Enabling blockchain-assisted certificateless public integrity checking for industrial cloud storage systems

Abstract

Due to the sharp increase in industrial data, cloud computing has been integrated into intelligent Industrial Internet of Things systems to store and process massive data. Since core data are key factors in the industrial production process, any intercepted or altered data may cause severe consequences, and the integrity and confidentiality of outsourced industrial data have become extremely concerning security issues. In this paper, we focus on devising an enhanced blockchain-assisted certificateless public integrity checking (BA-CPIC) mechanism for industrial cloud storage systems. BA-CPIC contributes to checking outsourced industrial encrypted data, and exploits the smart contract in the Ethereum blockchain to provide assistance to users for checking malicious behaviors of auditors (e.g., colluding with industrial cloud servers or lazing checking). Besides, BA-CPIC preserves the identity privacy of users enjoying outsourced storage and blockchain-assisted integrity checking services. By contrast, some misbehaved users in industrial cloud storage systems could also be traced and revoked in due course. BA-CPIC avoids both inherent drawbacks of key escrow and complex certificate management, it is provided corresponding security analysis under the certificateless security model. The performance evaluation demonstrates the feasibility of BA-CPIC in the deployment of industrial cloud storage systems.