The presentation describes the Blockchain main concepts, structure, and advantages with application in Drones to empower the cybersecurity problems and gave a sample of application is Inventory and supply chain management

1. Blockchain Technology
Application in UAVs and
Cybersecurity Solutions
1
AHMED S. ELGAZZAR
ITIL@, CWA,MBA, MOT PH.D. RESEARCHER
Dec 2020
ahmed.elgazzar@mail.com

2. Agenda
 Introduction
 Blockchain structure
 Blockchain advantages
 UAVs main characteristics
 Blockchain and UAVs technology merge
 References
2

3. Introduction
• Due to advancement in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in terms of manufacturing processes,
and communication and networking technology has led to a rise in their usage in civilian and
commercial applications.
• Due to being deployed in open atmosphere, UAVs are vulnerable to being lost, destroyed or
physically hijacked.
• With the UAV technology becoming essential, various issues in UAV networks such as intraUAV
communication, UAV security, air data security, data storage and management need to be
addressed.
• Blockchain being a distributed ledger protects the shared data using cryptography techniques such
as hash functions and public key encryption.
• Blockchain used for assuring the truthfulness of the information stored and for improving the
security and transparency of the UAVs.
• challenges to be addressed in the integration of Blockchain and UAVs and suggest some future
research directions.
3

4. Blockchain Advantages
• Data Driven technique.
• Decentralized based.
• Guarantees high security using cryptography as a security mechanism .
• Depends on the micro-transactions existing between the digital devices.
• Peer 2 Peer (Machine to Machine) network .
• Chain of Blocks connect through Hash Value.
4

5. Blockchain Architecture 5

6. Blockchain Architecture
The bottom-most layer in the
Blockchain architecture which
contains the timestamped
blocks of data.
Each data block consists of
the block body and the block
header.
Cryptography Mechanism
6

7. Blockchain Architecture
Network Layer is to distribute,
forward and authenticate the
Blockchain transactions.
Peer-to-Peer (P2P) networks.
Once a transaction is created, it
broadcasts to the neighboring
nodes for verification based on
pre-defined specifications.
Once transaction is validated, it
is sent to the other nodes
and in case of rejection, it is
discarded.
Only valid transactions are
allowed to be recorded at each
node
7

8. Blockchain Architecture
•Consensus mechanism is very
important layer.
•This layer has different
consensus algorithms.
•Required to reach a consensus
among the untrusted parties
participating in the Blockchain
network.
•Consensus performance among
the participants is the key for
avoiding the need for a
centralized entity.
•Protocols used to ensure
consensus among the
participants
8

9. Blockchain Architecture
•One of the foundation pillars of
Blockchain architecture
•The miners (Machines , Peers,
Devises ) consume a lot of
processing power to mine the
blocks and
•in return get reward points in the
form of incentives such as digital
currency corresponding to the
magnitude of their work.
9

10. Blockchain Architecture
•The contract layer makes the
Blockchain programmable and
enables the inclusion of different
scripts, smart contracts, and
algorithms with the help of
which complex transactions
can be carried out on the
Blockchain.
•A smart contract is a set of rules
which when met triggers a
transaction between the two
parties involved in the contract.
When these parties agree with
the terms specified within the
contract, it is cryptographically
signed and is broadcast to all
other nodes participating in the
Blockchain for verification
10

11. Blockchain Architecture
•Application is highest layer of
the Blockchain which comprises
of its applications in various
practical fields such as IoT,
finance, UAVs, or IoD,..
11

12. Block Structure
Hashes & Transactions
Block Body
Block Header
Merkle
Root
NONCE
Previous Block Hash
Timestamp
Current Block Hash
Data Structure tree for
all the hashes of all the
transactions that are
part of a block in
a Blockchain network
.
[Number Only Used Once]
Unique & number
random number added
to the block by the
miners to get the
desired pattern in the
block-hash
Marking the time at
which the
corresponding block
was created
12

13. Block Structure
Hashes & Transactions
Block Body
Block Header
Merkle
Root
Nonce
Previous Block Hash
Timestamp
Current Block Hash
13

14. Blockchain Types 14

15. UAVs main characteristics 15
Data Driven
UAVs Swarm
or Fleet
Identification Cybersecurity
Military
IoT
Rescue
Sensoring
Industry 4
Agriculture

16. UAV-Blockchain Application 16
Supply
Chain
Management

17. UAV-Blockchain Tech. Merge 17
• BC provides reliable P2P
communication to UAV
network [UAVNETs] to
overcome possible threat
and attacks.

18. Collision free movement of UAVs
• One of the most important
requirements in UAV networks is that
the UAVs do not physically crash into
each other and also that they do not
interfere with each other’s signal.
• Blockchain can help achieve this
feature by storing the coordinates of all
the UAVs in its database using
algorithms and referring to these stored
coordinates.
• UAVs can decide their optimal route to
move to a destination without any
collision and with minimum
interference.
18

19. Data and entity authentication
• Because of the facility of the public and
private key, UAVs can communicate
with each other through a common
channel and avoid hacking of data by
third parties who can get access to the
channel.
• UAVs can also uniquely sign the data
collected using their private key and
can broadcast it to the whole network.
• Also using Digital Signature.
• This provides data source and entity
authentication between the UAVs and
third party agents as the origin of the
data can be traced using this feature.
19

20. Cooperation and fast synchronization
• Due to common communication channel in the form of
a Blockchain, UAVs can make requests for assistance
from other UAVs or other robots in the swarm in
emergency cases.
• Using distributed decision making, they can get the
opinion of other UAVs and decide the case of confusion
and such decisions can be stored in the Blockchain for
the new members who join the swarm.
• Can directly download the ledger containing previous
decision histories and synchronize with the swarm what
saves a lot of time and processing power
• environment
20
Spoofing
Tampering
Information disclosure
Denial of service
Elevation of privilege
Repudiation
The STRIDE Threat Taxonomy

21. Distributed decision making mechanism
• When UAV faces a confusion between some
choices it creates new addresses in the
Blockchain network.
• Each address represents one of the options for
the decision.
• other UAVs in the network make a transaction
of amount 1 or 0 for these newly created
addresses depending on the option they
choose based on their discretion.
• In the end, the address which has the
maximum balance in its wallet is chosen.
21

22. Secure communication channel for swarms
• Blockchain can provide reliable peer-to-peer
communication channels to swarm agents
• Blockchain encryption scheme, public-key
cryptography and digital signature schemes are
used
• public and private keys are created for each agent
to provide the required capabilities
• Public keys = account numbers which are publicly
accessible information
• private keys = passwords used to authenticate an
agent’s identity and the functions that it executes
22
Any UAV can send data to any other UAV in the system since the public keys of all the
UAVs are known while private keys are private to the individual UAVs.

23. Reference
 “Applications of blockchain in unmanned aerial vehicles: A review”
Author: Tejasvi Alladi,Vinay Chamola,Nishad Sahu,Mohsen Guizani
Publication: Vehicular Communications
Publisher: Elsevier
Date: June 2020
 https://securityintelligence.com/using-blockchain-to-address-drone-cybersecurity/
23

24. 24