sensors-logo

Journal Browser

Journal Browser

Blockchain-Based Security System Applied to IoT Used in Intelligent Systems

A special issue of Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220). This special issue belongs to the section "Internet of Things".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 August 2026 | Viewed by 25470

Special Issue Editors


E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Computer Science, Engineering Research Center of Digital Forensics of Ministry of Education, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, Nanjing 210044, China
Interests: network security; applied cryptography
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The Internet of things (IoT), as a key technology bridging the real and digital worlds, is rapidly transforming our lives, work, and social interactions. Intelligent systems, such as smart homes, smart cities, smart healthcare, and industrial automation, rely on IoT technology to collect and process vast amounts of data, thereby enabling more efficient and smarter operations; however, with the exponential increase in the number of IoT devices and the expansion of their application areas, data security and privacy protection have become major challenges. In this context, blockchain technology, with its unique encryption, decentralization, and immutability, provides a new security solution for IoT-driven intelligent systems.

The application of the blockchain in intelligent systems, especially when integrated with the IoT, not only ensures data security and privacy but also enhances trust between devices and the transparency of the system. In smart city projects, the blockchain can be used to ensure the security of city operational data while also enhancing citizens' trust in intelligent services. In the field of smart manufacturing, the blockchain can realize supply chain transparency and the traceability of product quality. Additionally, the application of smart contracts can significantly improve the level of automation in IoT environments, such as automatically executing equipment maintenance and management tasks. Despite the numerous advantages that the blockchain brings to IoT smart systems, there are still a number of challenges that need to be addressed in applying it to IoT environments.

This Special Issue invites contributions on the following topics (but is not limited to them):

  • The scalability and performance optimization of blockchain technology, including cross-chain and off-chain channels, sharding, optimization consensus algorithms, etc.
  • The integration and innovation of blockchain technology with the Internet of things, metaverse, artificial intelligence, etc.
  • The application and challenges of blockchain and the Internet of things in green power systems, including green certification, green power traceability, and trading.
  • Application of the blockchain and Internet of things in the fields of intelligent medicine and sports health.
  • Integration and application of the blockchain in smart transportation Internet of things systems.
  • The challenges faced by intelligent supply chain management in the blockchain and Internet of things.
  • Application of the blockchain and Internet of things in smart city development.
  • Application of the blockchain in the industrial Internet of things.
  • Application of blockchain-based smart contracts in the Internet of things.
  • Application of the blockchain and Internet of things in energy smart management systems.

Dr. Yongjun Ren
Prof. Dr. Hu Xiong
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sensors is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • blockchain
  • Internet of Things
  • smart contracts
  • data security
  • access control
  • intelligent systems
  • artificial intelligence

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (12 papers)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

27 pages, 2973 KB  
Article
HADA: A Hybrid Authentication and Dynamic Attribute Access Control Mechanism for the Internet of Things Using Hyperledger Fabric Blockchain
by Suhair Alshehri
Sensors 2026, 26(8), 2531; https://doi.org/10.3390/s26082531 - 20 Apr 2026
Viewed by 268
Abstract
The proliferation of Internet of Things (IoT) devices has created unprecedented challenges in cybersecurity, as billions of interconnected devices generate, process, and transmit sensitive data across diverse networks. This study addresses critical security vulnerabilities in IoT ecosystems, focusing on the development of a [...] Read more.
The proliferation of Internet of Things (IoT) devices has created unprecedented challenges in cybersecurity, as billions of interconnected devices generate, process, and transmit sensitive data across diverse networks. This study addresses critical security vulnerabilities in IoT ecosystems, focusing on the development of a comprehensive security framework that encompasses device authentication, an attribute access control mechanism, and privacy preservation. This work introduces HADA, a proposed hybrid authentication method that combines the validation of unique credentials and trust value. For the authentication of the data owner and user, the following credentials are validated: identity, certificate, reconfigurable physical unclonable function (PUF), and trust. Differential privacy is used to secure the credentials during information exchange. Then, the newly developed dynamic attribute access control method selects the number of attributes and matches the attributes; these two processes are performed using the Bi-Fuzzy logic and graph neural network (GNN) algorithms, respectively. After matching the data, the user is allowed to access them from the cloud server. For data encryption, the lightweight SKINNY algorithm is implemented in Hyperledger Fabric blockchain. The proposed system performs better than existing methods in terms of throughput, latency, and resource utilization. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

