SEDIBLOFRA: A Blockchain-Based, Secure Framework for Remote Data Transfer in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Abstract

Security attacks on Cyber-Physical Systems with operations that involve Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are a matter of great concern due to their major impact in the deployed systems, and a deal-breaker for their utilization; if a system is not perceived as secure, either it will not be used or its capabilities will be underutilized, regardless of how good they could be. This happens with particular intensity in missions with UAVs, as they can be hacked to tamper with their collected data or taken away by unauthorized parties. Development of security countermeasures is extensive both in theoretical and practical implementations, but the integration of these measures can be difficult, and performance might be affected because of it. This manuscript puts forward a SEDIBLOFRA (Secure, Distributed, Blockchainbased Framework) for remote maneuvering of UAVs, based on several distributed systems technologies that pile up to provide complementary functionalities. Asymmetric cryptography encrypts the data. Publish/Subscribe communications offer a way to enhance data delivery. Finally, blockchain provides a way to keep all the transferred data in a redundant and immutable manner. The proposed framework is also extensible to other kinds of unmanned vehicles, like Unmanned Ground Vehicles or Autonomous Underwater Vehicles.

Identity Management and Authentication of a UAV Swarm Based on a Blockchain

“…However, there is no mention of how to ensure that cloud services, drones, and blockchain can be trusted with each other. Rodríguez-Molina et al [45] proposed a method of secure data transmission based on a blockchain but did not study how to implement UAV identity management and authentication. A blockchain-based secure system architecture was studied by Kuzmin and Znak [46], in which drones act as nodes in a blockchain network.…”

An Inexpensive Unmanned Aerial Vehicle-Based Tool for Mobile Network Output Analysis and Visualization

“…In recent years, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs, also referred to as drones or Remotely Piloted Aircrafts, depending on their work procedures) have improved their capabilities and performance, while at the same time becoming more economical and easier to use. It has been proven that UAVs can provide a high degree of usefulness in application domains like agriculture [ 1 ], nature monitoring [ 2 ], infrastructure maintenance [ 3 ] and, generally speaking, secure information transfer among remote locations and devices [ 4 ] and Internet of Things environments where data collection and inference of knowledge are of major importance [ 5 ]. Indeed, UAVs have a collection of features that make them useful for environments where obtaining information from a wide area in a fast and responsive manner is of major importance: (a) they have a high degree of mobility (and therefore, they can perform manoeuvres and travel to areas where other bigger devices or humans might not be able to go, due to distance, positioning or how hazardous the environment is [ 6 ]); (b) they tend to be inexpensive to acquire and use (and can be employed without requiring large amounts of economic resources); (c) they are portable (therefore, they can be taken from/to different places without high requirements in space or storage room); (d) they can provide large amounts of data in a comparatively small amount of time (so they come in handy for any application that involves data, even in a big-data-like fashion [ 7 ]); (e) they can be used both in a piloted and autonomous manner (so they can be left to perform tedious tasks without the constant need of supervision).…”