Navigating the online world safely has become a real challenge over the last few years. The spate of hacker attacks around the world today are said to be intensive and sophisticated. It looks like performing our routine online tasks is going to be fraught with danger, and we need to be wary.
Digital money is being subjected to a number of cyber security attacks today. blockchain technology is therefore being used to protect data from being modified. This trend will transform the technology and IT sectors in the coming years, similar to what the Internet did to the world in the 90s and early 2000s.
Even though hackers are getting better at their work, the ways to combat them are also improving fast. Today blockchain technology can be used to protect data from cyber attacks and to improve cyber security across industries.
Blockchain has been around for just a decade. Initially, it was introduced as a way to store and send the digital currency, bitcoin. But, today, it is used in a variety of sectors such as healthcare, real estate, retailing, finance and cyber security.
The blockchain is a distributed ledger to maintain records among users without relying on third parties. It exists as multiple copies spread over multiple nodes around the world. Everything is secure and each new block gets connected to the previous one. Also, the transactions stored in a block are immutable.
Existing security mechanisms within the blockchain Blockchains are distributed networks that have millions of users all over the world. Every user can add information to the blockchain and all data is secured through cryptography. Every other member of the network is responsible for verifying that the data being added to the blockchain is real. This is done by using three keys (private, public and the receiver’s key) that allow members to check the security of data while also being aware about how this security is achieved.
How blockchains get formed A verified piece of data forms a block, which then has to be added to the chain. To do this, blockchain users have to use their respective keys and powerful computing systems to run algorithms that solve very complex mathematical problems. When a problem is solved, the block is added to the chain and the data it contains exists on the network for ever. At this stage, the data can’t be altered or removed.
Blockchain technology provides one of the best tools we currently have to protect data from hackers, preventing potential fraud and decreasing the chance of data being stolen or put into danger.
In order to destroy or corrupt a blockchain, a hacker would have to destroy the data stored on every user’s computer in the global network. This could include millions of computers, with each one storing a copy of some part of or all the data. Unless the hacker could simultaneously bring down an entire network (which is nearly impossible), the undamaged computers, also known as nodes, will continue running to verify and keep a record of all the data on the network. The impossibility of a task, like taking down a whole chain, increases along with the number of users on a network. Bigger blockchain networks with more users have a lower risk of being hacked.
How does blockchain provide cyber security? This complex structure of blockchain technology makes it the most secure. That’s why innovators have begun applying blockchain technology in different sectors to prevent fraud and increase the security of data.
Bitcoin is booming, but the blockchain is evolving. Bitcoin is always a point of reference for blockchain technology. But blockchain is much more than just Bitcoin.
In terms of security, blockchain and its public ledger have potential solutions for Big Data processing, end point protection software, financial tools and supply chain management software.
Blockchain technology has impacted the cyber security industry in a few ways.
