On the Blockchain-Based Decentralized Data Sharing for Event Based Encryption to Combat Adversarial Attacks

Abstract

It is human nature to anticipate events in the future and plan accordingly. As such, the possibility of letting future events trigger the decryption of a message is a form of an encryption mechanism we deem to be significant in today's information age. In this paper, we propose a variant of Attribute-Based Encryption (ABE), called Event-Based Encryption (EBE), that will help avoid adversarial attacks. In EBE, we attempt to decrypt the messages in the future after an event is confirmed. We illustrate how EBE can be employed by presenting a scenario where a will is decrypted when an individual has been confirmed dead. To achieve this, we introduce a decentralized data sharing network powered by the blockchain technology that ensures data undergoes a thorough vetting process before it is accepted to the network. This vetted data is useful in determining the facts needed for the confirmation of the occurrence of events and is also helpful in restricting adversarial attacks. Our approach utilizes multi-authority ABE schemes, Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques, and a decentralized data-sharing platform to achieve our goal. The main contribution of this research is the enabling of multiple parties, each with thoroughly vetted proprietary data, to collaborate to confirm the occurrence of an event. This event confirmation should trigger the decryption of a message. We highlight the various applications of our approach and illustrate the practical and secure nature of EBE using numerical results.