5 Ways Blockchain is Disrupting Cybersecurity

Blockchain was invented in 2008 to serve as the public transaction ledger for the cryptocurrency bitcoin. A decade later, technology is revolutionizing more than just the financial industry. It’s shaking up the entire economy.

Although blockchain’s roots are in digital currency, its core technology has countless other applications, from logging data to cataloging intellectual property. As a result, business owners everywhere are scrambling to figure out how they can leverage blockchain technology to protect their data and thwart cybercriminal activity.

Blockchain

Given the ever-increasing threat of cybercriminals, it’s no surprise that cybersecurity is top of mind for businesses everywhere — or that demand for blockchain engineers has skyrocketed in recent years. According to the publication CSO, cybercrime is projected to cost the world $6 trillion in damages annually by 2021, up from $3 trillion in 2015. As a result, cybersecurity spending is expected to exceed $1 trillion from now until 2021.

While Blockchain is relatively new technology that’s still evolving, its ability to encrypt, validate and protect data already makes it a viable candidate to solve the cybercriminal scourge. Here are five ways blockchain is helping businesses shore up their cybersecurity.

Hard to Hack: Blockchain is structured in a way that makes it virtually impossible to corrupt. Unlike traditional servers, which store information in a single repository, blockchain data is stored on a decentralized P2P network comprised of thousands of computers. Every computer that participates in the node has a copy of all transactions made on the blockchain. Since there’s no “official” copy of this ledger, tampering with it would require hacking multiple computers at once. This would be extremely difficult for even the most sophisticated hacker, considering the immense computing power it would require.

Anonymous: While all blockchain transactions are transparent, individual users get to maintain their anonymity. Here’s how: when a user completes a transaction (i.e. Jon sends bitcoin to Jill), the details are published on the blockchain. However, personal details such as the user’s name are concealed. Instead, the transaction record is attributed to an auto-generated private key, which is virtually impossible to trace back to the user. This allows transactions to be transparent, while at the same time protective of a user’s sensitive personal information.

Validation: To ensure the integrity of a blockchain, every transaction is validated by every computer in the node. Once a transaction is validated, it’s stored in a block and permanently sealed. Now part of the blockchain, the transaction cannot be altered. Consider the benefits blockchain has over traditional databases, which can be destroyed or tampered with — intentionally or unintentionally — by anyone with an access key.

Battle Ransomware: Last year’s infamous WannaCry attack not only pushed the threat of ransomware into the public consciousness, it also served as proof of concept for other cybercriminals. While many ransomware operators request their payment via digital currencies such as bitcoin due to the anonymity it affords, blockchain can also help investigators find the perpetrators behind the attack. As SecurityIntelligence explains: “To use extorted bitcoins, fraudsters must transfer them to a third-party address, possibly a bitcoin register or wallet, where service providers process a flat currency exchange. These suppliers can identify bitcoin addresses associated with ransomware campaigns and quickly notify cybersecurity specialists.”

Prevent DDoS Attacks: A distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack is a malicious attempt to disrupt a web property, such as a server or website, by overwhelming it with traffic from multiple sources. DDoS attacks have victimized a number of well-known companies over the last few years, including Twitter and Spotify. Since Blockchain distributes data throughout a large P2P network — as opposed to storing all data in a single repository — it’s in many ways the perfect solution for preventing costly DDoS attacks.

To learn how you can leverage blockchain for your business, contact the cybersecurity experts at BrevAll Technologies. Call us at (800) 838-0911 or email info@brevall.com.