Dr. Michele Nati: Secure Connected Industries: The Role of Blockchain

Thank you. Thank you.

On the, my pleasure to be here. I think we are running into some slide. Let's say problem, but I will call for the next slide after each each slide.

So, because I'm doing this remotely. Yeah. Thanks.

So I'm, I'm, I'm gonna talk about few of the topic we discussed in the previous panel with Graham and particular. We talk about what this digital technologies in particular Iotta can do for what is this industry?

4.0, which for me, is mainly talking about not only smart industry industry that becomes smart using IOT device, but also the connect connected industry. So the ability for sharing this information that is generated by IOT device to an infrastructure network, connect all the industry for different ways of delivering new services that are mainly just in time services. So you do things when are needed in the industry. So explore the role of blockchain. Can we go to next slide, please?

At the back of, of these of my listening, there are now a few different trends that are actually changing the, the industry, the manufacturing industry, and as well, the logistic industry. So manufacturing is becoming more and more smart call. We talk about fourth industrial revolution and as well using sensing IOT technology, but also we use new technology like AI and machine learning robots sent automation.

So all of the industries basically facing new new trends due to employment of new technology and as well creation of new data that need to be shared in a secure way and process in a secure way. And also the Providence and disability of this data need to be guaranteed in order to not introduce new point of failure in this new concept of connected industry. So we go from new technology like cloud 5g that can give more and more connectivity. We go tot and edge comput that gives more capability as well.

And the reasoning and intelligence at the edge without need to share too many datas, but also many data bottles, too many data, but also the ability of plug on top innovative solution driven by AI and especially robots and automation. So can we go to next slide?

All of this brings opportunities for creating more connected industry where we can think about use cases where industry and manufacturing is triggered by the demand by the need, by the real time demand real need logistics are delivering just in time, what is needed for manufacturing to, to perform whatever the, the manufacturing is supposed to, to build and deliver, and also to prepare in advance shipment and tracking of, of manufacturing product again, using just in time delivery.

So all of that create connectivity between between domains, between environments, but create also risk and also need to overcome this risk. So we start having, and seeing more IOT device IOT monitoring become purpose perve in the factory environment and outside introducing capability. But at the same time, introduce new risk. We discussed previously in the panel about then to security, the integrity are this device sensing and generating ation trust that can we trust the device, the data that generate. So the device has been calibrated. There have been data that thin.

So all of this is very important to maintain, to guarantee and as well as to remove critical infrastructure that can become more wise target of cyber physical threats. So we see more and more availability of, like I said before, connectivity technology like 5g LP, one low power network that create new concept, like smart logistics smartware and just in time delivery and so on and so forth. But we start to see also the, we need to see the and protect from the risk that this resource, this resource should be keep kept away from a attacker from malicious sector.

So we need to start to probably identify the different device that are part of, of, of a event of a given smart environment, or they use a given connectivity infrastructure. So identity management of device become very, very important and become important in a way that we need to remove, let's say single point of aggregation of this identity access management information to avoid single point of failure toward single point of attack that attacker can disrupt, but also to make all this industry that is much more connected now, need to share information much more agile.

So we don't need to know at the very beginning where to place and position and identity management system, but we can do this in real time. We don't even have to do if we use new technology, but still identity management remain very, very important. So everything connected, even in the factory worker and people in the factory become more and more connected. This can increase their safety and their security, but also brings to privacy. So the need of securing the data that personal guaranteeing privacy avoiding to control risk privacy worker, we can go to next slide.

So all of this seems to have an answer or have a good let's say match with blockchain technology and technology as a, as a whole, let's say that can actually capitalize on this current as can all offer some of the solution that the industry that is now more connected, more crossing the boundaries of one organization to another organization, more collaborative need to be.

So, and for instance, blockchain can help to connect fragment ecosystem, otherwise fragment that need to establish proper way of sharing data by allowing, allowing for instance, mutable and auditable layer of information that can be shared and trusted with a single source of so factory can now connect to logistic that can connect to customer that without any central point of failure or any way for attacker to ingest in the network, different information cannot be verified. The centralized identity is a concept that build on top of the centralized distributor ledgers. It's similar to PKA.