30 pages, 4987 KB  
Article
AT-BSS: A Broker Selection Strategy for Efficient Cross-Shard Processing in Sharded IoT–Blockchain Systems
by Yue Su, Yang Xiang, Kien Nguyen and Hiroo Sekiya
Sensors 2026, 26(8), 2296; https://doi.org/10.3390/s26082296 - 8 Apr 2026
Viewed by 399
Abstract
The deep integration of the Internet of Things (IoT) and blockchain technology enables emerging applications in multi-party collaboration and trusted data sharing. However, the scalability constraints of blockchain networks remain a major bottleneck when handling high-frequency interactions in IoT–blockchain systems. Sharding addresses this [...] Read more.
The deep integration of the Internet of Things (IoT) and blockchain technology enables emerging applications in multi-party collaboration and trusted data sharing. However, the scalability constraints of blockchain networks remain a major bottleneck when handling high-frequency interactions in IoT–blockchain systems. Sharding addresses this challenge by partitioning the blockchain network into parallel sub-networks. Nevertheless, it introduces significant coordination overhead for cross-shard transactions. Among mitigation strategies, Broker-based mechanisms (e.g., BrokerChain) have attracted increasing attention for their efficiency in handling cross-shard communication by reducing verification overhead and communication latency. Despite these advantages, existing research typically treats the Broker group as a fixed configuration, neglecting the impact of Broker selection on system performance. To bridge this gap, this paper proposes the Accumulative Activity–Temporal Liveness Broker Selection Strategy (AT-BSS) to optimize cross-shard transaction processing in sharded IoT–blockchains. Specifically, we formally characterize the Accumulative Activity and Temporal Liveness of accounts in the account–transaction network and use these two metrics to identify accounts that maximize transaction-aggregation efficiency. We implement AT-BSS on the BlockEmulator platform and evaluate it against two baselines, namely, ABChain and BrokerChain. Under different settings of the number of Brokers (BrokerNum), number of shards (ShardNum), transaction arrival rate (InjectSpeed), and maximum block size (MaxBlockSize), AT-BSS consistently outperforms both baselines in terms of Transactions Per Second (TPS), Transaction Confirmation Latency (TCL), and Cross-shard Transaction Ratio (CTX). Compared with ABChain, AT-BSS achieves up to 15.5% higher TPS and reduces TCL and CTX by up to 80.2% and 28.7%, respectively. AT-BSS yields more pronounced results over BrokerChain, with TPS improvements of up to 229% and reductions of up to 97.7% in TCL and 80.5% in CTX. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

22 pages, 669 KB  
Article
High-Efficiency Traceability Mechanism for Multimedia Data in Consumer Internet of Things Combined with Blockchain
by Tianyi Yan, Jimin Chen, Xiaorui Zhang and Gang Hu
Sensors 2026, 26(1), 74; https://doi.org/10.3390/s26010074 - 22 Dec 2025
Viewed by 611
Abstract
In the context of the rapid development of Consumer Internet of Things (CIoT), the manipulation and unauthorized distribution of multimedia content have raised serious concerns regarding copyright protection and data authenticity. Ensuring secure traceability and authenticity in complex network environments remains a major [...] Read more.
In the context of the rapid development of Consumer Internet of Things (CIoT), the manipulation and unauthorized distribution of multimedia content have raised serious concerns regarding copyright protection and data authenticity. Ensuring secure traceability and authenticity in complex network environments remains a major challenge. Traditional blockchain mechanisms often suffer from high latency during large-scale data queries, making them unsuitable for real-time CIoT applications. To address this, this paper proposes a high-efficiency blockchain-based multimedia data security traceability method. First, blockchain is integrated with the PROV model to guarantee operation transparency and data credibility. Second, a joint index structure comprising a fast index (using traceability positioning tables for cross-block jumps) and a multi-bucket index (using self-balancing binary trees) is designed. Experimental results demonstrate that compared to traditional blockchain and SEBDB methods, the proposed mechanism remains stable as data volume exceeds 2000 records. Specifically, the query time growth rate is significantly lower than linear scanning methods (12–18% vs. 45–62% for traditional methods), and the number of traversed records is reduced by 60–75% by avoiding full-chain traversal, verifying the method’s superiority in handling high-frequency CIoT multimedia queries while providing protection against tampering and unauthorized distribution. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

