First, let me explain briefly what is blockchain so that it is easier to understand how cybersecurity can be implemented over blockchain
Blockchain
For the 20th century if is the Internet and for 21st it is Blockchain. The Internet has changed completely the way we communicate and transact business. It has affected our personal and professional life too. Similar changes will happen in many aspects of our professional life ( at the least to start with ) due to the blockchain.
The blockchain is an open and ledger, transparent, Anyone with required processing power can download the entire transaction and can view but it can not be modified. One can add valid transactions but no one can modify the existing ones.
All transactions are stored in a decentralised manner over thousands of computers connected to the network. So to make a change, one needs to change in all the connected machines which are next to impossible. There is no central authority in the entire blockchain network. Modifications in the network functioning are carried out by concession and acceptance of the majority of the users or minors.
All transactions happened within the time period are bundled into a block. A cryptographic hash will be created and added to the block. The cryptographic hash will be unique to the bunch of transactions. The entire block will be encrypted and connected to the existing block. Every block will have a reference to the previous block. So it looks like a chain. That is why it is called Blockchain.
There are two types of blockchain. One is public and another is private. Anyone can join the public blockchain but only approved people can join the private network. Private networks are much safer than the public ones.
Cyber Security:
Before discussing cybersecurity, we can discuss the cyber threat. Like there are thieves to steal physical assets, there are thieves for digital assets. Anything valuable in the market is likely to be stolen. Many do cyber attacks for the kick of doing it. Many talented youths started doing it by sitting in a remote garage. The damage the could cause has attracted governments. So now governments set up offices to hack sites of enemy nations.
Nowadays governments reduced their funding to terrorist’s organizations like Al Qaida. They have started funding these cyber attacks. Cyber attacks are less visible and silent compared to terrorist attacks. But these cyber attacks create more economic damage in the enemy nations. One need not send any human beings into the enemy nation. These attacks are much safer for the attacking country. It is not easy to trace who attacked, It is a design fault of the Internet.But it can make far-reaching damage to the enemy country. At the same time, it does not attract the condemnation of International community.
So now, every nation is farming a Cyber Army to protect and counterattack the enemy nations. Conventional war happens in the border area but this cyber war happens everywhere and it is 24x7x365. Cyber Experts say as follows. There are only two types of organizations, one who knows they are attacked and the other who does not know.
Cybersecurity on Blockchain:
The conventional method of authentication is by username and password. Either the user himself share this information on the Internet due to social engineering. Or he may share it inadvertently and the security is compromised. Blockchain offers secure authentication without a username and password and this feature is commercially available too.
The large organizations can form their own private network and share and store information in a secure way. It is near impossible to hack a private blockchain network.
Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) is one of the popular methods of attack. This attack will slow down the network and make it inconvenient for the legitimate users. To create such an attack, it does not cost much for the attacker. But in blockchain one has to spend money which is known as gas to accept and record legitimate transactions. So attackers have to spend gas to initiate DDoS. The damage created by such an attack is not worth the money spent on gas.
Many organizations save personal data of the public. For example, hospitals save health records of the patients. E-commerce sites save the purchase pattern of the customers. These data have a value in the International market. These data can be used to target online advertisement to the targeted customer.
As per law, any security breach and loss of sensitive data, and hence loss of money or otherwise reputation of an individual shall be compensated by the organizations.So protecting such data is required morally, ethically and legally too. Private blockchain comes handy in these types of situations.
A year or so back ransomware was going round across the globe. The attackers will infect a machine and demand ransom to remove the same. Hense it is called ransomware. There is no cost involved in spreading a virus or malware. But in blockchain one has to spend gas which is money to spread any transactions. And this has to be accepted by the minors to be effective. So ransomware is not possible in the blockchain.
Currently, all financial transactions are routed through banks. Banks conduct these transactions using central servers.So this creates a single point of failure. If this central server is compromised then the whole financial transactions will collapse.
But in the blockchain, there is no central authority and there is no middleman like banks for financial transactions. So fund transfers over blockchain are secure and cost the least since there is no middleman.
In short, blockchain is safe, secure and trustworthy and saves cost too
V.Kadal Amutham
Solank Power System
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