Security Threats of a Blockchain-Based Platform for Industry Ecosystems in the Cloud

In modern industrial production lines, the integration and interconnection of various different manufacturing components, like robots, laser cutting machines, milling machines, CNC-machines, etc. allows for a higher degree of autonomous production on the shop floor. Manufacturers of these increasingly complex machines are beginning to equip their business models with bidirectional data flows to other factories. This is creating a digital, cross-company shop floor infrastructure where the transfer of information is controlled by digital contracts. To establish a trusted ecosystem, the new technology "blockchain" and a variety of technology stacks must be combined while ensuring security. Such blockchain-based frameworks enable bidirectional trust across all contract partners. Essential data flows are defined by specific technical representation of contract agreements and executed through smart contracts.This work describes a platform for rapid cross-company business model instantiation based on blockchain for establishing trust between the enterprises. It focuses on selected security aspects of the deployment- and configuration processes applied by the industrial ecosystem. A threat analysis of the platform shows the critical security risks. Based on an industrial dynamic machine leasing use case, a risk assessment and security analysis of the key platform components is carried out.

I. Introduction

With the 4th industrial revolution, machines can increasingly be integrated into a digital production facility of companies, which opens up novel business opportunities. The continuous recording of machine utilization, e.g. production and process data, enables billing models such as currently existing static leasing rates for machines to be replaced by dynamic pay-as-use models. A basic requirement for such business model is that trust exists between all companies involved. Another aspect is, that in the event of disputes, accountability modules must have persisted evidence of triggering events, responsible actors respectively. Another aspect to a cross-company business model is the identity management, where operations involving Personally Identifiable Information (PII)s must comply with the applicable law. The Collaborative Smart Contracting Platform for digital value-added Networks (KOSMoS) platform is a Blockchain (BC)-based framework for rapid development and execution of cross-company business models, simplifying the setup and management of software components of such an ecosystem to increase trust. The main functionality of such a platform is tamper-proofing of audit trails and securing contract terms and executions implemented as smart contracts. While the BC itself must be generally secure, the security requirements for the broad KOSMoS ecosystem which feeds the BC and configures and deploys the business-backing technologies are even more critical, since recorded data is the foundation of trust within the BC. This work focuses on selected security aspects of the deployment- and configuration processes applied by the KOSMoS platform. With discussing related work in section II, basic security aspects relevant to the KOSMoS platform as described in Section III become clearer. With the depiction of deployment processes regarding contract-related technology stacks in Section IV, the basis for illustrating selected platform security aspects in Section V is given. The work is concluded in Section VI.