23 pages, 1313 KB  
Article
Data Component Method Based on Dual-Factor Ownership Identification with Multimodal Feature Fusion
by Shenghao Nie, Jin Shi, Xiaoyang Zhou and Mingxin Lu
Sensors 2025, 25(21), 6632; https://doi.org/10.3390/s25216632 - 29 Oct 2025
Viewed by 1101
Abstract
In the booming digital economy, data circulation—particularly for massive multimodal data generated by IoT sensor networks—faces critical challenges: ambiguous ownership and broken cross-domain traceability. Traditional property rights theory, ill-suited to data’s non-rivalrous nature, leads to ownership fuzziness after multi-source fusion and traceability gaps [...] Read more.
In the booming digital economy, data circulation—particularly for massive multimodal data generated by IoT sensor networks—faces critical challenges: ambiguous ownership and broken cross-domain traceability. Traditional property rights theory, ill-suited to data’s non-rivalrous nature, leads to ownership fuzziness after multi-source fusion and traceability gaps in cross-organizational flows, hindering marketization. This study aims to establish native ownership confirmation capabilities in trusted IoT-driven data ecosystems. The approach involves a dual-factor system: the collaborative extraction of text (from sensor-generated inspection reports), numerical (from industrial sensor measurements), visual (from 3D scanning sensors), and spatio-temporal features (from GPS and IoT device logs) generates unique SHA-256 fingerprints (first factor), while RSA/ECDSA private key signatures (linked to sensor node identities) bind ownership (second factor). An intermediate state integrates these with metadata, supported by blockchain (consortium chain + IPFS) and cross-domain protocols optimized for IoT environments to ensure full-link traceability. This scheme, tailored to the characteristics of IoT sensor networks, breaks traditional ownership confirmation bottlenecks in multi-source fusion, demonstrating strong performance in ownership recognition, anti-tampering robustness, cross-domain traceability and encryption performance. It offers technical and theoretical support for standardized data components and the marketization of data elements within IoT ecosystems. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

22 pages, 1416 KB  
Article
A Blockchain-Enabled Multi-Authority Secure IoT Data-Sharing Scheme with Attribute-Based Searchable Encryption for Intelligent Systems
by Fu Zhang, Xueyi Xia, Hongmin Gao, Zhaofeng Ma and Xiubo Chen
Sensors 2025, 25(19), 5944; https://doi.org/10.3390/s25195944 - 23 Sep 2025
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1392
Abstract
With the advancement of technologies such as 5G, digital twins, and edge computing, the Internet of Things (IoT) as a critical component of intelligent systems is profoundly driving the transformation of various industries toward digitalization and intelligence. However, the exponential growth of network [...] Read more.
With the advancement of technologies such as 5G, digital twins, and edge computing, the Internet of Things (IoT) as a critical component of intelligent systems is profoundly driving the transformation of various industries toward digitalization and intelligence. However, the exponential growth of network connection nodes has expanded the attack exposure surface of IoT devices. The IoT devices with limited storage and computing resources struggle to cope with new types of attacks, and IoT devices lack mature authorization and authentication mechanisms. It is difficult for traditional data-sharing solutions to meet the security requirements of cloud-based shared data. Therefore, this paper proposes a blockchain-based multi-authority IoT data-sharing scheme with attribute-based searchable encryption for intelligent system (BM-ABSE), aiming to address the security, efficiency, and verifiability issues of data sharing in an IoT environment. Our scheme decentralizes management responsibilities through a multi-authority mechanism to avoid the risk of single-point failure. By utilizing the immutability and smart contract function of blockchain, this scheme can ensure data integrity and the reliability of search results. Meanwhile, some decryption computing tasks are outsourced to the cloud to reduce the computing burden on IoT devices. Our scheme meets the static security and IND-CKA security requirements of the standard model, as demonstrated by theoretical analysis, which effectively defends against the stealing or tampering of ciphertexts and keywords by attackers. Experimental simulation results indicate that the scheme has excellent computational efficiency on resource-constrained IoT devices, with core algorithm execution time maintained in milliseconds, and as the number of attributes increases, it has a controllable performance overhead. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