So device in particular, but also personal organization can have an identity, which is represented by the publicly, but all the system of certification can be verified, not anymore using a trusted third part authority, but using the of the lecture. So by doing that becomes much more easy to establish different identification systems between different industry that are connected without need to prearrange to many trusted authority before even we start the technology start to be operational.

So this remove many of this buyer and smart contact can provide now finally, a way to automate some of this process in a trusted way. So can we go to next slide, but to work in this environment, we still need to take care of what actually blockchain we are selecting for this.

So some of the blockchain, we have seen many flavors, many of us know blockchain, mainly for Bitcoin or mainly for the investment side, but this blockchain all so different properties that allow to secure immutable data, create identities, like I said, and as well run in smart conducts, but to work in an industry like this, where critical infrastructure are very common, let's say, so there is is very easy to disrupt an industry. And that's an environment manufacturing environment, logistic provider, because all of these are critical infrastructure.

So they have to work and be aligned with the blockchain that satisfies specific technical requirements that offer of course, a scalability that is very well aligned with the volume of data that this kind of industry share in transaction and speed that this kind kind of industry, especially that grows exponential. If you can see all the connected industry that can be part of delivering some kind of, some of this service that we discussed before.

So all of this required high level of technical maturity for the technology itself ability also to protect privacy on the data share, and also ability to basically comply to different regulation in place. So we know that most of the data change in the industry might be regulated by law that require different given location, where data can be maintained and retained and store. So all of these blockchain, we know there are different flavor.

They have to allow the possibility to counter where the entire replicated as well as they need to be open, accessible, and very well review in terms of security, especially by the, by the community of, of open source developer and especially enable rapid prototyping testing of the value that they can bring. So they need to be open technology. That's what we learn help adoption and will help innovation and utilization this in this domain.

Next slide, among goal, we are working on a ledger technology, which is blockchain in some sense, because as the same capability of inevitability of data, security of data that other blockchain, but doesn't have, let's say some of the limits. So the scalability at the core of the technology that we develop, which is called a Iotta is not based on a chain of block, like can be familiar it's based on a, that is graph and provide some kind of additional feature feature that can be welcomed by the use case that started before. So can be secure, scalable, and fast.

Fearless doesn't require any, let's say operational expenditure to use the, the ledger itself and it's energy efficient. So if you want to make an industry more smart and smarter connected industry, we don't, we cannot have the burden on energy efficiency from the infrastructure we we bring in and especially need to be something that is, let's say flexible enough to comply with different regulations.

Like we said, can in permission environment where we control, where the data replicated next, these are few of the properties and just mentioned how they can very well match the need of securing data, securing identity that secure connected industry should dispose. Again, the technology is secure, provided mutable information sharing is open source and of course, very scalable. Next slide.

One thing anyway, that we understood, and that's the way that we'll see will remove additional risk in integr technology, as well as speed up the adoption is to create a very well defined enterprise architecture, where at, at the bottom of this, there is the core protocol. There is the core ledge that guarantees the of data. There are a set of well review and tools that guarantees privacy of data, confidentiality of data. And then there is a set of APIs that we start to, to develop and we see will be more and more developed to start to connect different industry together.

So we go from the telecommunication network that provide a background for connectivity. We go from the customer eCommerce tool that provide demand to the industry down to the manufacturing with some that we add here, another building block. So all of them, they need to have decentralized way to exchange secure information, but a will review secure way to access these, these tools with, and well let's we are providing. So next slide. Next slide please.

Yeah, next, sorry. I forgot to say next before this one was the, sorry, the architecture that I mentioned need to be based on strong secure protocol, but, but need to also need also to offer secure control way to access this protocol that are centralized through some APIs. So like I said before, this APIs helped to connect different industry now on a common ground, on a common ledge, a common set of protocols, so exchange information, clear entities. So we see the infrastructure provided that provide functionality for connecting device.

