Mifta Ahmed Umer

Cloud manufacturing allows multiple manufacturers to contribute their manufacturing facilities and assets for monitoring, operating, and controlling common processes of manufacturing and services controlled through cloud computing. The modern framework is driven by the seamless integration of technologies evolved under Industry 4.0. The entire digitalized manufacturing systems operate through the Internet, and hence, cybersecurity threats have become a problem area for manufacturing companies. The impacts can be very serious because cyber-attacks can penetrate operations carried out in the physical infrastructure, causing explosions, crashes, collisions, and other incidents. This research is a thematic literature review of the deterrence to such attacks by protecting IoT devices by employing provenance blockchain and artificial intelligence. The literature review was conducted on four themes: cloud manufacturing design, cybersecurity risks to the IoT, provenance blockchains for IoT security, and artificial intelligence for IoT security. These four themes of the literature review were critically analyzed to visualize a framework in which provenance blockchain and artificial intelligence can be integrated to offer a more effective solution for protecting IoT devices used in cloud manufacturing from cybersecurity threats. The findings of this study can provide an informative framework.

Cloud manufacturing is an evolving networked framework that enables multiple manufacturers to collaborate in providing a range of services, including design, development, production, and post-sales support. The framework operates on an integrated platform encompassing a range of Industry 4.0 technologies, such as Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) devices, cloud computing, Internet communication, big data analytics, artificial intelligence, and blockchains. The connectivity of industrial equipment and robots to the Internet opens cloud manufacturing to the massive attack risk of cybersecurity and cyber crime threats caused by external and internal attackers. The impacts can be severe because the physical infrastructure of industries is at stake. One potential method to deter such attacks involves utilizing blockchain and artificial intelligence to track the provenance of IIoT devices. This research explores a practical approach to achieve this by gathering provenance data associated with operational constraints defined in smart contracts and identifying deviations from these constraints through predictive auditing using artificial intelligence. A software architecture comprising IIoT communications to machine learning for comparing the latest data with predictive auditing outcomes and logging appropriate risks was designed, developed, and tested. The state changes in the smart ledger of smart contracts were linked with the risks so that the blockchain peers can detect high deviations and take actions in a timely manner. The research defined the constraints related to physical boundaries and weightlifting limits allocated to three forklifts and showcased the mechanisms of detecting risks of breaking these constraints with the help of artificial intelligence. It also demonstrated state change rejections by blockchains at medium and high-risk levels. This study followed software development in Java 8 using JDK 8, CORDA blockchain framework, and Weka package for random forest machine learning. As a result of this, the model, along with its design and implementation, has the potential to enhance efficiency and productivity, foster greater trust and transparency in the manufacturing process, boost risk management, strengthen cybersecurity, and advance sustainability efforts.

.Cloud manufacturing is an evolving networked framework that enables multiple manufacturers to collaborate in providing a range of services, including design, development, production, and post-sales support. The framework operates on an integrated platform encompassing a range of Industry 4.0 technologies, such as Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) devices, cloud computing, Internet communication, big data analytics, artificial intelligence, and blockchains. The connectivity of industrial equipment and robots to Internet opens the cloud manufacturing to the massive attack surface of cybersecurity and cyber crime threats caused by external and internal attackers. The impacts can be severe because physical infrastructure of industries is at stake. One potential method to deter such attacks involves utilizing blockchain and artificial intelligence to track the provenance of IIoT devices. This research explores a practical approach to achieve this goal by gathering provenance data associated with operational constraints defined in smart contracts and identifying deviations from these constraints through predictive auditing using artificial intelligence. A software architecture comprising IIoT communications to machine learning for comparing the latest data with the predictive auditing outcomes and logging appropriate risks was designed, developed, and tested. The state changes in the smart ledger of smart contracts were linked with the risks such that the blockchain peers can timely detect high deviations and take actions. The research defined the constraints related to physical boundaries and weight lifting limits allocated to three forklifts and showcased the mechanisms of detecting risks of breaking these constraints with the help of artificial intelligence. It also demonstrated state change rejections by blockchains at medium and high-risk levels. This research followed software development in Java 8 using JDK 8, CORDA blockchain framework, and Weka package for random forest machine learning. As a result of this, the model, along with its design and implementation, has the potential to enhance efficiency and productivity, foster greater trust and transparency in the manufacturing process, booster risk management, strengthen cybersecurity, and advance sustainability efforts.

Provenance blockchain is an evolving concept for protection of production, logistics, and supply chain networks from rogue Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) devices. Such rogue IIoT devices are a recognized threat in the cloud manufacturing networks. In extreme cases, they can be used to cause industrial accidents. A brief version of provenance is about end-to-end tracking and tracing of data and the nodes involved in creating, modifying, transmitting, storing, and deleting it at specific times and locations. It provides an end-to-end verifiable and controlled computation for ensuring trustworthiness, quality, reliability, and validity of data. Provenance has existed in computing using logging software systems. This research is focused on threats to food supply chains between two countries. A scenario for protecting food supply chain from India to UAE has been modeled. This research recognized the threat of harmful food items getting mixed with flow of genuine products in a supply chain. The IIoT devices used to control the flow can be authenticated using the evolving provenance blockchain technology. With the help of recent design recommendations in the literature, a model design has been created and simulated in this research. Observations from the simulation revealed that TCP congestions and unpredictable turnaround time for assigning cryptographic keys to IIoT device sessions may have to be explored in future. A collaborative design between the two nations has been proposed. All IIoT devices not supporting cryptography will be eliminated from the cloud manufacturing and supply chain networks. Currently, this design may be used for one time registration only. Future studies may provide improved versions in which, repeated authentication and keys replacements may be implemented.