Exploring the intellectual cores of the blockchain–Internet of Things (BIoT)

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Y.P. Tsang ◽  
C.H. Wu ◽  
W.H. Ip ◽  
Wen-Lung Shiau

PurposeDue to the rapid growth of blockchain technology in recent years, the fusion of blockchain and the Internet of Things (BIoT) has drawn considerable attention from researchers and industrial practitioners and is regarded as a future trend in technological development. Although several authors have conducted literature reviews on the topic, none have examined the development of the knowledge structure of BIoT, resulting in scattered research and development (R&D) efforts.Design/methodology/approachThis study investigates the intellectual core of BIoT through a co-citation proximity analysis–based systematic review (CPASR) of the correlations between 44 highly influential articles out of 473 relevant research studies. Subsequently, we apply a series of statistical analyses, including exploratory factor analysis (EFA), hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA), k-means clustering (KMC) and multidimensional scaling (MDS) to establish the intellectual core.FindingsOur findings indicate that there are nine categories in the intellectual core of BIoT: (1) data privacy and security for BIoT systems, (2) models and applications of BIoT, (3) system security theories for BIoT, (4) frameworks for BIoT deployment, (5) the fusion of BIoT with emerging methods and technologies, (6) applied security strategies for using blockchain with the IoT, (7) the design and development of industrial BIoT, (8) establishing trust through BIoT and (9) the BIoT ecosystem.Originality/valueWe use the CPASR method to examine the intellectual core of BIoT, which is an under-researched and topical area. The paper also provides a structural framework for investigating BIoT research that may be applicable to other knowledge domains.

2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Buell Hirsch

Purpose This viewpoint is intended to examine the issue of the monetization of personal data and the risks to companies that fail to understand this trend. Design/methodology/approach This paper reviews the recent literature on the use and abuse of personal data to identify relevant trends and issues. Findings It is likely, whether through blockchain technology or some other means, that individual consumers will be able to monetize their data. Research limitations/implications As a review of secondary sources rather than original sources, the findings are anecdotal and not comprehensive. Practical implications In the rapidly changing environment of data privacy and security, one should anticipate that the findings may become outdated by sudden events such as a new global data privacy breach. Social implications Ownership of personal data and its use or abuse is one of the single most important social issues in today’s world, with profound implications for civil society. Originality/value While there have been numerous studies cataloguing attempts to create monetization platforms for consumer data, there are not many studies on the reputational risks for companies in handling data from the Internet of Things.


Subject IoT ecosystem. Significance The market for the Internet of Things (IoT) or connected devices is expanding rapidly, with no manufacturer currently forecast to dominate the supply chain. This has fragmented the emerging IoT ecosystem, triggering questions about interoperability and cybersecurity of IoT devices. Impacts Firms in manufacturing, transportation and logistics and utilities are expected to see the highest IoT spending in coming years. The pace of IoT adoption is inextricably linked to that of related technologies such as 5G, artificial intelligence and cloud computing. Data privacy and security will be the greatest constraint to IoT adoption.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ravinder Kumar ◽  
Rahul Sindhwani ◽  
Punj Lata Singh

