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industries for vast applications ranging from smart homes and cities to smart agri-

culture and healthcare amongst many others. Portable IoT sensory devices such as

fitness trackers and IoT wearables are very common these days. Autonomous vehi-

cles like self-driving cars take advantage of IoT to connect to the internet to share

information from the sensors connected to cars to traffic sensors and sensors in

parking areas. IoT devices typically have limited computational power, less storage

space, but generate large amounts of data continuously. Recently, IoT is employed in

the industrial sector to enhance the working system, like government and financial

services, and so on to improve analysis and management systems [4]. These recent

developments in IoT have led to the rise of the industrial Internet of Things (IIoT)

which can completely change the landscape upon global adoption [5]. Though IoT

provides rewarding benefits, the network faces various privacy and reliability risks

[6]. Among the challenges, the security of the bulk amount of sensed IIoT data and

privacy preservation are the most critical issues [7]. With IIoT implementations,

there is a need to focus on the security of industrial data. Security remains an issue

of high priority where many can stumble when integrating IIoT into their operations.

In general, IIoT devices face risks to a great extent mainly because the devices lack

the required security incorporated to counter the threats faced [8]. Along with the

technical issues, users play a huge role in the vulnerability of these devices. Some

notable reasons for the vulnerability of smart devices are [9]:

• The hardware and computational ability of IoT devices are fairly limited. As

such, they are only able to perform the definite tasks permitted by the limited

infrastructure.

• These tasks include handling sizable amounts of data from various sources.

Unfortunately, the lack of inbuilt security measures leaves these data open to

attacks.

• The nature of the devices and technologies used in IoT networks for the transmis-

sion of data is heterogeneous. Hence, it is unviable to maintain unified standard

protocols or methods for the protection of the data [10].

• Apart from these, many of the devices used in IoT networks often have

several individual vulnerabilities that compromise the security of the entire IoT

ecosystem.

• The lack of general awareness for data security amongst users exposes the

vulnerabilities to potential attackers.

The security loopholes make way for cybercrimes. These cracks become a cyber-

criminals’ foothold to launch various attacks. It is very vital to secure such crucial

sensed data. The emergence of blockchain technology demonstrates encouraging

possibilities to enhance the security of IoT systems. The immutable, decentralized

and anonymous technology is transforming industries by enabling trustful transac-

tions. Thus, it improves system security by decreasing system risks, reducing the

severity of financial frauds, and diminishing operational costs. To overcome the