Blockchain technology is a distributed and decentralised ledger system that can record transactions between multiple computers. Blockchain started as the technology behind bitcoin but has popularly grown into a promising mitigation technology for cybersecurity.

The brilliance of blockchain technology lies in its ability to validate transactions between parties, and, in turn, store a permanent record of those transactions on a decentralized network. This functionality makes forging a record in a blockchain ledger extremely difficult at best. Blockchain technology’s decentralized nature makes it ideal for cybersecurity. The ledger technology has virtually endless uses in everything from medical and financial data sharing to anti-money laundering monitoring and encrypted messaging platforms.

Blockchain’s Role in Cybersecurity

Here is how blockchain technology can strengthen cybersecurity

1.Decentralized storage of critical data: With the exponentially increasing data generated every day, blockchain-based storage solutions help achieve decentralized storage thus protecting digital information.

2.IoT security: With the increasing application of AI and IoT, the security of data and systems from hackers has always been a major concern. Usage of Blockchain for improved security by using device-to-device encryption to secure communication, key management techniques, and authentication is a potential use case to maintain cybersecurity in the IoT system.

3.Securing Private Messaging: With the internet shrinking the world into a global village, more and more people are joining social media. In the recent past, numerous attacks have been executed against social platforms like Twitter and Facebook. These attacks resulted in data breaches with millions of accounts being breached and user information landing into the wrong hands. Blockchain technologies, if well implemented in these messaging systems, may prevent such future cyber-attacks.

4.A more secure DNS: A Domain Name System (DNS) attack can turn customers away from your business in an instant. That’s because hackers have learned how to exploit the connection between the IP address and the name of a website. By decentralizing your website’s DNS entries, blockchain can prevent hacks common to a more centralized DNS, meaning your customers will benefit from a secure and problem-free customer experience.

5.Mitigating DDoS Attacks: One of the most popular cyber-attacks today is DDoS attacks where hackers aim to generate a flood of Internet traffic and thus disrupt the flow of services. The properties of immutability and cryptography help Blockchain prove to be an effective solution for these attacks.

Real-Life Application Examples of Blockchain in Cybersecurity

Following are some prominent examples where Blockchain is used for Cybersecurity:

• CISCO (San Jose, California), IoT: Cisco plans to use blockchain to secure IoT devices as ledger technology eliminates single point of failure and encryption helps secure data.

• Coinbase (San Francisco, California), Cryptocurrencies: Coinbase uses encryption to store wallets and passwords in a secure database. It also undergoes background checks on employees to ensure that their crypto is secured.

• Barclays (London, England), Traditional Banking: Barclays have filed a patent to use blockchain to enhance security in fund transfers. It aims to stabilize cryptocurrency transfers by using Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT).

• Chinese Military (Beijing, China), Defense and Military: China’s government and the military are attempting to secure vital government and military information, intelligence information using blockchain cybersecurity.

• J. P. Morgan (New York, NY), Traditional Banking: They have developed a platform called Quorum which uses Blockchain to process private transactions. It uses the concepts of Smart contracts and cryptography to maintain the security of the transactions.