Utilizing the blockchain to stop information breaches

Knowledge breaches have, sadly, develop into an all-too-common actuality. The Varonis 2021 Knowledge Threat Report signifies that the majority companies have poor cybersecurity practices and unprotected information, making them weak to cyberattacks and information loss.

With a single information breach costing an organization a mean of $3.86 million and eroding a model’s popularity and its customers’ belief, mitigating the dangers is now not a luxurious. Nonetheless, as cyberattacks get extra pervasive and complicated, merely patching up conventional cybersecurity measures might not be sufficient to fend off future information breaches.

As an alternative, it’s crucial to begin looking for extra superior safety options. So far as modern options go, stopping information breaches by using the blockchain could also be our greatest hope.

Blockchain expertise 101

Blockchain expertise, additionally known as distributed ledger expertise (DLT), is the fruits of a long time of analysis and development in cryptography and cybersecurity. The time period “blockchain” was first popularized due to cryptocurrency, because it’s the expertise behind record-keeping within the Bitcoin community. 

This expertise makes it extraordinarily tough to alter or hack a system, because it permits for the info to be recorded and distributed however not copied. Because it gives a brand-new strategy to storing information securely, it may be a promising resolution for information breaches in any setting with high-security necessities.

Constructed on the concept of P2P networks, a blockchain is a public, digital ledger of saved information shared throughout an entire community of pc techniques. Every block holds a number of transactions, and each time a brand new transaction occurs, a report of that transaction will get added to each community participant’s ledger.

Its sturdy encryption and decentralized and immutable nature could possibly be the reply to stopping information breaches.

Enhancing information safety through encryption

World Large Internet inventor Tim Berners-Lee has mentioned just lately that “we’ve misplaced management of our private information.” Corporations retailer monumental quantities of personally identifiable data (PII), together with usernames, passwords, cost particulars, and even social safety numbers, because the Domino’s information leak in India (amongst others) has made clear.

Whereas this information is sort of at all times encrypted, it’s by no means as safe as it could be in a blockchain. By making use of the most effective features of cryptography, blockchain can lastly put an finish to information breaches.

How can a shared ledger be safer than normal encryption strategies?

To safe saved information, blockchain employs two various kinds of cryptographic algorithms: hash features and asymmetric-key algorithms. This manner, the info can solely be shared with the member’s consent, they usually also can specify how the recipient of their information can use the info and the window of time during which the recipient is allowed to take action.

Hash features

When the primary transaction of a series happens, the blockchain’s code provides it a singular hash worth. As extra transactions happen, their hash values are then hashed and encoded right into a Merkle tree, thereby making a block. Each block will get a singular hash with the hash of the earlier block’s header and timestamp encoded.

This creates a hyperlink between the 2 blocks, which, in flip, turns into the primary hyperlink within the chain. Since this hyperlink is created utilizing distinctive data from every block, the 2 are immutably certain.

Uneven encryption

Uneven encryption, also referred to as public-key cryptography, encrypts plain textual content utilizing two keys: a non-public key that’s usually produced through a random quantity algorithm, and a public one. The general public secret is accessible freely and could be transferred over unsecured channels.

However, the personal secret is saved a secret in order that solely the consumer can realize it. With out it, it’s virtually unattainable to entry the info. It features as a digital signature, like real-world signatures.

This manner, blockchain provides particular person customers the flexibility to handle their very own information and specify with whom to share it over cryptographically encoded networks. 

Decentralization

A major motive for the rise in information breaches is over-reliance on centralized servers. As soon as customers and app customers enter their private information, it’s straight written into the corporate’s database, and the consumer doesn’t get a lot say in what occurs to it afterward.

Even when customers try to restrict the info the corporate can share with third events, there will probably be loopholes to use. Because the Fb–Cambridge Analytica data-mining scandal confirmed, the outcomes of such centralization could be catastrophic. Moreover, even assuming goodwill, the corporate’s servers might nonetheless get hacked by cybercriminals.

In distinction, blockchains are decentralized, immutable data of knowledge. This decentralization eliminates the necessity for one trusted, centralized authority to confirm information integrity. As an alternative, it permits customers to share information in a trustless setting. Every member has entry to their very own information, a system often known as zero-knowledge storage.

This additionally makes the community much less prone to fall sufferer to hackers. Until they carry down the entire community concurrently, the undamaged nodes will rapidly detect the intrusion.

Since decentralization reduces factors of weak point, blockchains even have a a lot decrease likelihood of succumbing to an IP-based DDoS assault than centralized techniques utilizing consumer/server architectures.

Immutability

Along with being decentralized, blockchains are additionally designed to be immutable, which will increase information integrity. The blockchains’ immutability makes all the info saved therein virtually unattainable to change.

As a result of each particular person within the community has entry to a duplicate of the distributed ledger, any corruption that happens in a member’s ledger will mechanically trigger it to be rejected by the remainder of the community members. Due to this fact, any alteration or change within the block information will result in inconsistency and break the blockchain, rendering it invalid.

The underside line

Despite the fact that blockchain expertise has been round since 2009, it has a lot untapped potential within the subject of cybersecurity, particularly on the subject of stopping information breaches.

The highest-notch cryptography employed by blockchain protocols ensures the protection of all information saved within the ledger, making it a promising resolution.

Since nodes working the blockchain should at all times confirm any transaction’s validity earlier than it’s executed, cybercriminals are virtually assured to be stopped of their tracks earlier than they acquire entry to any personal information.

Jenelle Fulton-Brown is a safety architect and web privateness advocate based mostly in Toronto, Canada serving to Fortune 500 firms construct future-proof inside techniques.