Blockchain is often touted as a world-changing technology and in many ways, it is. However, it isn’t necessarily the cure-all panacea for the world’s problems that many evangelists would have you believe.
The security benefits of blockchain in the industry.
Greater transparency
transaction histories are becoming more transparent through the use of blockchain technology. Because blockchain is a type of distributed ledger, all network participants share the same documentation as opposed to individual copies. That shared version can only be updated through consensus, which means everyone must agree on it. To change a single transaction record would require the alteration of all subsequent records and the collusion of the entire network. Thus, data on a blockchain is more accurate, consistent and transparent than when it is pushed through paper-heavy processes. It is also available to all participants who have permissioned access. To change a single transaction record would require the alteration of all subsequent records and the collusion of the entire network. Which can be, you know, a headache.
Learn more about blockchain todayEnhanced security
There are several ways blockchain is more secure than other record-keeping systems. Transactions must be agreed upon before they are recorded. After a transaction is approved, it is encrypted and linked to the previous transaction. with the fact that information is stored across a network of computers instead of on a single server, makes it very difficult for hackers to compromise the transaction data. In any industry where protecting sensitive data is crucial — financial services, government, healthcare — blockchain has an opportunity to really change how critical information is shared by helping to prevent fraud and unauthorized activity.Improved traceability
If your company deals with products that are traded through a complex supply chain, you’re familiar with how hard it can be to trace an item back to its origin. When exchanges of goods are recorded on a blockchain, you end up with an audit trail that shows where an asset came from and every stop it made on its journey. This historical transaction data can help to verify the authenticity of assets and prevent fraud.Increased efficiency and speed
When you use traditional, paper-heavy processes, trading anything is a time-consuming process that is prone to human error and often requires third-party mediation. By streamlining and automating these processes with blockchain, transactions can be completed faster and more efficiently. Since record-keeping is performed using a single digital ledger that is shared among participants, you don’t have to reconcile multiple ledgers and you end up with less clutter. And when everyone has access to the same information, it becomes easier to trust each other without the need for numerous intermediaries. Thus, clearing and settlement can occur much quicker.Reduced costs
For most businesses, reducing costs is a priority.
With blockchain, you don’t need as many third parties or middlemen to make guarantees because it doesn’t matter if you can trust your trading partner. Instead, you just have to trust the data on the blockchain. You also won’t have to review so much documentation to complete a trade because everyone will have permissioned access to a single, immutable version.Blockchain makes it possible to securely and at-scale identify and label any subject and object entity with cryptographically verifiable security credentials. When literally everything is labeled with verifiable, authoritative, machine-readable security credentials (such as classification level, access category and others), multi-level security (MLS) systems can enforce mandatory and discretionary access controls and other MLS-specific isolation.
They can also audit policies that enable information of different classifications and access categories to be stored, accessed, and processed on shared storage, compute, and networking infrastructure while simultaneously assuring the data and other resource objects are only accessed by authorized subjects.
Trusted security labels reduce infrastructure costs, promote assured information sharing, and provide a means to comply with ever-expanding data privacy and security rules and regulations.
Learn more about blockchain today
The problem: Shared infrastructure and unlabeled data elevates security risk exposure
As businesses look to cut costs and increase efficiencies by migrating their applications to the cloud, digitizing their operations, making data-driven analytics-based decisions, and monetizing their data, they increase their security risk exposure by:
Multi-tenant cloud infrastructures that share compute, storage, and networking resources amongst multiple different organizations
Multiple incompatible classifications of data collected, processed, stored, and accessed. Different classifications such as personally identifiable information (PII), public, sensitive, confidential, proprietary and others, require different storage, handling, audit and access controls.
Proliferation of data protection controls, audit requirements and non-compliance penalties
Expanding digital business networks — partnering with organizations and service-providers of unknown or uncertain security risks.
Historically, the government and other risk conscious industries that generate and handle highly classified and sensitive data, have relied on secure computing platforms and multi-level security (MLS) systems to facilitate secure sharing of data. A foundational security control for MLS is OS-level mandatory access control (MAC) that enforces security access policies using security labels applied to all system resources and users.
By comparing the security label of the accessing subject to the accessed object, the OS either allows or denies access. Using MAC and other MLS-specific security controls, data of different classifications and access categories can be co-located on the same storage, compute, and network infrastructure yet subjects are only able to see and access appropriately labeled objects. All object accesses are logged and auditable.
But MLS is complex and difficult to implement and maintain for a number of reasons including, Modern systems are large and complex. The number of objects and subjects and their potential interaction combinations makes it difficult to create and maintain labels and policies using traditional OS-provided utilities. Technical documentation recommends minimizing the number of categories and labels for performance reasons.
Modern systems are networked.they don’t work in isolation they need to work with subjects and objects located remotely. But availability and trustworthiness of external entities and externally supplied labels is suspect.
A high degree of reliance and responsibility on the system security administrator who is operating all these utilities and defining these labels and policies. Lack of oversight and governance to ensure labels and rules are correct and properly applied and maintained.
Policies and labels are simplistic, and rule based.
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In the industry
This is the year of blockchain: the year that business networks based on blockchain are put into production around the world. Early adopters have been using this technology to reimagine their industries, developing new ways of interaction that reduce friction and foster innovation. I’m super excited for the IBM Blockchain Technology Summit in Atlanta on June 29, which will bring together industry experts and executives for a half-day event of sharing knowledge. I’m positive that some great ideas for blockchain implementations will come out of the industry breakout sessions.
Blockchain in the financial services sector
Since blockchain started with Bitcoin, it was natural that businesses would try to find ways to use it for other financial services. Through shared, distributed ledgers, blockchain can help financial institutions reduce the complexity of moving money between parties. Reference data can be captured in real time, validated through consensus, and shared according to permissions. Verifiable audit trails can discourage fraud while the need for reconciliations, which are costly and time-consuming, can practically be eliminated. In addition to these examples, there are numerous areas within the finance sector that can benefit from blockchain: wholesale payments, clearing and settlements, trade finance, equity and debt issuance, identity, collateral management and more.
blockchain provides visibility into the supply chain of global distribution markets. It reduces noise in the system, so goods can be delivered faster and with greater trust. Just think, when you purchase something of value — a branded bag or maybe an expensive bottle of wine If blockchain is used to track each step of a product’s journey through the supply chain, consumers can feel assured they are getting what they expect, as they can with the diamonds that Everledger has placed on blockchain. Going a step further, if food products are put on blockchain, as Walmart is doing in a pilot study, retailers, distributors, processors and growers could quickly trace a contamination to its source and perform a recall.
blockchain services and receive guidance getting started on or evolving your blockchain network.
Blockchain in the public sector
On permissioned blockchains, data in the public sector can be shared seamlessly while privacy is maintained through agreement among participants. This increases transparency and security while reducing barriers to collaboration. In healthcare, organizations are exploring how these features can be used to increase trust for patients and doctors in the process of recording clinical trial data and sharing medical records. Life Sciences companies can use blockchain to increase the transparency of their end-to-end supply chain, including track and trace, product recalls and cold chain. They can even make the pharmaceutical rebates process more efficient.
Summary : security is everybody job because of the world we now, so watch out for information as they come for you to point where to invest on, blockchain is one of them.