Blockchain-based video forensics and integrity verification framework for wireless Internet-of-Things devices

A camera footage which is essential for forensic investigations can easily be modified with advanced video tampering techniques. This makes it necessary to employ novel methods to retain and prove the integrity of captured scene in criminal investigations. In this vein, blockchain technology has received a substantial interest in the last decade as it provides trust among users without a trusted third party, which enabled a myriad of applications. To this end, we propose a framework that utilizes blockchain technology to verify integrity of a camera footage recorded by a resource-constrained wireless Internet of Things (IoT) device. The proposed approach computes the hash of the video data before it leaves the IoT device to ensure the integrity. The hash is then stored on a permissioned blockchain platform that enables detection of tampering in the video. The continuous stream is segmented efficiently to have periodic hash value to minimize the risk of video loss in case of device failure. The system has been implemented on a Raspberry Pi and Hyperledger to validate its efficiency. We are able to process high resolution videos on a resource-constrained with reasonable amount of delay. The integrity of recorded video is successfully verified by using the digest kept in permissioned blockchain.