A systematic analysis on the readiness of Blockchain integration in IoT forensics

Abstract

Internet of Things (IoT) devices are massively utilized in our daily lives which is exposing them to a wide range of attacks. The heterogeneity of evidence produced by IoT devices is complicating the process of evidence collection and processing. Consequently, it is imperative to maintain admissible evidence collection, preservation, and analysis to be presented in a court of law. The currently used digital forensic tools and methodologies are lagging behind the IoT's heterogeneity and distributive nature. The decentralized, distributed, and transparent nature of Blockchain has encouraged lots of research on utilizing Blockchain to store, process, and investigate digital evidence in IoT forensics across various jurisdictions. Therefore, this research work analyzes proposed frameworks in the literature to review their deployment of Blockchain technology to resolve the various presented challenges in IoT Forensics. It presents a systematic review to investigate the readiness of blockchain integration in IoT forensics. Many factors have been addressed to consider when integrating the Blockchain technology into IoT forensics such as data integrity, distributed storage, authentication, transparency, and security where the literature provides an adequate proof on the crucial need to consider them as essential IoT forensic readiness factors. The research findings highlight challenges and open research opportunities of blockchain utilization to facilitate sound and efficient IoT forensics.