Immutable system of records for IoT/control systems for compliance

Abstract

An immutable system of records for achieving compliance in IoT/Control systems in order to thereby provide the regulator with a centralized immutable system of records, is disclosed herein. A blockchain based immutable record management module configured in association with a plurality of control systems associated with a plurality of devices/systems in a heavily regulated industry environment wherein the blockchain based immutable record management module receives and manages a plurality of immutable records from plurality of control systems associated with a plurality of devices/systems in a heavily regulated industry environment. The blockchain based immutable record management module further securely presents the immutable records to the regulators in order thereby enable the industry to inject undisputed facts to the regulators or the regulation authorities.

Claims

1. Block chain based immutable system of records for IoT and/or control systems compliance data published in block chain ledgers for storing, recording, and reporting, wherein the block chain ledgers are subscribed to by a plurality of regulating systems for tracking key compliance metrics, the block chain based immutable system of records comprising: a record management module configured in association with a plurality of IoT and/or control systems as publishers of compliance data in the block chain ledgers wherein the block chain ledgers are associated with a plurality of regulatory systems as subscribers to monitor the compliance, and wherein the plurality of IoT and/or control systems are in a heavily regulated environment; wherein the compliance data is published, recorded, and presented in real-time or near real-time in datasets stored in the blockchain ledgers to track compliance and non-compliance of the plurality of IoT and/or control systems and/or locations of the respective IoT and/or control systems; wherein the record management module receives and manages a plurality of immutable records from the plurality of IoT and/or control systems, each comprising a processor, memory, network device, and storage media; wherein the record management module securely enables a trusted third-party publisher to record non-disputed content in the block chain ledgers at specific intervals; and wherein the heavily regulated environment comprises a plurality of IoT and/or control systems publishing key compliance metrics and a plurality of regulators to monitor the plurality of IoT and/or control systems and/or a location for each respective IoT and/or control system being regulated, wherein the plurality of regulators monitor by reviewing and/or auditing raw data stored in the block chain ledgers.

2. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the compliance data recorded on the blockchain ledgers present compliance records to the regulators to audit in real-time.

3. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the compliance data is recorded in key-value pairs, of metrics specified in ledgers, to provide the regulators with a set of compliance of records, published by the plurality of IoT and/or control systems from multiple locations.

4. The system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising secure access to external devices, programs, and/or systems of the regulators to publish compliance key metric standards that are subscribed by the underlying IoT and/or Control Systems to access compliance standards data to do regulatory reporting and handle non-compliance events and risks in real-time and near real-time.

5. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein a trusted third-party publisher can record the non-disputed contents in the ledger at specific intervals to provide regulators with specific key compliance key frames.

6. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the data recorded for compliance key metrics in the blockchain ledgers are intermittent key-value pairs of time series data from the plurality of IoT and/or control systems from remote devices and/or locations for compliance.

7. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the blockchain ledgers contain multiple compliance records maintained based on the information received from the plurality of control systems to comply with plurality of regulatory standards.

8. A blockchain-based system of records for immutable compliance data obtained from one or more IoT devices and/or control systems, the system of records comprising: a record management module for receiving and managing the immutable compliance data provided from the one or more IoT devices and/or control systems, wherein each of the respective IoT devices and/or control systems comprises a processor, memory, network device, and storage media; wherein the immutable compliance data is recorded in key/value data pairs in a blockchain ledger that is subscribed to by a regulating system for tracking a compliance metric of the one or more IoT devices and/or control systems; and wherein the immutable compliance data is reportable to the regulating system in real-time or near real-time and presented to the regulating system in the key/value data pairs stored in the blockchain ledger.

9. The blockchain-based system of records of claim 8, wherein the record management module securely enables a third-party to record non-disputed content in the blockchain ledger at specific intervals.

10. The blockchain-based system of records of claim 8, wherein the record management module is configured for a plurality of regulatory systems.

11. The blockchain-based system of records of claim 8, wherein the immutable compliance data is recorded in key/value data pairs in a plurality of blockchain ledgers that are subscribed to by the regulating system.

12. The blockchain-based system of records of claim 8, wherein the immutable compliance data is recorded in key/value data pairs in a plurality of blockchain ledgers that are subscribed to by a plurality of regulating systems.

13. The blockchain-based system of records of claim 8, wherein the immutable compliance data is provided by a plurality of IoT devices and/or control systems.

14. The blockchain-based system of records of claim 13, wherein the plurality of IoT devices and/or control systems are in a plurality of locations.

15. The blockchain-based system of records of claim 8, wherein the regulating system is in a regulated industry environment.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

(1) The drawings shown here are for illustration purpose and the actual system will not be limited by the size, shape, and arrangement of components or number of components represented in the drawings.

