Blockchain and Computer Security | PakistanTribe

Abida Gohar Umer

Browsing safely nowadays has become an actual apprehension over the last few years. We have seen how powerful and suave some of the current hacker attacks all over the world, it seems like things are destined to only get shoddier. If the hackers are getting smarter enough at hacking, the ways to fight them are also advancing very quickly. No more suffering of repression at the hands of the cyber criminals. Indeed, we now have a virtually solid technology, known as blockchain, which can be used to protect our data from computer-generated attacks and develop cyber security across online activities.

How does Blockchain Technology helpful for an online security of any business? How does it prevent data from being stolen, marred or vanished? We need to know a bit about this. Blockchain, also a Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), is focused on creating trust in an untrusting ecosystem, making it a potentially strong cyber security technology. The ledger system is decentralized, but info is visibly accessible to members of the particular blockchain.

Blockchain technology is now nearly decade old, initially introduced as a technique to stock and/or send the first digitally used currency – cryptocurrency – Bitcoin. However, as the technology has gradually spread worldwide, people have begun using it in a variety of ways in numerous industries, including as a means to increase cyber security.

Future of cyber security now needs a hand of Blockchain technology. Blockchain’s characteristically dispersed nature makes it the seamless tool for online safety. The ledger technology has virtually never-ending uses in everything from medicinal and monetary data sharing to anti-money laundering monitoring and encoded messaging platforms.

Blockchain technologies have expanded meaningfully since the first introduction of the Bitcoin whitepaper in October 2008. Most associate blockchain technologies merely with cryptocurrency ledgers and accounting:

• Bitcoin
• Ethereum
• Dash
• ZCash

Blockchain applications have expanded to safety of various domains including networks, applications, contracts and proof of ownership.

Ledgers are types of new networks; centralized, decentralized and distributed. Distributed ledgers can be open or reserved and differ in their arrangement and dimension. The users sometimes are anonymous where each user has a copy of the ledger and participates in confirming transactions independently. And when users are not anonymous then permission is required for users to have a copy of the ledger and participate in confirming transactions.

Blockchain Technology first came to light when a person or Group of individuals name ‘Satoshi Nakamoto’ published a white paper on “BitCoin: A peer to peer electronic cash system” in 2008. Blockchain Technology Records Transaction in Digital Ledger which is distributed over the Network thus making it incapable of being corrupted. Blockchain offers a tool to distribute digital facts & figures and decentralize security.

The blockchain becomes a decentralized database with all transactions that have happened up to that point. Every blockchain has a definite interval in the middle of each new block. Once the block time has been got, all fresh transactions during that interval are added to the hashed value of the earlier blocks. Transactions are simply added after web consensus is touched.

How do blockchain get formed? A tested section of data forms a block which then has to be added to the chain. To do this, blockchain users have to use their particular keys and controlling computing systems to run algorithms that solve very difficult mathematical problems. When a problem is answered, the block is added to the chain and the record it contains exists on the network forever, meaning that it cannot be improved or detached.

How can data be updated? With the purpose of making updates to a particular part of information, the holder of that data must add a new block on top of the previous block, creating a very detailed chain of code. If anything, even something as small as a comma, gets changed from how it appears in a prior block, the entire chain through the network also changes consequently. This means that every solo modification or variation to any piece of information is followed and totally no information is misplaced or removed because users can always look at former types of a block to recognize what is dissimilar in the up-to-date version. Using this detailed form of record-keeping makes it cool for the organization/system to detect blocks that have improper or untrue information, stopping loss, mar, and fraud.

Proof of work (PoW) blockchain indicates the method employed by blockchain to verify that calculations were successfully completed. Each node must demonstrate their PoW to all other nodes on the blockchain in order to be given credit for their processing power. For the Bitcoin protocol, a value called a nonce is added to the transaction ledger to find a specific hash property namely, a set number of leading zeroes in the resulting hash.

Originally, blockchain technology was formed to manage digital currency transactions made with Bitcoins. As noted above, the ledger of these exchanges was not stored in an information center or in a central repository, as, for example, a bank would. A straightforward case of this exchange procedure may go this way:

I have 50 bitcoins but be indebted you 25. I ping the system of the impending transaction and as my account drops by 25 yours will rise by the same amount.

Every node is cautioned to the game plan, approves it through acknowledged calculations, and updates their record with the exchange/transaction. Each node that is a piece of the framework currently has a refreshed record of the exchange.

It is significant to note that the structure does not track the definite balance, but as a substitute catalogues the current transaction along with all preceding ones.

With the exchange shown above, a few things become vivid. First, unlike the majority of current day fiscal exchanges, this transaction/exchange is open, and is made through a solo, common ledger.

Second, there is no intermediate or essential point of contact. All of the nodes tangled approve the soundness of the transaction already it is added or confirmed in the system.

