Nowadays, organizations depend on internet and technology to store their vast amount of data, do online business transactions. And also, many activities and workflows are composed of associated apps and gadgets. This high level of dependence on the internet leaves organizations vulnerable to hacks and exploitation. Therefore, cybersecurity has become essential for many businesses.
Cybersecurity trained experts always search for new technology solutions to prevent hackers. Some blockchain developers are working on security solutions. Blockchain has the potential to redefine the security field as its inherent attributes that can resolve specific threats. Now blockchain has become one of the hottest cybersecurity topics.
Blockchain has several real use cases. For instance, decentralized storage, preventing data theft and fraud and circulated basic open framework for the client or device authentication.
Below are top 5 applications of Blockchain in Cybersecurity that organizations can use today:
DDoS Protection
Distributed Denial of Service or DDoS attack is one of the most troublesome cybersecurity threats in this digital age that can affect the stability of organizations. It’s the effect of overloading an online administration, for example, a website or cloud-based programming platform, with traffic to deny assets to legitimate clients.
Hackers use “Botnet” to execute DDoS attacks, which is a collection of internet-connected devices. It’s one of the oldest tricks to shut down competitors. As per Worldwide DDoS and Cyber Insights Research Report by Neustar – DDoS attacks will cost businesses up to $2.5 million.
Besides the monetary losses, DDoS attacks can also prompt different repercussions, for example, the loss of client trust, malware contaminations, information spills, and real equipment harm.
DDoS attacks can be fight off in various ways. You can set up organize networks that blacklist speculates IP addresses, contact your hosting supplier, and utilize DDoS security benefits that can assimilate malicious traffic in the interest of your site.
With the intensity of blockchain, you can also lease the unused bandwidth of the aggregate network to withstand DDoS assaults and expand your uptime.
Identity Theft Protection
Identity theft has cost over $107 billion over the last six years – As indicated by the 2017 Identity Fraud Study by Javelin Strategy and Research. Identity theft is a long-standing security attack that can cause various fraud cases. This kind of cases mostly happens in the fields of government scheme benefits, tax reports, credit cards and employment-related documents.
Blockchain provides Decentralized ID or DID identity management platform that can put identity fraud to a crushing end. As what you would’ve expected, it works by storing your personal identity and credentials information in a blockchain platform.
For instance, if you are creating an online service account, your credentials are not fully under your control. They will be stored on another server and anyone who has your credentials can login into your account. But with DID, no one but you can access your account through your own device and the DID application. For security and transparency, all your transactions and activities will be recorded and logged on a distributed ledger.
DID permits the transfer, processing, and verification of identity data, like passports, bank accounts, website credentials and driver’s licenses, through blockchain. It takes into consideration a two-way trust mechanism that provides clients full control of their identity and, the more essentially, their reputation.
Fraud Protection
Blockchain can also prevent fraud by automating the execution and validation of transactions by smart contracts. For instance, a “chargeback fraud” happens when a client falsely claims to have never received their purchase. This specific kind of fraud, which is known to raise around 20% for every year, can be pushed to court by online merchants. In any case, since the expenses of escalating a dispute to arbitration, writing chargeback reactions, and teaming up with payment processors surpass the real estimation of most individual fakes, most online retailers essentially let them slide — in spite of the way that the online-based e-commerce industry totally lost nearly $7 billion to chargeback frauds in 2016.
The issue here lies with the dependence of retailers on third parties and central authorities, like payment gateways and the court system. However, through smart contracts, these conditions are moved towards a public ledger of transactions.
Smart contracts automatically direct and execute transactions based on agreements recorded in an unchangeable blockchain. These at present conduct digital currencies (cryptocurrencies) like Ethereum and Ripple to make execution quicker and more streamlined. In other words, businesses will automatically and indisputably receive payments once the confirmation of delivery has been recorded.
While there are not very many online businesses platforms capable of processing payments with smart contracts, new companies like Credits can fill in as the fundamental innovation to accelerate this new frontier. It’s an open blockchain stage that offers independent smart contracts and works with its internal cryptocurrency.
Keyless Signature Infrastructure (KSI)
In a distributed ledger, the transparency does all the work for you such as verifying the authenticity of a data’s source. For instance, in an occasion of a “chargeback fraud,” GuardTime, an information security startup, investigated the usage of blockchain to key-based authentication. The outcome is the Keyless Signature Infrastructure (KSI).
KSI doesn’t need any external trust authorities for the storage of certificates and disavowal records. Instead, it automates the checking and revocation of information through a hashing algorithm, which specifically compares the duplicate with the original information stored on the blockchain. It conquers every known issue with PKI frameworks, for example, the prevalence of application mistakes and the risk of unpatched programming.
Businesses use GuardTime’s KSI solution in specific cases, from physical supply chain management to enterprise security. For instance, it tackles the issue of “last click attribution” in advertising stages, giving all sponsors credit for impressions going before the last click served. It additionally enables buyers to confirm an advertisement’s source. Thus, protecting them from malware and other misleading plans.
Secure Private Messaging
Finally, hackers will capitalize on every attack point exhibited to them, even the easiest ones like your organization’s online messaging service. Keep in mind that popular messaging applications like WhatsApp, which a lot of organizations use for internal communications, have been appeared to be vulnerable against hacks targeted towards encoded messages.
Most of all messaging applications also require users to submit their personal data in return for an account and the right to use the App. In doing as such, they have agreed to surrender their Personally Identifiable Information (PII) that traces back to their identity. It imperatively puts their security and assurance of sensitive data in danger.
While still in beta, the Obsidian Secure Messenger plans to dispense with the requirement for the gathering of PII (Personally Identifiable Information) using a decentralized system. It also executes end-to-end encryption for messages to ensure against malicious “middleware” attacks.
Conclusion
In spite of technology advancing at an impressively fast, cybercrime always appears to discover new approaches to get up to speed. After all, innovation doesn’t segregate amongst hackers and authorized organizations that endeavor to have a positive result. We can dare to dream that innovators and entities responsible for user data can outpace cybercriminals from now this point forward — with or without the blockchain.
Author Bio
Amarendra Babu L is quite passionate about the latest IT and Business Technology Innovations. He is currently working for Mindmajix.com as a content contributor. He always looks for new ways to explore latest software technology innovations. You can reach him at and Linkedin.
