Security benefits of blockchain
Blockchain and NFC bring trust and security to real-time processes by distributing large-scale computing efforts and eliminating single points of failure. The decentralized, distributed qualities of blockchain processing lends security, transparency, reliability, and authenticity to all kinds of systems. Combined with the power of near-field communication NFC devices, systems using both NFC and blockchain promise unprecedented performance for a range of highly secured networks. Early adopters and research teams have found success by bringing both NFC and blockchain technology to a number of applications, from manufacturing and supply chain to financial recordkeeping. For a truly sustainable end-to-end approach, Identiv offers eco-friendly NFC tags that have the lowest carbon footprint in the industry.
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Content:
- What benefits does blockchain offer over other security tools?
- Companies Recognize The Benefits Of Blockchain: Savings, Efficiency And Accuracy
- Rethinking Cybersecurity Through Blockchain
- The Benefits of Blockchain for IT, Part 2: Cybersecurity
- The Truth About Blockchain
- Blockchain Security as “People Security”: Applying Sociotechnical Security to Blockchain Technology
- 4 Tangible Benefits Of Blockchain
- Can Blockchain Help Reduce the Financial Industry's Cyber Risk?
What benefits does blockchain offer over other security tools?
A successful cyber-attack can be the downfall of any well-positioned business. Data breaches not only cause significant financial losses but are also the leading cause of a bad reputation for victim companies.
Blockchain started out as the technology behind Bitcoin but has popularly grown into a promising mitigation technology for cybersecurity. What is Blockchain 4. Use Cases of Blockchain for Cybersecurity. It is quite a tough and challenging time for businesses that operate on digital network platforms. Cyber-attacks and breaches continue to haunt online activities at even more sophisticated and damaging levels.
As this nightmare continues to escalate, it is not only small businesses that fall prey to the attacks but also large IT companies like Siemens, Facebook, Yahoo, Microsoft, and LG, just to mention a few.
Ransomware attacks and other forms of data breaches have now become a day to day challenge for companies. Recent analysis and statistics indicate that even sacrosanct state procedures like Presidential elections are not safe from these attacks. This shows that cybersecurity is no longer an issue to companies alone, but also to governments and other agencies. For the development of viable cybersecurity protection strategies, it would be prudent to analyse the recent cyber-attack trends and statistics.
With such tremendous financial impacts, companies continue to increase their investment in cybersecurity. The cryptocurrency is unregularised by legacy government currency rates.
This has quickly transformed it into the most preferred mode of anonymous operation in illegal activities like the cyber crime and drug trade. With a new person joining social media platforms every 15 seconds, the ransomware vulnerability scope continues to widen. According to reports by Cybint, two-thirds of companies have experienced attacks such as social engineering incidents, phishing, and DDoS attacks in the last three years. On the contrary, the cost of hacking is almost insignificant, with cyber-attack tools now available on the Dark Web for as low as one dollar, with other complementary services being offered for free.
It becomes more alarming that it takes an average of 5 minutes to hack an IoT device. The current fast-paced advancement in technology also offers an incubating effect to cyber-attacks to continue becoming more sophisticated and executable. With the rolling out of the game-changing fifth-generation 5G networks that offer ten times faster download speeds, this will inevitably create more opportunities for hackers.
Faster speeds will increase the chances of more devices being hacked and the execution of larger cyber-attacks. There is a huge commercial appetite for the Internet of Things IoT. Almost everything, ranging from furniture to utility equipment, is being fitted with internet-connected sensors. According to Gartner, by , there will be an increase in the number of things connected to the internet, from 14 billion to 25 billion.
Most of these new technologies have patchy security features that tend to attract hackers. Also, home automation features could lead to more homes being vulnerable to cyber-attacks by criminals. Blockchain technology is a distributed and decentralised ledger system that can record transactions between multiple computers. Blockchain started as the technology behind bitcoin but has popularly grown into a promising mitigation technology for cybersecurity.
Notably, human error remains to be the leading cause of data breaches. Blockchain fully automates data storage hence reducing the human element in these data storage systems. Blockchain can be utilised in any sector or industry. This is because any kind of digital asset or transaction can be inserted in blockchain, from any industry.
The new technology is considered a reliable cybersecurity protocol due to its capabilities of indicating any foul play and providing certainty in the integrity of transactions.
Blockchain technology was designed to be transparent. Therefore, opposing the famous misconception, blockchain offers no privacy or confidentiality of any transactions made through it. When termed as secure, it is meant to describe the integrity of the transactions, not its privacy. Although not unbreakable, blockchain has evolved to become one of the most foolproof forms of transacting in the digital network realm.
As designed and intended, the technology has been credited for its information integrity assurance. If well-utilised, many sectors can benefit from it. With the potential of being practical to many utilisations, blockchain can be implemented into many uses. One of the best uses would be utilising its integrity assurance for building cybersecurity solutions for many other technologies.
