Secure blockchain in the enterprise: A methodology

Abstract

The adoption of blockchain in a software architecture should be perceived as a double-edged sword: if on the one hand, it allows to achieve benefits in terms of auditability, strong integrity protection and virtual tokens management, on the other hand they come together with peculiarities, like immutability, that need to be properly considered; for example, in the interaction with personal data, blockchain adoption may result particularly critical. Therefore, in order to guide software architects wishing to leverage the potential of an existing blockchain technology for their solutions, we propose a list of security threats specific to blockchain, integrated in a multi-staged architecture analysis approach based on threat modeling. It comprises methods for the evaluation and identification of the most suitable blockchain technology (if at all viable) for the scenario, coupled with design analysis processes which consider web application — as well as our blockchain-specific security threats. We illustrate our approach through a paradigmatic example.