CRII: SaTC: Towards Trustworthy and Accountable IoT Data Marketplaces

University Of Alabama Tuscaloosa, Tuscaloosa AL

Investigators

Abstract

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2). The huge amounts of Internet of Things (IoT) data generated daily by billions of distributed IoT devices create unprecedented opportunities for several fields and industries. IoT data marketplaces are the key platforms to make IoT data flow from where it is generated to where it is needed. With IoT data marketplaces, data consumers can acquire historical or real-time IoT data streams to enhance data analytics and offer innovative services, whereas data providers can monetize their IoT data. However, the lack of mutual trust between data providers and consumers with the absence of a central marketplace operator trusted by all entities is a significant impediment to realizing a trustworthy marketplace. This project investigates the foundations and implementation of a trustworthy and accountable decentralized data marketplace to achieve secure IoT data sharing and trading with enforced and flexible access control and post-trading accountability. The project aligns with the NSF's Harnessing the Data Revolution Big Ideas vision and supports emerging opportunities for U.S. leadership in Big Ideas that serve the Nation's future. The project builds on the general properties of the present-day technology of trust (smart-contracts over blockchain) and utilizes applied cryptography to develop the necessary extensions to enable (i) flexible and enforced access control; (ii) secure and verifiable fair-exchange in trustless environments; (iii) verifiable automatic matching of data providers' bids to data consumers’ requests; and (iv) post-trading accountability against misbehaving data providers and consumers. Key design challenges are supporting these goals and achieving scalability, performance, and confidentiality and privacy of sensitive parts of data transactions. The project provides training opportunities for the next-generation of cybersecurity specialists. It also has the potential to unlock new opportunities in various industries by facilitating the secure and trustworthy exchange of IoT data. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.