Below are some use cases of future beneficial use of blockchain to strengthen cybersecurity:. Securing Private Messaging: With the internet shrinking the world into a global village, more and more people are joining social media. The number of social media platforms is also on the rise. More social apps are being launched with each dawn as conversational commerce gains popularity. Huge amounts of metadata are collected during these interactions. Most social media platform users protect the services and their data with weak, unreliable passwords.
Most messaging companies are warming up to blockchain for securing user data as a superior option to the end-to-end encryption which they currently use. Blockchain can be used to create a standard security protocol. For enabling cross-messenger communication capabilities, blockchain can be used to form a unified API framework. In the recent past, numerous attacks have been executed against social platforms like Twitter and Facebook.
These attacks resulted in data breaches with millions of accounts being breached and user information landing into the wrong hands. Blockchain technologies, if well implemented in these messaging systems, may prevent such future cyberattacks. IoT Security: Hackers have increasingly used edge devices, such as thermostats and routers, to gain access to overall systems.
With the current obsession for Artificial Intelligence AI , it has become easier for hackers to access overall systems like home automation through edge devices like 'smart' switches.
In most cases, a large number of these IoT devices have sketchy security features. In this case, blockchain can be used to secure such overall systems or devices by decentralising their administration. The approach will give the capabilities of the device to make security decisions on their own. Not depending on the central admin or authority makes the edge devices more secure by detecting and acting on suspicious commands from unknown networks.
Normally, hackers penetrate the central administration of a device and automatically gain full control of the devices and systems.
By decentralising such device authority systems, blockchain ensures such attacks are harder to execute if even possible. These attacks shut down or slow down the resource systems.
On the other hand, an intact Domain Name System DNS is very centralised, making it a perfect target for hackers who infiltrate the connection between the IP address and the name of a website. This attack renders a website inaccessible, cashable, and even redirectable to other scam websites.
Fortunately, blockchain can be used to diminish such kinds of attacks by decentralising the DNS entries. By applying decentralised solutions, blockchain would have removed the vulnerable single points exploited by hackers. Decentralising Medium Storage: Business data hacks and theft are becoming a primary evident cause of concern to organisations.
Most companies still use the centralised form of the storage medium. To access the entire data stored in these systems, a hacker simply exploits but a single vulnerable point. Such an attack leaves sensitive and confidential data, such as business financial records, in the possession of a criminal.
By using blockchain, sensitive data may be protected by ensuring a decentralised form of data storage. This mitigation method would make it harder and even impossible for hackers to penetrate data storage systems. Many storage service companies are assessing ways blockchain can protect data from hackers.
Apollo Currency Team is a good example of an organisation that has already embraced the blockchain technology in their systems The Apollo Data Cloud. The Provenance of Computer Software: Blockchain can be used to ensure the integrity of software downloads to prevent foreign intrusion. Just as the MD5 hashes are utilised, blockchain can be applied to verify activities, such as firmware updates, installers, and patches, to prevent the entry of malicious software in computers.
In the MD5 scenario, new software identity is compared to hashes available on the vendor websites. However, in the case of blockchain technology, the hashes are permanently recorded in the blockchain. The information recorded in the technology is not mutable or changeable; hence blockchain may be more efficient in verifying the integrity of software by comparing it to the hashes against the ones on the blockchain.
Verification of Cyber-Physical Infrastructures: Data tampering, systems misconfiguration together with component failure have marred the integrity of information generated from cyber-physical systems. However, the capabilities of blockchain technology in information integrity and verification may be utilised to authenticate the status of any cyber-physical infrastructures.
Protecting Data Transmission: Blockchain can be used in the future to prevent unauthorized access to data while in transit. By utilising the complete encryption feature of the technology, data transmission can be secured to prevent malicious actors from accessing it, be it an individual or an organisation.
This approach would lead to a general increase in the confidence and integrity of data transmitted through blockchain. Hackers with malicious intent tap into data amid transit to either alter it or completely delete its existence. This leaves a huge gap in inefficient communication channels, such as emails. Diminish Human Safety Adversity caused by Cyber-attacks: Thanks to innovative technological advancements, we have recently seen the roll-out of unmanned military equipment and public transportation.
These automated vehicles and weapons are possible thanks to the Internet that facilitates the transfer of data from the sensors to the remote-control databases. When tapped into, these networks offer complete control access to vital automotive functions to the hackers. Such occurrences would have a direct impact on the safety of humans.
But through data verification conducted on blockchain for any data that goes in and through such systems, many adversities would be prevented. No matter how it is utilised, the key component of blockchain technology is its ability to decentralise.
This feature removes the single target point that can be compromised. As a result, it becomes utterly impossible to infiltrate systems or sites whose access control, data storage, and network traffic are no longer in a single location. Therefore, blockchain may be one of the most efficient mitigation strategies for cyber threats in the coming days. Nevertheless, blockchain, just as with any other new technologies, faces many startup challenges as it undergoes the painful process of growth.
He is a regular speaker at external conferences and a technology writer for international newspapers on a variety of technology and cybersecurity topics. He holds a master's degree in computer science, cryptography and network security.