40 pages, 2964 KB  
Article
Formalizing Permission to Delegate and Delegation with Policy Interaction
by Azan Hamad Alkhorem, Daniel Conte de Leon, Ananth A. Jillepalli and Jia Song
Sensors 2025, 25(16), 4915; https://doi.org/10.3390/s25164915 - 8 Aug 2025
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1041
Abstract
In the context of Internet of Things (IoT) intelligent systems, the latest research regarding delegation using an access control model has gained attention, reflecting the need for models to support more functionalities in relation to hierarchical delegation. With respect to delegation procedures within [...] Read more.
In the context of Internet of Things (IoT) intelligent systems, the latest research regarding delegation using an access control model has gained attention, reflecting the need for models to support more functionalities in relation to hierarchical delegation. With respect to delegation procedures within access control, issues arise after delegation concerning the permissions to others with respect to revocation. Redundancy and conflict arising from delegation can occur depending on the delegation policies used within the hierarchical structure. This article discusses implementation of positive delegation represented by “YES” and negative delegation represented by “NO”. Furthermore, we also consider permission to delegate positively and negatively represented by (YES and NO). These challenges are addressed by creating additional features in a hierarchical policy model (HPol). The implementation was created using Python (ver. 3.10) code to verify the advantages of the approach, through experimentation under different scenarios. The model also has the capability to manage and adapt features of the Internet of Things (IoT) to a blockchain architecture, enhancing security and verification during the delegation process and increasing the scalability of Internet of Things (IoT) intelligent environment systems. Full article
Show Figures

Figure A1

32 pages, 2407 KB  
Article
Post-Quantum Linkable Hash-Based Ring Signature Scheme for Off-Chain Payments in IoT
by Linlin He, Xiayi Zhou, Dongqin Cai, Xiao Hu and Shuanggen Liu
Sensors 2025, 25(14), 4484; https://doi.org/10.3390/s25144484 - 18 Jul 2025
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2399
Abstract
Off-chain payments in the Internet of Things (IoT) enhance the efficiency and scalability of blockchain transactions. However, existing privacy mechanisms face challenges, such as the disclosure of payment channels and transaction traceability. Additionally, the rise of quantum computing threatens traditional public key cryptography, [...] Read more.
Off-chain payments in the Internet of Things (IoT) enhance the efficiency and scalability of blockchain transactions. However, existing privacy mechanisms face challenges, such as the disclosure of payment channels and transaction traceability. Additionally, the rise of quantum computing threatens traditional public key cryptography, making the development of post-quantum secure methods for privacy protection essential. This paper proposes a post-quantum ring signature scheme based on hash functions that can be applied to off-chain payments, enhancing both anonymity and linkability. The scheme is designed to resist quantum attacks through the use of hash-based signatures and to prevent double spending via its linkable properties. Furthermore, the paper introduces an improved Hash Time-Locked Contract (HTLC) that incorporates a Signature of Knowledge (SOK) to conceal the payment path and strengthen privacy protection. Security analysis and experimental evaluations demonstrate that the system strikes a favorable balance between privacy, computational efficiency, and security. Notably, the efficiency benefits of basic signature verification are particularly evident, offering new insights into privacy protection for post-quantum secure blockchain. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

