

IoT devices can monitor each other for the good of their users and their wellbeing. The internet of things will work toward a safe future. Each node will be able to trust and secure other IoT devices with its record of the decentralized ledger. This decentralized system allows every point in the system to operate under mutually disclosed security that solidifies the Blockchain Layer as a universal security mechanism for the Internet of Things.

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