Enhancing Data Privacy and Trust in E-Learning: A Blockchain-Based Access Control Protocol for Cloud Educational Systems

Abstract

E-learning systems in an educational environment designed for wireless area networks for schools, universities, and research institutions provide consistency and better retention for students, professors, and researchers. An E-learning system is known for storing lecture documents and live video conferences that are transmitted over public channels. However, E-learning systems are also vulnerable to various cyberattacks by malicious attackers. Therefore, classic networks have many weaknesses in securing such massive data in the E-learning system. This work proposes a novel blockchain-based access control protocol for cloud educational environments. The proposed approach uniquely integrates ciphertext-policy attribute-based encryption (CP-ABE) with blockchain technology to provide fine-grained, decentralized, and tamper-resistant access for academic data. Unlike existing methods, our protocol stores learning data on the cloud while securely managing metadata and blockchain access policies, enhancing privacy and scalability. We further introduce a mutual authentication mechanism based on body area networks (BAN) and validate the security of our protocol using automated validation of internet security protocols and applications (AVISPA) and BAN logic. Experimental results demonstrate that our method achieves lower computational costs and higher security guarantees than state-of-the-art solutions, making it highly suitable for practical deployment in academic E-learning environments.