We have the, that provide function, trying to share data for creating just in time manufacturing. And then we'll have batch type of manufacturing will connect using the same APIs. Next slide, please. Few of the use case where let's say distributed ledger can already play a role in this more connected environment, more connected, secure, connected industries. First of all. So terms of connectivities connectivity in order to make manufacturing smarter, remote areas smarter.

So there is a need of deploy new technology, new connectivity technology can go from LP one, but also new 5g private by radio networks that can rely on different resources from different provider, from different connectivity providers. So like we discuss in the, before we need to be able to audit what actually are the device providing connectivity, how secure they are in a way that now everything is controlled.

You always know the source of information, sorry, all the Providence of a device that they're using in your own manufacturing inside to not introduce additional risk by bringing additional connectivity from a third part. So in this way, tracking device and guarantee at zero touch zero trust deployment of network is very important. All of this information can be managed using limit of distributed ledger and the centralized identity protocol that I introduced before.

So next slide, of course, personal device become very important to monitor condition and safety inside manufacturing plan and creating, like I said, connected everywhere and anywhere connecting worker. And it's very important that their data data, both their behavior, actual working and dealing with machine with robots at, in the same environment is done in the right way, as well as other parameter or environmental condition where the work. So they're all trust and they come from a trusted.

So we are exploring here the combination of I IOT device as well, decentralized identities, as well as ledger technology that allow in this case health and safety and, and environment advisor to check the condition in privacy way of work in a different, in different environment in this case, manufacturing side. Next slide. Next slide.

Finally, like I said, what is very important? It's the Providence, not only of the device in terms of capability, OT device, but also the, of the data. So in this case as well, data becomes much more shared, much more, let's say a core point for innovation for different connected. Let's say industries and the Providence of this data need to be traced across boundaries.

So the data goes from one jurisdiction, one organization that collect this data and need to go and inform for instance, the production from logistic to the production, to the preparation of consignment ship and in the, in connect the industry. So all of this data need to be trust and need to be shared a way that is immutable cannot be altered by attacker, but also we need to use this data in future to feed automation, to create model for AI and machine learning.

And the main principle here is that we need to understand the quality of the data and trace back the Porwal of the data to their source. And again, this digital ledger technology in this case we are working with with Dell can be used in order to create entities that can be verified across organization for device where the data coming from, but also can collect the quality of the data that is feed that feed fed back by AI. That's using this data. So all of that allow data to become more valuable, to get value and to be, to expose this value to every third part that is going to use the data.

So all of this can be done only for move central point a central authority that collect and maintain all this information. So about data and data quality, all of this can be much more valuable if the data source are also the, the one that control the quality or report back the quality of data. And I think that's the very last slide. When it's about data we need to control with. Who's actually not only generating data, not only their quality, but also who accessing data. And we know there are different data legs.

Like we explained before that are coming together, they become much more in connected data can be pulled by different data lakes to create more knowledge, to create more, to create better activation, better informing the, the, the down, what side of the supply chain or the upward side. And for this, we need to really be sure that we're able to authenticate with actually accessing data.

Again, like I said before, this technology saw me that we are experimenting. And in particular, in terms of the centralized identity to understand who is actually accessing the data in the different industry, again, removing the single point of view that identity management system in the center, let's say definition, centralized definition can provide, I think we're running a bit short of time. Next slide. Yeah.

As I said, data lake can be federated and that's the result as well also of understanding was actually accessing data and using the centralized identities. Next slide, please.

Finally, like I said, in terms of logistic, just in time, let's say delivery or collection or any other use case. So we need to announce the multi-model transport and logistics. So we need to share more and more information across the industry and for doing this again, this will be the leisure and the centralize, and we can create a trusted source of data as well as a trusted way to share this data. Next slide.

So just to conclude the manufacturing, industry's in unique position to unlock opportunity of internet, of things and data, and that becomes much more, more and more connected across different organization industry, but in my face, some, some, some challenge. And for that, I think if you want to have a well connected world, secur is paramount and role of disability should be explored more in the future. So that's it from my side. Sorry. Yes. Skip few slides for getting to say next slide, but that's the very last and thank you.