A Blockchain-Based Architecture and Framework for Cybersecure Smart Cities

A smart city is one that uses digital technologies and other means to improve the quality of life of its citizens and reduce the cost of municipal services. Smart cities primarily use IoT to collect and analyze data to interact directly with the city’s infrastructure and monitor city assets and community developments in real time to improve operational efficiency and proactively respond to potential problems and challenges. Today, cybersecurity is considered one of the main challenges facing smart cities. Over the past few years, the cybersecurity research community has devoted a great deal of attention to this challenge. Among the various technologies being considered to meet this challenge, Blockchain is emerging as a solution offering the data security and confidentiality essential for strengthening the security of smart cities. In this paper, we propose a comprehensive framework and architecture based on Blockchain, big data and artificial intelligence to improve smart cities cybersecurity. To illustrate the proposed framework in detail, we present simulation results accompanied by analyses and tests. These simulations were carried out on a smart grid dataset from the UCI Machine Learning Repository. The results convincingly demonstrate the potential and effectiveness of the proposed framework for addressing cybersecurity challenges in smart cities. These results reinforce the relevance and applicability of the framework in a real-world context.