In an ever-increasingly digital world, cybersecurity has become even more important. The threat of cyberattacks has heightened as our dependence on the internet and technology increases. As a result, various solutions, including the use of blockchain technology, have been created to help secure against these vulnerabilities. This technology is mostly associated with cryptocurrency like Bitcoin, but it’s also playing a huge role in cybersecurity.
In this article, we discuss the various ways blockchain can be utilized to safeguard data and mitigate cyberattacks.
What is Blockchain?
This is a digital ledger that operates in a decentralized manner. Its main job is to document transactions coming from different computers, which helps ensure the transparency of data. It also prevents malicious users from making unathorized changes, as a single change would require changing all other blocks created after the original entry.
Blockchain has some unique characteristics that help position it as a promising technology for improving cybersecurity. These are immutability, cryptographic security, and decentralization.
How Blockchain Enhances Cybersecurity
Blockchain can improve cybersecurity in several ways.
Decentralized Architecture
One of the main features of blockchain technology is that everything is decentralized. There’s no central organization controlling transactions and other activities, but rather a group of many computers that validate everything taking place. Any change you make requires that it be scrutinized by many other people, making unauthorized access almost impossible.
Immutable Records
Information in a blockchain is immutable. This means that once saved, a transaction can’t be deleted or modified. The measure helps avoid data tampering, so you can rely on blockchain for data integrity. This feature is particularly helpful for use cases such as monetary transactions as they require high levels of data protection.
Public Key Cryptography
To ensure safe and secure transactions, blockchain technology uses public key cryptography. Each individual has a private key they use to authenticate transactions. Without this key, it’s nearly impossible for anyone to access or alter the transactions.
Smart Contracts
Smart contracts are self-executing programs stored on the blockchain. They are capable of automating complex processes and enforcing agreements without intermediaries. Since they don’t need interference from a third party, they can’t be tampered with, so they are ideal for use cases that require trust and accountability.
Blockchain Use Cases in Cybersecurity
The decentralization design used in blockchain gives it various characteristics that make it very useful in cybersecurity. Below are some use cases.
Ensuring Software Integrity
Blockchain technology can be used to verify the integrity of software downloads and installers. As a result, it provides a strong defense against malicious software. This is done by recording hashes in the blockchain, and users can compare these with new software to confirm the authenticity of updates and downloads. Devices are, therefore, protected from potential cybersecurity threats. Note that the references can be done automatically. The user doesn’t have to check manually (unless it’s highly sensitive software)
Security Transmission of Data
Blockchain uses encryption to protect data during transmission. This is quite important when transferring sensitive data as you don’t want hackers to intercept your traffic, especially if you often use public hotspots. The encryption used means that they can’t make sense of the data even if they intercept it.
Decentralized Storage for Essential Data
In most cases, data is usually stored on a central server. The server can then be replicated elsewhere, but changes are synced to make it up-to-date. This is quite a huge concern in cybersecurity, and blockchain helps protect sensitive data through decentralization.
Data in the blockchain is stored on multiple computers, meaning there’s no single point of failure. This way, hackers can’t focus resources on a particular computer.
Mitigating DDoS Attacks
Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks are often used to attack various services and potentially create a loophole that hackers can use. However, blockchain helps prevent this as everything is distributed. Attacking one user through DDOS can’t create loopholes for the entire network.
Strengthening DNS Security
The Domain Name System is prone to attacks from hackers. Blockchain’s immutability provides an extra security layer for storing DNS records. Hackers can’t redirect your requests to malicious websites, so your data is protected from theft.