(2) FIG. 1 illustrates a graphical representation of a blockchain based immutable record management system for achieving compliance in IoT/Control systems to provide the regulator with a centralized immutable system of records, in accordance with the disclosed embodiments; and

(3) FIG. 2 illustrates another graphical representation of a blockchain based immutable record management system illustrating the immutable records received and maintained from distributed locations and ledgers being shared with a third party, in accordance with the disclosed embodiments.

(4) FIG. 3 illustrates another graphical representation of a blockchain based immutable record reporting system illustrating the immutable records in a ledger being accessed and processed in a secure manner from mobile phones, tablets, laptops or PCs, other cloud hosted programs, external databases or datasets, and Bots from distributed locations in accordance with the disclosed embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

(5) The principles of operation, design configurations and evaluation values in these non-limiting examples can be varied and are merely cited to illustrate at least one embodiment of the invention, without limiting the scope thereof.

(6) The embodiments will be described in detail with corresponding marked references to the drawings, in which the illustrative components of the invention are outlined. The embodiments disclosed herein can be expressed in different forms and should not be considered as limited to the listed embodiments in the disclosed invention. The various embodiments outlined in the subsequent sections are construed such that it provides a complete and a thorough understanding of the disclosed invention, by clearly describing the scope of the invention, for those skilled in the art.

(7) FIG. 1 illustrates in 100 a graphical representation of a blockchain based immutable record management system to record, store and report compliance audit data for IoT devices/Control systems using a immutable recorder component that can run in the cloud or in the control system machines 110 records the key/value pairs of compliance data into specified configurable immutable ledgers 130 in a simple key/value data reportable format 140 to provide the regulators 120 with a centralized immutable system of records 130 and 140 for all connected IoT Devices/Control Systems 150 and all monitored equipments and environments 160, in accordance with the disclosed embodiments. The blockchain based immutable record management module configured in association with a plurality of control systems 150 associated with a plurality of devices/systems/sensors/equipments 160 in any regulated industry environment wherein the blockchain based immutable record management module receives and manages a plurality of immutable records 130 from plurality of control systems 150 associated with a plurality of devices/systems in a heavily regulated industry environment. The blockchain based immutable record management module further securely presents the immutable records 130 to the regulators 120 in order thereby enable the industry to inject undisputed facts to the regulators or the regulation authorities.

(8) FIG. 2 illustrates another graphical representation of a blockchain based immutable record management system 200 illustrating the immutable records 130 received and maintained from distributed locations and ledgers 210 being shared with a third party 220, in accordance with the disclosed embodiments. The blockchain based immutable record management module configured in association with a plurality of control systems 110 associated with a plurality of devices/systems in a heavily regulated industry environment provide a third-party network 220 that seamlessly tracks, manages and presents undisputed facts and immutable records to the regulators and authorities. The blockchain based immutable record management module provides a network of plurality of control systems 120 in a private blockchain network wherein the immutable records 130 are provided only with limited access permission to at least one of the following authorities: regulators, trusted third-party publishers and control systems in the network.

(9) The ledger module for recording and alerting on the critical alerts and records within the network wherein the ledger module alerts appropriate authorities (e.g., facilities manager) and to push the alert into the ledger 210. The third-party publisher 220 records the non-disputed contents in the ledger at specific intervals. The blockchain based immutable record management module configured in association with a plurality of control systems 110 associated with a plurality of devices/systems in any regulated industry environment manages and retrieves immutable records from a plurality of control systems from a plurality of locations. Similarly, the ledgers are maintained based on the information received from a plurality of control systems from a plurality of locations.

(10) Aspects of the disclosed invention are described above with reference to block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems) and computer program products according to embodiments of the invention. It will be understood that each block of the block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be provided to the processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for implementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.

(11) Persons of ordinary skill in the art may appreciate that numerous design configurations may be possible to enjoy the functional benefits of the inventive systems. Thus, given the wide variety of configurations and arrangements of embodiments of the present invention the scope of the invention is reflected by the breadth of the claims below rather than narrowed by the embodiments described above.

(12) It will be appreciated that variations of the above-disclosed and other features and functions, or alternatives thereof, may be desirably combined into many other different systems or applications. Also, that various presently unforeseen or unanticipated alternatives, modifications, variations or improvements therein may be subsequently made by those skilled in the art which are also intended to be encompassed by the following claims.

(13) FIG. 3 illustrates another graphical representation of a blockchain based immutable record reporting system 300 illustrating the immutable records in ledger 310 being accessed and processed in secure manner from mobile phones 320, tablets 330, laptops or PCs 340, other cloud-hosted programs 350, external databases or datasets 360 and Bots 370 from distributed locations in accordance with the disclosed embodiments. The blockchain based immutable record management module configured in association with a plurality of any external access to process and report the compliance data stored in the ledger 310 associated with a plurality of external devices/systems/programs in a regulated industry environment to access and report undisputed facts and immutable records to the regulators and external authorities or end users.