Integrated Security System Framework Using Blockchain and Digital Forensics Technology

Abstract

The proliferation of cybersecurity incidents and large-scale data breaches has exposed significant weaknesses in traditional security systems, particularly regarding data integrity, transparency, chain of custody, and forensic readiness. Centralised architectures suffer from single points of failure, log-tampering risks and limited cross-organisational trust. This paper designed, developed and evaluated an Integrated Security System Framework combining blockchain-style integrity mechanisms with digital forensics methodology. It was implemented as a four-layer system: a React presentation layer, two Node.js/Express API services, a Python-based business logic layer, and a data layer that includes an Ethereum-compatible (Hardhat) deployment path together with off-chain filesystem storage. The evaluated core comprises a custom Python blockchain (SHA-256 Proof-of-Work) with Python classes providing contract-style policy enforcement and audit logging. A parallel suite of four Solidity smart contracts was also implemented, but those contracts were not exercised when producing the quantitative results reported here; that distinction is stated explicitly throughout. The design was evaluated by executing the public implementation directly and repeatedly against a functional correctness workload of 100 events and up to 30 evidence items across five independent runs. Six further security and stress tests examined varied file sizes, concurrent access, malformed transactions, unauthorised access, direct tampering and off-chain tampering. These tests located and fixed three real defects, most significantly a concurrency defect that corrupted the blockchain under twenty simultaneous writers; after the fix, chain validity held under 500 concurrent writes. The evaluation also surfaced an unresolved limitation: no identity-authentication mechanism is implemented, so accountability guarantees depend on honest caller identity claims. All evaluation categories scored above 90 percent on the framework's disclosed self-referential scoring formula, and forensic risk-scoring, audit logging, custody tracking and tampering detection functioned as designed within their tested scope. The findings support the feasibility of integrating blockchain-style integrity with digital forensics for evidence management under controlled evaluation conditions, and they underline the necessity of repeated, adversarially minded testing before stronger operational claims are made.