A Conceptual Framework for Cybersecurity Threat Intelligence Sharing Using Blockchain-Based Systems

Abstract

Cybersecurity threat intelligence (CTI) is essential for identifying and mitigating cyberattacks. However, traditional CTI sharing mechanisms struggle with issues such as trust, data integrity, and stakeholder collaboration. This paper examines how blockchain technology can revolutionize CTI sharing through its inherent features of decentralization, immutability, and transparency. We propose a conceptual blockchain-based framework that facilitates secure and efficient threat intelligence exchange. The paper discusses theoretical foundations, outlines benefits and limitations, and suggests directions for practical implementation. Our findings indicate that blockchain technology holds significant promise for building a more resilient and trusted cybersecurity ecosystem.

Introduction

The increasing frequency and complexity of cyberattacks threaten critical infrastructure, necessitating improved cybersecurity threat intelligence (CTI) sharing among organizations. However, current CTI sharing faces major challenges such as lack of trust, data integrity concerns, interoperability issues, and regulatory compliance. Centralized sharing platforms are vulnerable to insider threats and censorship.

Blockchain technology, with its decentralized, immutable, and transparent ledger features, offers a promising solution to these challenges. It can remove the need for centralized trust brokers and enable tamper-evident records and automated access control via smart contracts.

This paper proposes BlocTIShare, a conceptual blockchain-based framework for secure, privacy-preserving, and incentivized CTI sharing. BlocTIShare uses a permissioned blockchain, smart contracts, reputation systems, and off-chain storage to enable verified intelligence sharing with fine-grained access control, data encryption, and contributor incentives. It supports standard CTI formats (STIX), addresses trust and privacy issues, and fosters real-time, collaborative cybersecurity defense.

Compared to existing systems like CyberChain and centralized ISACs, BlocTIShare offers improved trust models, access control granularity, data interoperability, privacy mechanisms, and incentive structures, providing a more resilient and scalable CTI sharing solution.

Conclusion

This paper develops a blockchain-based conceptual system to enable secure and reliable CTI information sharing. Through its design, this model solves enduring sharing system problems related to trust issues and data security and participation motivation. Through the implementation of smart contracts as well as access control mechanisms and decentralised governance, the conceptual framework creates a new approach which enhances threat visibility while enabling coordinated cyber defense activities. More validation through prototyping testing is essential to validate this work, but the study adds value to emerging technology-based cybersecurity collaboration research.

References

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Copyright

Copyright © 2025 Saket Pradhan, Debarghya Biswas. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.