Purpose The purpose of this methodology is to categorise the challenges into cause and effect group. The modern scenario of customization, personalization and multi-restrictive working because of pandemics has affected the operations of manufacturing small and medium enterprises (SMEs). In the new normal, the digitalization of manufacturing SMEs can be the path breaker. Modern digitalization includes a mix of technologies such as the industrial internet of things (IIoT), the internet of things, cyber-physical system and big data analytics. This digitalization can help in achieving new design changes, efficient production scheduling, smart manufacturing and unrestricted on-time delivery of quality products. This research paper aims to recognize and analyze the challenges faced while implementing IIoT technologies in manufacturing SMEs and tries to find the possibility of mitigating challenges by blockchain technology. Design/methodology/approach There were ten challenges of IIoT implementation identified from the literature review and experts’ opinions. To collect information from Indian manufacturing SMEs, a survey tool was formed in the form of a questionnaire. On the fundament of responses received from industrial experts, the Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) technique has been used for categorizing these challenges into cause and effect groups. Further, the authors tried to mitigate observed challenges with the help of blockchain technology. Findings With the implementation of IIoT technologies, the manufacturing processes become conciliatory, effective and traceable in real time. Observation of the current study states that the top effect group challenges such as the security of data and reliability of technologies can be mitigated by enabling blockchain technologies. The authors conclude that blockchain-enabled IIoT technologies will be highly beneficial for the Indian SMEs strategically and practically in the current scenario. Research limitations/implications Methodology of DEMATEL focuses on responses received from experts. The broader approach of survey from manufacturing organizations is compromised due to small sample size in this methodology. Experts approached for survey were from manufacturing SMEs of Delhi National Capital Region only. Broader survey-based techniques may be applied covering different sectors of SMEs in future work. Practical implications Technologies such as blockchain can facilitate advanced security in the application of IIoT and other such practices. While dealing with significant issues and challenges of new technologies, blockchain gives an edge of balance in the current scenario. Its properties of fixity, temper evident and circumvent fraud make this technology ideal for the digitalization of the manufacturing systems in SMEs. Originality/value Digitalization of manufacturing facilities is the need of the hour. Pandemic challenges have highlighted the urgency of it. This research will motivate and guide the manufacturing SMEs in planning strategies and long-term policies in implementing modern technologies and coping up with the pandemic challenges.


2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (5) ◽  
pp. 1883-1908 ◽  
Author(s):  
Santosh B. Rane ◽  
Yahya Abdul Majid Narvel

Purpose Blockchain and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies have recently gained much attention for Industry 4.0. With the emergence of disruptive technologies, it has become essential to redesign the business for innovations based on blockchain–IoT integrated architecture that helps organizations to improve agility in their operations. The paper aims to discuss this issue. Design/methodology/approach An industrial pump was Sensorized and IoTized to monitor its operations on real time and take predictive measures for managing these assets with more agility. The developed architecture was further extended for proposing the use of blockchain and how it can benefit the organization. Findings The known features of blockchain such as increasing the capacity of decentralization, trust-less transactions, security and allowing autonomous coordination of the devices along with the boons of IoT will help achieve the motto of improving agility in Industry 4.0. Originality/value This paper gives a new dimension to utilization of blockchain technology. blockchain along with IoT that gives a way forward for industries like manufacturing, oil and gas, engineering and construction, utilities, etc. to re-designing the business organization in a more agile way.


2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 301-311 ◽  
Author(s):  
Volker Skwarek

Purpose This paper aims to describe a method for Internet-of-Things-devices to achieve industrial grade reliability for information transfer from wireless sensor systems to production systems using blockchain technologies. Design/methodology/approach An increased security and reliability of submitted data within the sensor network could be achieved on an application level. Therefore, a lightweight, high-level communication protocol based on blockchain principles was designed. Findings Blockchain mechanisms can secure the wireless communication of Internet-of-Things-devices in a lightweight and scalable manner. Originality/value The innovation of this research is the successful application of general blockchain mechanisms to increase security of a wireless sensor system without binding to a dedicated blockchain technology.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 2295-2299

The smart management system plays a vital role in many domains and improves the reliability of protection and privacy of a system. Electrical systems have become a part in everyday human life. The next generation electrical systems will entirely depends on fully automated and smart control systems. In the present paper various mechanisms of cloud gateways and security issues are explored for smart management of an electrical system. The present survey work is reconnoitred with Internet of Things (IoT) in association with cloud. Cloud based IoT in smart electrical system provides potential enhancement of performance, management, and resilience of the smart system. However, the espousal of cloud based IoT system in smart electrical system to store and retrieve the data from cloud may increase risks in data privacy and security. Despite the different flaws in global integration of cloud with IoT through internet, various end-to-end security schemes are discussed to overcome these flaws. As a result in many of the applications easy IoT cloud gateway along with homomorphic encryption technique is set up to solve communication overheads and security issues.


