A Blockchain-Enabled IoT Framework for Secure Attack Detection and Advanced Feature Selection in Smart Healthcare
Corresponding author: Ahmed S. Alfakeeh
Abstract
Industrial healthcare systems aim to provide progressive real-time monitoring of patients and improve medical services through data sharing among intelligent wearable sensors and devices. However, this connectivity carries fundamental vulnerabilities associated with privacy and security because of the requirement of constant communication and monitoring over a public network. However, new technologies, namely Deep Learning (DL) and Blockchain (BC), are promising to overcome these problems and modernize healthcare systems. BC technology is receiving important attention because of its permanent and decentralized nature. Incorporating the immutable and decentralized nature of BC technology with Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) can provide a stronger and more trustworthy security structure for IoT healthcare systems. This study presents a Secure Internet of Things Framework Using Blockchain and Advanced Feature Selection (SIoTF-BCAFS) model for smart healthcare. The aim is to improve security and reliability in IoT-enabled smart healthcare systems using advanced techniques. Initially, BC-assisted data transmission is employed to ensure secure and transparent communication between devices, especially in IoT. Then, min-max scaling is applied in the data preprocessing step to convert the input data. The ReliefF technique is used to select the best features. Additionally, the SIoTF-BCAFS technique implements an Autoencoder (AE) along with a Temporal Convolutional Network (TCN) model to effectively capture sequential patterns and temporal dependencies. The experimental analysis of the SIoTF-BCAFS technique was performed on the ToN-IoT dataset, demonstrating superior accuracy over existing approaches.
Keywords:
Internet of Things (IoT), blockchain, smart healthcare diagnosis, ReliefF, temporal convolutional network, intrusion detection, autoencoderDownloads
References
R. F. Mansour, A. E. Amraoui, I. Nouaouri, V. G. Díaz, D. Gupta, and S. Kumar, "Artificial Intelligence and Internet of Things Enabled Disease Diagnosis Model for Smart Healthcare Systems," IEEE Access, vol. 9, pp. 45137–45146, 2021.
A. Alabdulatif, I. Khalil, and M. S. Rahman, "Security of Blockchain and AI-Empowered Smart Healthcare: Application-Based Analysis," Applied Sciences, vol. 12, no. 21, Jan. 2022, Art. no. 11039.
A. Albakri and Y. M. Alqahtani, "Internet of Medical Things with a Blockchain-Assisted Smart Healthcare System Using Metaheuristics with a Deep Learning Model," Applied Sciences, vol. 13, no. 10, Jan. 2023, Art. no. 6108.
A. Samad, "Internet of Things Integrated with Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare System," Research Journal of Computer Systems and Engineering, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 01–06, Oct. 2022.
K. Aldriwish, "A Deep Learning Approach for Malware and Software Piracy Threat Detection," Engineering, Technology & Applied Science Research, vol. 11, no. 6, pp. 7757–7762, Dec. 2021.
M. A. Rahman, M. S. Hossain, M. S. Islam, N. A. Alrajeh, and G. Muhammad, "Secure and Provenance Enhanced Internet of Health Things Framework: A Blockchain Managed Federated Learning Approach," IEEE Access, vol. 8, pp. 205071–205087, 2020.
R. H. Altaie and H. K. Hoomod, "An Intrusion Detection System using a Hybrid Lightweight Deep Learning Algorithm," Engineering, Technology & Applied Science Research, vol. 14, no. 5, pp. 16740–16743, Oct. 2024.
M. H. Alanazi and B. Soh, "Behavioral Intention to Use IoT Technology in Healthcare Settings," Engineering, Technology & Applied Science Research, vol. 9, no. 5, pp. 4769–4774, Oct. 2019.
B. E. Sabir, M. Youssfi, O. Bouattane, and H. Allali, "Towards a New Model to Secure IoT-based Smart Home Mobile Agents using Blockchain Technology," Engineering, Technology & Applied Science Research, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 5441–5447, Apr. 2020.
S. Asaithambi, S. Nallusamy, J. Yang, S. Prajapat, G. Kumar, and P. S. Rathore, "A secure and trustworthy blockchain-assisted edge computing architecture for industrial internet of things," Scientific Reports, vol. 15, no. 1, May 2025, Art. no. 15410.
A. Mazid, S. Kirmani, M. Abid, and V. Pawar, "A secure and efficient framework for internet of medical things through blockchain driven customized federated learning," Cluster Computing, vol. 28, no. 4, Feb. 2025, Art. no. 225.
A. Abbas, R. Alroobaea, M. Krichen, S. Rubaiee, S. Vimal, and F. M. Almansour, "Blockchain-assisted secured data management framework for health information analysis based on Internet of Medical Things," Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, vol. 28, no. 1, pp. 59–72, Feb. 2024.
K. Kulandaivelu, S. Rajappan, and V. Murugasamy, "Blockchain Enabled Secure Medical Data Transmission and Diagnosis Using Golden Jackal Optimization Algorithm with Deep Learning," Brazilian Archives of Biology and Technology, vol. 67, 2024, Art. no. e24240214.
K. Fiaz et al., "A Two-Phase Blockchain-Enabled Framework for Securing Internet of Medical Things Systems," Internet of Things, vol. 28, Dec. 2024, Art. no. 101335.
L. Lodha, V. S. Baghela, J. Bhuvana, and R. Bhatt, "A blockchain-based secured system using the Internet of Medical Things (IOMT) network for e-healthcare monitoring," Measurement: Sensors, vol. 30, Dec. 2023, Art. no. 100904.
H. Alamro et al., "Modeling of Blockchain Assisted Intrusion Detection on IoT Healthcare System Using Ant Lion Optimizer With Hybrid Deep Learning," IEEE Access, vol. 11, pp. 82199–82207, 2023.
S. M. Kasongo and Y. Sun, "Performance Analysis of Intrusion Detection Systems Using a Feature Selection Method on the UNSW-NB15 Dataset," Journal of Big Data, vol. 7, no. 1, Nov. 2020, Art. no. 105.
Y. W. Song et al., "PF-PSS: a double-layer parallel embedded feature selection method for cancer gene expression data," Journal of Big Data, vol. 12, no. 1, May 2025, Art. no. 136.
C. Liu, D. Guan, W. Yuan, and Ç. K. Koç, "ITS2Graph: Graph-based generative adversarial learning for imbalanced time series classification," Neural Networks, vol. 191, Nov. 2025, Art. no. 107770.
T. Shawly et al., "LHAENA: Lightweight Hybrid Attention Ensemble Network Architecture for Epileptic Seizure Detection," Journal of Disability Research, vol. 4, Jul. 2025, Art. no. 20250581.
"Edge-IIoTset Cyber Security Dataset of IoT & IIoT." Kaggle, [Online]. Available: https://www.kaggle.com/datasets/mohamedamineferrag/edgeiiotset-cyber-security-dataset-of-iot-iiot.
M. A. Ferrag, O. Friha, D. Hamouda, L. Maglaras, and H. Janicke, “Edge-IIoTset: A New Comprehensive Realistic Cyber Security Dataset of IoT and IIoT Applications for Centralized and Federated Learning.” Jan. 27, 2022.
W. Song, X. Zhu, S. Ren, W. Tan, and Y. Peng, "A hybrid blockchain and machine learning approach for intrusion detection system in Industrial Internet of Things," Alexandria Engineering Journal, vol. 127, pp. 619–627, Aug. 2025.
Downloads
How to Cite
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Ahmed S. Alfakeeh

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain the copyright and grant the journal the right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) after its publication in ETASR with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.