Companies Recognize The Benefits Of Blockchain: Savings, Efficiency And Accuracy
A blockchain is a shared database that records transactions between two parties in an immutable ledger. Due to its nature of decentralization , transactions and data are not verified and owned by one single entity as they are in typical systems. Rather, the validity of transactions are confirmed by any node or computer that has access to the network. A key aspect of privacy in blockchains is the use of private and public keys. Blockchain systems use asymmetric cryptography to secure transactions between users.
Rethinking Cybersecurity Through Blockchain
Are blockchain and distributed ledger technology the same? This is a common misconception that many people have. We are living in a digital age of sound bites and buzzwords. An age where even complex technological solutions are reduced to five words or less. As a result, we are witnessing a rise in cunning businesses attempting to piggyback the so-called crypto boom. Predictably, using buzzwords such as blockchain technology to attract investment will only deliver short-term gains. Ironically such actions are responsible for the branding issues of this tech. Leading to one of the reasons why many are wary of blockchain. Meanwhile, emerging trends suggest that distributed ledger is providing value and tangible results without the hype.
The Benefits of Blockchain for IT, Part 2: Cybersecurity
In May, I discussed the benefits of blockchain for data storage. Cyberattacks are on the rise, and high-profile attacks on large companies, resulting in the loss or exposure of sensitive customer data, seem to be a weekly occurrence. According to the U. As a technology built with security in mind, blockchain offers a lot of promise in terms of its cybersecurity potential. After all, blockchain is the result of multiple large breakthroughs in security and cryptography used to secure bitcoin.
The Truth About Blockchain
Skip to Main Content. A not-for-profit organization, IEEE is the world's largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity. Use of this web site signifies your agreement to the terms and conditions. Blockchain for government services — Use cases, security benefits and challenges Abstract: Public sector and governments have been actively exploring new technologies to enable the smart services transformation and to achieve strategic objectives such as citizens satisfaction and happiness, services efficiency and cost optimization. The Blockchain technology is a good example of an emerging technology that is attracting government attention. Many government entities such as United Kingdom, Estonia, Honduras, Denmark, Australia, Singapore and others have taken steps to unleash the potential of Blockchain technology.
Blockchain Security as “People Security”: Applying Sociotechnical Security to Blockchain Technology
Each block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, a timestamp, and transaction data. A blockchain is a decentralized, distributed and public digital ledger that is used to record transactions across many computers so that the record cannot be altered retroactively without the alteration of all subsequent blocks and the consensus of the network. While blockchain is still largely confined to use in recording and storing transactions for cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, proponents of blockchain technology are developing and testing other uses for blockchain, including these:. The primary benefit of blockchain is as a database for recording transactions, but its benefits extend far beyond those of a traditional database. Most notably, it removes the possibility of tampering by a malicious actor, as well as providing these business benefits:. Learn more. As the number of transactions grows, so does the blockchain.
4 Tangible Benefits Of Blockchain
A blockchain system for electronic health records EHRs , framed as a protocol through which to access and maintain health data, guarantees security and privacy through empowering the user with control of their own data. Furthermore, the establishment of these systems is contingent on the ability of patients to navigate these systems with competence. Separate even from patient use, the viability of a blockchain solution is determined by the security and standardization of the existing EHR systems. And aside from the security of a blockchain solution, there are few incentives for individual hospitals to work to make their EHRs accessible through a blockchain, and thus the government must lead this endeavor.
Can Blockchain Help Reduce the Financial Industry's Cyber Risk?
The healthcare industry has unique data management needs as it deals with patient information that is sensitive, personal, and confidential. However, this data is often stored and spread across different facilities and providers, which can result in tedious and inefficient processes — especially when this data needs to be accessed in an emergency. Blockchain technology is thus ideal to solve these challenges. It can store and securely encrypt patient data such as medical records, securely and automatically update patient data across multiple locations, address inefficient practices, and prevent data breaches. Discussed below are only a few of the ways blockchain technology can help healthcare.
Blockchain technology includes security functions for data integrity hashing , confidentiality encryption , authenticity digital signatures as well as key management PKI. These security functions are based on the same open standardized security algorithms and protocols that are also used in other security tools. From that perspective, there is not much difference. The key differentiator is that these security capabilities are an integral part of the complete blockchain technology stack, such as the data exchange and consensus protocols, data storage, and smart contract capability. That means one does not need to integrate the security capabilities with the other technologies, but comes-out-of-the-box with the total blockchain technology package. This makes it possible to focus directly on the functional side of the application without the intensive and long-lasting exercises to get alignment amongst the involved parties and stakeholders on how the security and the related tools are applied, as it is the case when traditional technology and tools are used. Solutions » Unchain for » Cases ».
Many people associate blockchain with the cryptocurrency Bitcoin. Yes, it is true that it was the success of Bitcoin that gave the world insight into the blockchain technology. But Bitcoin is just one example of blockchain application. Many other sectors can immensely benefit from the blockchain technology.
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