Blocks
1.
Securing Private Messaging: With the internet shrinking the world into a global village,
more and more people are joining social media. The number of social media
platforms is also on the rise. More social apps are being launched with each
dawn as conversational commerce gains popularity. Huge amounts of metadata are
collected during these interactions. Most social media platform users protect
the services and their data with weak, unreliable passwords.
Most messaging companies are warming up to blockchain for securing user data as
a superior option to the end-to-end encryption which they currently use.
Blockchain can be used to create a standard security protocol. For enabling
cross-messenger communication capabilities, blockchain can be used to form a
unified API framework.
2.
IoT Security: Hackers have increasingly used edge devices,
such as thermostats and routers, to gain access to overall systems. With the
current obsession for Artificial Intelligence (AI), it has become easier for
hackers to access overall systems like home automation through edge devices
like 'smart' switches. In most cases, a large number of these IoT devices have
sketchy security features.
In this case, blockchain can be used to secure
such overall systems or devices by decentralizing their administration. The
approach will give the capabilities of the device to make security decisions on
its own. Not depending on the central admin or authority makes the edge
devices more secure by detecting and acting on suspicious commands from unknown
networks.
3.
Securing DNS and DDoS: A Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack
occurs when users of a target resource, such as a network resource, server, or
website, are denied access or service to the target resource. These attacks
shut down or slow down the resource systems.
On the other hand, an intact Domain Name System
(DNS) is very centralized, making it a perfect target for hackers who
infiltrate the connection between the IP address and the name of a website.
This attack renders a website inaccessible, cashable, and even redirectable to
other scam websites.
Fortunately, blockchain can be used to diminish
such kinds of attacks by decentralizing the DNS entries. By applying
decentralized solutions, blockchain would have removed the vulnerable single
points exploited by hackers.
4.
Decentralizing Medium
Storage: Business
data hacks and theft are becoming a primary evident cause of concern to
organizations. Most companies still use the centralized form of the storage
medium. To access the entire data stored in these systems, a hacker simply
exploits but a single vulnerable point. Such an attack leaves sensitive and
confidential data, such as business financial records, in the possession of a
criminal.
By using blockchain, sensitive data may be
protected by ensuring a decentralized form of data storage. This mitigation
method would make it harder and even impossible for hackers to penetrate data
storage systems. Many storage service companies are assessing ways blockchain
can protect data from hackers. Apollo Currency Team is a good example of an
organization that has already embraced blockchain technology in its
systems (The Apollo Data Cloud).
5.
The Provenance of Computer
Software: Blockchain
can be used to ensure the integrity of software downloads to prevent foreign
intrusion. Just as the MD5 hashes are utilized, blockchain can be applied to
verify activities, such as firmware updates, installers, and patches, to
prevent the entry of malicious software into computers. In the MD5 scenario, new
software identity is compared to hashes available on the vendor websites. This
method is not completely foolproof as the hashes available on the provider’s
platform may already be compromised.
However, in the case of blockchain technology,
the hashes are permanently recorded in the blockchain. The information recorded
in the technology is not mutable or changeable; hence blockchain may be more
efficient in verifying the integrity of software by comparing it to the hashes
against the ones on the blockchain.
6.
Verification of Cyber-Physical
Infrastructures: Data
tampering, systems misconfiguration together with component failure have marred
the integrity of information generated from cyber-physical systems. However,
the capabilities of blockchain technology in information integrity and
verification may be utilized to authenticate the status of any cyber-physical
infrastructures. The information generated on the infrastructure’s components
through blockchain can be more assuring to the complete chain of custody.
7. Protecting Data Transmission: Blockchain can be used in the future to prevent unauthorized access to data while in transit. By utilizing the complete encryption feature of the technology, data transmission can be secured to prevent malicious actors from accessing it, be it an individual organization. This approach would lead to a general increase in the confidence and integrity of data transmitted through blockchain. Hackers with malicious intent tap into data amid transit to either alter it or completely delete its existence. This leaves a huge gap in inefficient communication channels, such as emails.
8. Diminish Human Safety Adversity caused by Cyber-attacks: Thanks to innovative technological advancements, we have recently seen the roll-out of unmanned military equipment and public transportation. These automated vehicles and weapons are possible thanks to the Internet facilitates the transfer of data from the sensors to remote-control databases. However, hackers have been on the job to break and gain access to networks, such as Car Area Network (CAN). When tapped into, these networks offer complete control access to vital automotive functions to the hackers. Such occurrences would have a direct impact on the safety of humans. But through data verification conducted on blockchain for any data that goes in and through such systems, many adversities would be prevented.
A Backup &
recovery system usually has the following features: ·
Continuous/Automatic
data backup: It ensures that the
changes you make to your files are simultaneously copied to the storage
location. This lets you recover even the most recent changes in the case of data
loss, thus lowering your recovery point objective. ·
Incremental
backup: This is a type of backup
where only the changes are copied, not the full file. This reduces the time
taken for copying data and does not slow down your work. ·
Instant
recovery: This feature allows a
backup snapshot to run temporarily on secondary storage to reduce the downtime
of an application. ·
Data
deduplication: It eliminates
duplicate data record blocks while data is transferred to the backup storage
location. This reduces the network load and the storage space you require. ·
Error-free
copy: Data backup software features
also, ensure that the data copied from a source and stored at the backup server
are the same and do not mismatch nor contain errors. Another interesting use case, maybe not so
known as the previous one, is the application of blockchain strategies to
content delivery networks. These networks are widely used nowadays, so we have
considered that they are a good example of how we can use blockchain to add
value to existent processes or technologies. A Content Delivery Network (CDN)
consists of an overlapped network of computers containing different copies of
the same set of data. The objective of its creation is to maximize the
bandwidth available in service to improve, as far as possible, the
availability and access to data. In addition to its application in
cybersecurity, it is also possible to find deployments of CDNs with other
purposes such as databases and DNS services, either in private or in a
collaborative way. But they can also offer other different services such as the
exchange of multimedia files or the distribution of software. CDNs adds some advantages, but they also
increases the complexity of the architecture. threat intelligence is an advanced process that involves
gathering valuable insights including mechanisms, context, indicators,
actionable advice and implications about an emerging or existing
cyberthreat. To sum up, blockchain comes up when sharing
information between different parties is a matter. Whether if we want to
identify the issuers of this information or if we want to anonymize them,
different blockchain technologies can help us to achieve these requirements.
No matter how it is utilized, the key component of blockchain technology is its ability to decentralize. This feature removes the single target point that can be compromised. As a result, it becomes utterly impossible to infiltrate systems or sites whose access control, data storage, and network traffic are no longer in a single location. Therefore, blockchain may be one of the most efficient mitigation strategies for cyber threats.