Collaborative Cybersecurity Using Blockchain: A Survey

TL;DR

This survey reviews blockchain's role in collaborative cybersecurity from 2016 to 2023, highlighting applications, trends, challenges, and providing guidelines for future research and implementation.

Contribution

It offers a comprehensive overview of blockchain-based collaborative cybersecurity, identifying research gaps, analyzing applications, and proposing guidelines for selecting suitable blockchain solutions.

Findings

Fragmentation in the field with no dominant research groups

Many projects poorly select consensus protocols

Guidelines provided for choosing appropriate blockchain solutions

Abstract

Collaborative cybersecurity relies on organizations sharing information to boost security, but trust management is a key concern. Decentralized solutions like distributed ledgers, particularly blockchain, are crucial for eliminating single points of failure. However, the existing literature on blockchain-based collaborative cybersecurity is limited, lacking comprehensive insights. This paper addresses this gap by surveying blockchain's role in collaborative cybersecurity from 2016 to 2023. It explores various applications, trends, and the evolution of blockchain technology, focusing on access control, data validation policies, underlying tech, and consensus mechanisms. A key finding is the fragmentation of the field with no dominant research group or venue. Many recent projects poorly select consensus protocols for their blockchain. To aid researchers and practitioners, this paper offers guidelines for choosing the right blockchain for specific purposes and highlights open research areas and lessons learned from past blockchain applications in collaborative cybersecurity, encouraging further exploration in this field.