Blockchain technology as a cyberdefense mechanism

22 February, 2018 – In recent months, the perception of cybersecurity has undergone a radical change, attacks and advances in this area occur more quickly. Companies, especially in the wake of the WannaCry and Petya attacks, invest more time and resources in having tools to ensure the protection of their customers and themselves from potential attacks. In this sense, Vector ITC Group, a technology consultant 100 of Spanish capital, highlights the application of Blockchain as a cyberdefense mechanism.

“2018 is the year of data protection, mainly due to the arrival and application of the new General Data ProtectionRegulation”, highlights Iván Lastra, head of Blockchain at Vector ITC Group. “However, one of the biggest concerns of companies today is having enough powerful structures to deal with potential attacks. To do this, one of the tools with the greatest potential for cyber defense is blockchain“He adds.

Blockchain technology has gained a lot of relevance, mainly in the financial and insurance sectors. However, according to the latest studies, Spain is a European leader in Blockchain investments. This is due, among other reasons, to the innovative technology that allows to establish a decentralized platform that validates the authenticity of transactions and information by consensus of the components of the network. However, it can be applied to many more sectors.

Blockchain as an element of cybersecurity, an unknown application.

Blockchain’s own idiosyncrasy offers an implicit data security capability, since all information is stored in a distributed and encrypted manner, thus ensuring its integrity. Its application is extending from financial transactions or logistics operations to identity management, where it can be a complementary level of security to biometric solutions or to the double factor of authentication.

Aware of the infinite possibilities it offers, Vector ITC Group proposes the use of Blockchain technology framed in cybersecurity. Examples of its application in this area would be:

• Software Integrity Control:You can ensure that a software is legitimate by ensuring that it has not been corrupted, by registering and controlling it against the record kept by the provider, of its MD5 hashes, for example.
• IoT: To track IoT devices, or their components, and determine if they are a reliable source, thus controlling the supply chain to be able to detect compromised devices, since in recent times it has become a source of attacks without user knowledge.
• Identity management: Blockchain allows you to increase the capabilities to verify the identity of IT customers. User information is stored immutablely, so you avoid relying on a single application for verification.

“We are facing technology with latent potential from which much more can be achieved in the near future. In our case, we are pioneers in the creation of our own methodologies for the development of Blockchain projects, characterized by speed, efficiency, cost optimization and reduced time to market”, concludes Iván Lastra.