28 pages, 2903 KB  
Article
MedAccessX: A Blockchain-Enabled Dynamic Access Control Framework for IoMT Networks
by Guoyi Shi, Minfeng Qi, Qi Zhong, Ningran Li, Wanxin Gao, Lefeng Zhang and Longxiang Gao
Sensors 2025, 25(6), 1857; https://doi.org/10.3390/s25061857 - 17 Mar 2025
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 2572
Abstract
The integration of Internet of Things (IoT) devices in healthcare has enhanced medical efficiency but poses challenges such as data privacy risks and internal abuse. Traditional IoT data access frameworks suffer from centralization, limited scalability, and static permission controls. To address these issues, [...] Read more.
The integration of Internet of Things (IoT) devices in healthcare has enhanced medical efficiency but poses challenges such as data privacy risks and internal abuse. Traditional IoT data access frameworks suffer from centralization, limited scalability, and static permission controls. To address these issues, we propose MedAccessX, a blockchain-based access control framework combining attribute-based access control (ABAC) and role-based access control (RBAC). MedAccessX utilizes four types of smart contracts: a user management contract (UMC) for managing user operations, a medical data management contract (MDMC) for handling data, a policy contract (PC) for managing access rights, and an access control contract (ACC) for enforcing permissions and facilitating data sharing. Our evaluation, conducted on a private Ethereum blockchain network with multiple nodes, assesses security, deployment cost, gas consumption, throughput, and response time. Comparative analysis demonstrates that MedAccessX achieves lower deployment costs and higher throughput, outperforming existing solutions. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

27 pages, 962 KB  
Article
Zero-Trust Access Control Mechanism Based on Blockchain and Inner-Product Encryption in the Internet of Things in a 6G Environment
by Shoubai Nie, Jingjing Ren, Rui Wu, Pengchong Han, Zhaoyang Han and Wei Wan
Sensors 2025, 25(2), 550; https://doi.org/10.3390/s25020550 - 18 Jan 2025
Cited by 25 | Viewed by 7221
Abstract
Within the framework of 6G networks, the rapid proliferation of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, coupled with their decentralized and heterogeneous characteristics, presents substantial security challenges. Conventional centralized systems face significant challenges in effectively managing the diverse range of IoT devices, and they [...] Read more.
Within the framework of 6G networks, the rapid proliferation of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, coupled with their decentralized and heterogeneous characteristics, presents substantial security challenges. Conventional centralized systems face significant challenges in effectively managing the diverse range of IoT devices, and they are inadequate in addressing the requirements for reduced latency and the efficient processing and analysis of large-scale data. To tackle these challenges, this paper introduces a zero-trust access control framework that integrates blockchain technology with inner-product encryption. By using smart contracts for automated access control, a reputation-based trust model for decentralized identity management, and inner-product encryption for fine-grained access control, the framework ensures data security and efficiency. Firstly, smart contracts are employed to automate access control, and software-defined boundaries are defined for different application domains. Secondly, through a trust model based on a consensus algorithm of node reputation values and a registration-based inner-product encryption algorithm supporting fine-grained access control, zero-trust self-sovereign enhanced identity management in the 6G environment of the Internet of Things is achieved. Furthermore, the use of multiple auxiliary chains for storing data across different application domains not only mitigates the risks associated with data expansion but also achieves micro-segmentation, thereby enhancing the efficiency of access control. Finally, empirical evidence demonstrates that, compared with the traditional methods, this paper’s scheme improves the encryption efficiency by 14%, reduces the data access latency by 18%, and significantly improves the throughput. This mechanism ensures data security while maintaining system efficiency in environments with large-scale data interactions. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

20 pages, 630 KB  
Article
Retrieval Integrity Verification and Multi-System Data Interoperability Mechanism of a Blockchain Oracle for Smart Healthcare with Internet of Things (IoT) Integration
by Ziyuan Zhou, Long Chen, Yekang Zhao, Xinyi Yang, Zhaoyang Han and Zheng He
Sensors 2024, 24(23), 7487; https://doi.org/10.3390/s24237487 - 24 Nov 2024
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2101
Abstract
The proliferation of Internet of Things (IoT) technology has significantly enhanced smart healthcare systems, enabling the collection and processing of vast healthcare datasets such as electronic medical records (EMRs) and remote health monitoring (RHM) data. However, this rapid expansion has also introduced critical [...] Read more.
The proliferation of Internet of Things (IoT) technology has significantly enhanced smart healthcare systems, enabling the collection and processing of vast healthcare datasets such as electronic medical records (EMRs) and remote health monitoring (RHM) data. However, this rapid expansion has also introduced critical challenges related to data security, privacy, and system reliability. To address these challenges, we propose a retrieval integrity verification and multi-system data interoperability mechanism for a Blockchain Oracle in smart healthcare with IoT Integration (RIVMD-BO). The mechanism uses the cuckoo filter technology to effectively reduce the computational complexity and ensures the authenticity and integrity of data transmission and use through data retrieval integrity verification. The experimental results and security analysis show that the proposed method can improve system performance while ensuring security. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

