BlockChain: A distributed solution to automotive security and privacy

TL;DR

This paper proposes a blockchain-based architecture to enhance security and privacy in interconnected smart vehicles, addressing threats like location tracking and remote hijacking, and demonstrating its effectiveness through wireless updates and insurance services.

Contribution

It introduces a novel blockchain architecture tailored for vehicular security and privacy, integrating wireless updates and dynamic insurance as practical applications.

Findings

Improved security against common attacks.

Enhanced privacy for vehicle users.

Effective management of remote updates and insurance.

Abstract

Interconnected smart vehicles offer a range of sophisticated services that benefit the vehicle owners, transport authorities, car manufacturers and other service providers. This potentially exposes smart vehicles to a range of security and privacy threats such as location tracking or remote hijacking of the vehicle. In this article, we argue that BlockChain (BC), a disruptive technology that has found many applications from cryptocurrencies to smart contracts, is a potential solution to these challenges. We propose a BC-based architecture to protect the privacy of the users and to increase the security of the vehicular ecosystem. Wireless remote software updates and other emerging services such as dynamic vehicle insurance fees, are used to illustrate the efficacy of the proposed security architecture. We also qualitatively argue the resilience of the architecture against common security attacks.