Subject Public sector and GDPR. Significance Public attention before and since the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into effect in May 2018 has largely focused on high-profile corporate data breaches and fines, such as recently at British Airways and the hotel chain Marriott. However, the data breach at the Bulgarian National Revenue Agency last month put public sector agencies, and their obligations under GDPR, under the spotlight. Impacts The upsurge in data breach notifications will stabilise as GDPR implementation progresses. Local public sector agencies are beginning to take data privacy and security seriously. Outsourcing of public services to private contractors is complicating cybersecurity.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mazen El-Masri ◽  
Eiman Mutwali Abdelmageed Hussain

PurposeBlockchain is evolving to become a platform for securing Internet of things (IoT) ecosystems. Still, challenges remain. The purpose of this literature review is to highlight the applicability of blockchain as a medium to secure IoT ecosystems. A two-dimensional framework anchored on (1) IoT layers and (2) security goals is used to organize the existent IoT security threats and their corresponding countermeasures identified in the reviewed literature. The framework helped in mapping the IoT security threats with the inherent features of blockchain and accentuate their prominence to IoT security.Design/methodology/approachAn approach integrating computerized natural language processing (NLP) with a systematic literature review methodology was adopted. A large corpus of 2,303 titles and abstracts of blockchain articles was programmatically analyzed in order to identify the relevant literature. The identified literature was subjected to a systematic review guided by a well-established method in IS research.FindingsThe literature evidently highlights the prominence of blockchain as a mean to IoT security due to the distinctive features it encompasses. The authors’ investigation revealed that numerous existent threats are better addressed with blockchain than conventional mechanisms. Nevertheless, blockchain consumes resources such as electricity, time, bandwidth and disk space at a rate that is not yet easily accessible to common IoT ecosystems.Research limitations/implicationsResults suggest that a configurational approach that aligns IoT security requirements with the resource requirements of different blockchain features is necessary in order to realize the proper balance between security, efficiency and feasibility.Practical implicationsPractitioners can make use of the classified lists of convention security mechanisms and the IoT threats they address. The framework can help underline the countermeasures that best achieve their security goals. Practitioners can also use the framework to identify the most important features to seek for in a blockchain technology that can help them achieve their security goals.Originality/valueThis study proposes a novel framework that can help classify IoT threats based on the IoT layer impacted and the security goal at risk. Moreover, it applies a combined man-machine approach to systematically analyze the literature.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 4811
Author(s):  
Chung-Hong Lee ◽  
Hsin-Chang Yang ◽  
Yu-Chen Wei ◽  
Wen-Kai Hsu

The risk of supply chain disruption is usually related to daily disturbances in supply chain operations (e.g., demand fluctuations) and some emergency risks, such as earthquakes and epidemic outbreaks. During a crisis, companies need agility to quickly find new suppliers and open auxiliary sales channels to meet customer needs and remain competitive. However, identifying “event” is one of the most difficult challenges of current decision support systems. If the system encounters an emergency, it is usually unable to promptly notify users of the warning to avoid risks. A sensible solution is to incorporate the real-time event-monitoring system into SCM (i.e., supply chain management) in order to share emergency information in the early stage for preemptive management in the supply chain. On the other hand, in order to process confidential supply chain data with other members, the SCM infrastructure requires secure data sharing. The blockchain-based SCM system can improve the transparency of traceability to ensure that the supply chain system provides high-quality products and protects data privacy and security. The view is taken; therefore, in this work, we combined a method of real-time event detection using collected Twitter data and blockchain technology for event monitoring to improve the visibility of the supply chain system and take preemptive measures for risk avoidance. The experiments show some interesting results and potentials for future work in the field of the agile supply chain.


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