17 pages, 5823 KB  
Article
EADC: An Efficient Anonymous Data Collection Scheme with Blockchain in Internet of Things
by Zhiwei Si, Juhao Wang, Pengbiao Zhao, Xiaopei Wang and Jingcheng  Song
Sensors 2024, 24(22), 7162; https://doi.org/10.3390/s24227162 - 7 Nov 2024
Viewed by 1638
Abstract
The integration of smart contracts (SCs) within blockchain technology represents a pivotal direction in the evolution of the Internet of Things (IoT), enabling decentralization and enhancing user trust in the system. However, ensuring data privacy is a fundamental challenge that must be addressed [...] Read more.
The integration of smart contracts (SCs) within blockchain technology represents a pivotal direction in the evolution of the Internet of Things (IoT), enabling decentralization and enhancing user trust in the system. However, ensuring data privacy is a fundamental challenge that must be addressed during the deployment of these SCs. Many scholars have adopted data aggregation to protect privacy, but these methods are difficult to achieve fine-grained data collection. To this end, this paper proposes an efficient anonymous data collection (EADC) scheme suitable for the IoT environment. The scheme combines matrix algorithms with homomorphic encryption (HE) technology to effectively cut off the connection between users and data during data upload. In addition, the EADC scheme introduces a sophisticated data grouping protocol to improve the overall efficiency of the system. Analysis shows that the scheme can achieve efficient data collection without compromising user privacy. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

27 pages, 9078 KB  
Article
An Efficient Privacy Protection Mechanism for Blockchain-Based Federated Learning System in UAV-MEC Networks
by Chaoyang Zhu, Xiao Zhu and Tuanfa Qin
Sensors 2024, 24(5), 1364; https://doi.org/10.3390/s24051364 - 20 Feb 2024
Cited by 17 | Viewed by 3051
Abstract
The widespread use of UAVs in smart cities for tasks like traffic monitoring and environmental data collection creates significant privacy and security concerns due to the transmission of sensitive data. Traditional UAV-MEC systems with centralized data processing expose this data to risks like [...] Read more.
The widespread use of UAVs in smart cities for tasks like traffic monitoring and environmental data collection creates significant privacy and security concerns due to the transmission of sensitive data. Traditional UAV-MEC systems with centralized data processing expose this data to risks like breaches and manipulation, potentially hindering the adoption of these valuable technologies. To address this critical challenge, we propose UBFL, a novel privacy-preserving federated learning mechanism that integrates blockchain technology for secure and efficient data sharing. Unlike traditional methods relying on differential privacy (DP), UBFL employs an adaptive nonlinear encryption function to safeguard the privacy of UAV model updates while maintaining data integrity and accuracy. This innovative approach enables rapid convergence, allowing the base station to efficiently identify and filter out severely compromised UAVs attempting to inject malicious data. Additionally, UBFL incorporates the Random Cut Forest (RCF) anomaly detection algorithm to actively identify and mitigate poisoning data attacks. Extensive comparative experiments on benchmark datasets CIFAR10 and Mnist demonstrably showcase UBFL’s effectiveness. Compared to DP-based methods, UBFL achieves accuracy (99.98%), precision (99.93%), recall (99.92%), and F-Score (99.92%) in privacy preservation while maintaining superior accuracy. Notably, under data pollution scenarios with varying attack sample rates (10%, 20%, and 30%), UBFL exhibits exceptional resilience, highlighting its robust capabilities in securing UAV gradients within MEC environments. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop