The Future of IT: Secure Compute without Cybersecurity
Written by Dominic Williams
Originally published in the CV VC Top 50 Report 2023
The Internet Computer is a public blockchain network that’s efficient and infinitely scalable, which hosts a new form of reimagined smart contract software that performs general purpose backend compute. The network makes it possible to build a Web3 social network, or order book exchange, say, 100% on-chain, exclusively from smart contract software, in a brave new full-stack decentralization paradigm. Advanced mathematics and computer science imbues the network with capabilities completely unlike any seen before.
To date, the network has primarily been used for building hundreds of Web3 projects. The easiest way to understand what ICP technology can do (ICP stands for Internet Computer Protocol, the language spoken by the Internet Computer’s nodes) is to try out a major service such as OpenChat, which hosts vast numbers of users, chat messages and media. The entire service runs from the Internet Computer, including the interactive user experience, which the underlying smart contract software generates by directly processing HTTP (the language of the web).
While this is a Web3 breakthrough, in this article, we draw attention to the profound implications for IT and compute more generally, which involves a revolution in computer security. OpenChat’s users can maintain crypto in their chat accounts that they can send to others using instant chat messages without any need for a wallet because it is stored by the service. The crypto held inside the OpenChat service is clearly a honeypot for hackers, but the service runs without any cybersecurity protections at all.
Smart contract software running on a blockchain guarantees that it will always run its logic as written, and it will process its correct data. Smart contracts, and their computation and data, live in cypherspace, where they are tamperproof, and run without the need for the protections of firewalls and other cybersecurity measures. They don’t even need antivirus software to protect them from ransomware. Because OpenChat is built exclusively from smart contract software, and lives entirely on the blockchain, it is also tamperproof.
Today, the IT world is in the midst of a security crisis. In 2021, the Colonial Pipeline stopped working after a ransomware attack on its servers, depriving the Eastern Seaboard of the United States of gasoline. Recently, MGM was attacked, not only rendering its casinos inoperable, but locking their hotel customers out of their rooms. Behind such high profile cyber breaches, hundreds of thousands of incidents now occur every year worldwide. The average cost of each incident is $4.5 million dollars, and it is estimated that the global cost of cyber crime will reach $10 trillion by 2025.
Cybersecurity has become a key issue of our time, like war, or climate change. Yet, artificial intelligence is about to make things much, much worse, by making phishing easier, fooling biometric security systems, performing automated hacks, and identifying new zero day exploits automatically. The world desperately needs solutions. Governments are now pushing responsibility onto those who are hacked, and the CSO of Uber recently received three years probation after misreporting a hack they suffered. Thankfully, the Web3 services running on the Internet Computer today reveal a better path forward.
In 2024, the DFINITY Foundation will support a commercial initiative to provide enterprises and governments, who may not be ready to build on a public network, with repackaged ICP technology that enables them to spin up secure private clouds where software is tamperproof and unstoppable. Different private clouds can be made interoperable by registering them with the Internet Computer. At the DFINITY Foundation, we are proud to be helping the world address one of the most pressing problems of our time.
Later this year, you will hear more about UTOPIA technology, which stands for Unstoppable Tamperproof Open Platform for Independent Autonomy. Each UTOPIA is a private cloud, which can be spun up over existing clouds, or dedicated hardware, as needed. This year, enterprises and governments will begin building on these advanced serverless cloud environments using next-generation canister smart contract software, written in any language, running on the WebAssembly virtual machine. Welcome to the brighter future.
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Learn more about the Internet Computer: internetcomputer.org
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