Lastly, there is not at all intermediary handling the paperless transaction. Zilch can get lost in translation and a signature page will not be found stuck between the wall and copy machine. The exchange is rapid, well-organized and public and serves the developed companies who sell product items like plastic bags.

A pointed summary comes from Don Tapscott, co-founder and Executive Director at Blockchain Research Institute. He notes, “At its most basic, the blockchain is a global spreadsheet — an incorruptible digital ledger of economic transactions that can be programmed to record not just financial transactions but virtually everything of value and importance to humankind.”

He goes on to mention that this includes anything from biological and passing certificates, wedding licenses, and educational documents or credentials to health records or processes, insurance dues, or even polls.

Fundamentally, if the data can be connected via code, it can be connected via blockchain.

How safe is blockchain? Going bottomless into how the blockchain works discloses the machinations of its safety apparatus. Going back to our Bitcoin instance, to start the transmission of the 25 Bitcoins, I must possess a wallet, which only I have entrée to and which is where my Bitcoins are kept. That wallet has a reserved and open key, both of which are encoded. The public key is successfully my blockchain address. The remote key is what allows me to save my assets, Bitcoin or otherwise. So when I start the transfer, the nodes on the system confirm my appeal by decrypting the open key, not the reserved one.

With no centralized confirmation system, the blockchain method of broadcasting the transaction across the network of nodes means the proof is, efficiently, everywhere. Makes imitating or misusing the data a fool’s duty. To explain it another way, if I say the sky is blue and you argue it is not, I would be correct as it is common data and unanimously accepted that the sky is, in fact, blue. The blockchain, by repeatedly and publically updating the requests, is creating a commonly accepted authenticity of every transaction performed and works well with the small purchases of fastening bolts and screws.

The implications of this are thoughtful. Removing personality theft, defensive against mass hacks, and protecting delicate or proprietary data have been problematic challenges to overcome as thieves, and those directing to do digital harm turn out to be more urbane and violent in their methods.

Numerous valued business leaders see the very real benefit of this breakthrough approach to digital security. Patrick Byrne, CEO of Overstock.com, has said, when referring to the blockchain and money market security, “With blockchain technology, we can create a version of Wall Street where no one can cheat and where all kinds of mischief cannot even occur.”

Additionally, Jason Kelley, IBM Global Manager for Blockchain Services, points out, “It allows people to exchange value without knowing the identity of each other necessarily, in a secure way on the back end. On the front end, it’s simplicity, transparency and trust. Think of all the price, period and often remaining that happens in the exchange of value – blockchain rids that from the system.”

Blockchains, while mayhap not a cure-all, can aid in making safer, extra reliable information systems through the elimination of singular data vaults and the dissemination of irrefutable municipal records, which can aid avoid the wide scale abuse of manufacturing companies overseas who are in titanium, aluminum, stainless steel and nickel production.

Real World Application of Blockchain

As noted, blockchain may have been shaped to preserve the reliability of Bitcoin transactions, but the application of the concept has boundless potential.

We by this time covered the document management aspect, from certificate to licenses to certain information records. But what else is there? Several start-up groups are discovering ways the blockchain can recover upon or revolutionize current standards and practices.

One such group is using the blockchain idea for cloud based storage. This allows handlers to rise their data’s security by eliminating the only storage method of today’s providers. It also permits subscribers to sub out unused space or storing they are not using.

Tech giants and governments alike are also part of the blockchain upheaval. Microsoft is energetically looking at partnerships with organizations that specify in the technology. Delaware is the major state in the US to bind its potentials, hoping to recover productivities for companies incorporated within its borders in such industries as aluminum extrusion, chillers, and pneumatic conveyors.

Even retail giant Walmart is looking at possible presentations through a partnership with IBM. Together, they hope to advance food safety by monitoring the food life-cycle from beginning to end.

As inspiring as that list may be, many trust that only scratches the surface. For some, the blockchain may very well be the next level of the internet.

Abigail Johnson, CEO of Fidelity Investments, said this in 2017, “The internet wasn’t just a more efficient way to send letters – it spawned new industries. Blockchain technology isn’t just a more efficient way to settle securities – it will fundamentally change market structures – and maybe even the architecture of the internet itself.”

Conclusion of this article is that public transactions are safe. Broadly demonstrable records that are secure and tamper-proof. Better competences and decrease of needless costs or time consuming measures. All of these are aims in pursuing a more public driven and less corruptible means of collaborating and transacting with each other. Numerous prior generations have looked for the right balance in achieving these objectives in creating a better, more hospitable society. And nowadays, much as in the past, we still strive for that paradise. Now though, possibly more than ever before, the future is clouded in indecision. No one truly knows what the world will truly look like in ten, twenty, fifty years. Regrettably, this often leads a lot of people to believe it will be troubled with disbelief, chaos and maybe even a bit of insanity.

As our world evolves, so do the innovations that help meet those fears head on. And with skills like the blockchain reconfiguring the way we interact with one another, the future may well be a very bright place.

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