Blockchain-Enhanced Feature Engineered Data Falsification Detection in 6G In-Vehicle Networks

Increased automation, connectivity, and data sharing enabled by 6G technology have heightened the vulnerability of Internet of Vehicles (IoV) networks. Addressing this challenge requires an intrusion detection system (IDS) capable of accurately identifying data falsification within IoV while adhering to real-time constraints. This article presents a Blockchain-enhanced feature-engineered IDS to ensure precise attack detection and classification with minimal computational overhead in in-vehicle networks (IVNs). The proposed lightweight IDS utilizes a hybrid Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient (PCC) feature selection technique designed for deployment on the Telematics Control Unit (TCU). Furthermore, we propose a custom private blockchain network utilizing the proof of authority and association (PoA2) consensus mechanism, deployable on the roadside unit (RSU), for the secure logging of vehicle electronic control unit (ECU) information, detection results, and the automatic isolation of malicious ECUs via smart contracts. Experimentation analysis demonstrates that the proposed approach achieves notable performance, with a 99.9% detection accuracy and minimal computation times of 0.24 and 1.32 s on the CICIoV2024 and CAN-Intrusion datasets. Furthermore, the system achieves high blockchain scalability, maintaining stable throughput of 16 tx/s and low transaction latency of 0.062 s under increasing ECU density and RSU coverage.