Cybersecurity of Industrial Systems

Appendix 2 Blockchain and IIoT Security

A2.1. Blockchain principle

The first blockchain was developed for the Bitcoin cryptocurrency. It appears that the concept is quite broad and the applications of blockchain are very numerous.

A blockchain operates using Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT). It is a database system with specific features:

• – it stores transactions in a distributed way by replicating them on the nodes of a peer-to-peer network (P2P);
• – it operates in a decentralized manner, i.e. without a central authority or control body;
• – it is secure and stores transactions immutably in blocks. Each transaction is verified and recorded using cryptographic techniques to create a history in the form of a chain of blocks.

Records in which transactions were recorded existed before the birth of computer technology in the paper form, particularly in accounting (ledger is the term used in accounting). A central authority was in charge of keeping it and checking the validity of the entries.

With DLT technologies, registry management offers additional capabilities, since it operates without central authority and in a distributed manner.

The blockchain uses the ECC cryptography algorithm (cryptography on elliptic curves) and the SHA-256 hash to provide solid cryptographic evidence for data authentication and integrity.

Figure A2.1. Blockchain

Each block contains a list of transactions ...