Traceable Blockchain Logging System for Cloud-Based Systems

In recent years, it has become the norm for ICT services to be implemented through cloud service providers. Cloud systems have the benefits of shared hardware resources and their efficient management via virtualization. Furthermore, we witness a recent trend in the ICT sector where cloud technology and principles are applied even to the on-premise environment for optimizing services and improving system performance. Leveraging cloud service providers can ensure easier access to backup and security monitoring features through the admin features that come with the default offering. Meanwhile, the on-premise environment may require such features to be implemented or the system logs collected manually. SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) solutions, which are used to overcome the above challenges, require high costs, are complicated to identify bugs or incidents, and are difficult to automate. Also, latest large-scale systems require many human resources to identify the source endpoints. Moreover, there is the risk of log tampering by anti-forensics in cases of system breaches. These challenges make it necessary to implement logging systems that are immutable while storing inter-related logs. Therefore, this paper proposes a logging methodology based on blockchain technology that facilitates tracing of related logs in large-scale systems while ensuring their integrity.