A Case for Decentralized Data: Why Storing and Sharing Data on a Distributed Network is More Secure than on a Centralized Platform
In the information economy, data is fast becoming the most valuable corporate treasury asset. And with Accenture forecasting data production to grow another 4,300 percent by 2020, Enterprise Value of Data (EvD) is primed to become the most important metric for organizations of all sizes.
Unfortunately, cybercriminals have also seized on this trend and are increasingly seeking ways to exploit enterprise IT security holes to steal personal and business data. In fact, industry research firm Cybersecurity Venture projects that 2015 global cybercrime costs of $3 trillion will double by 2021.
Illustrating the problem are recent high-profile hacks like the 2014 Yahoo Breach, which experts now claim affected over 3 billion users, and the 2017 attack on credit reporting agency Equifax that exfiltrated the sensitive data of 145.5-million consumers. Each of these events exceed the scale of previously reported “largest-ever” hacks.
Additionally, criminals have evolved and perverted the rise of the crypto-economy through ransomware schemes that introduce malicious applications into victims’ connected devices, which hold data hostage, until their targets pay a cryptocurrency ransom.
Ransomware represents the most prolific cybercrime trend, with victim losses exceeding $5 billion in 2017, a 1,500-percent increase since 2015, according to the Cybersecurity Ventures report. Two recent ransomware outbreaks, WannaCry and Petya, in May and June of this year, reveal the nature of the beast.
Both attacks repurposed EternalBlue, a leaked National Security Agency tool, to infect hundreds of thousands of targets in over 150 countries. More troubling, over half of Petya’s targets were industrial.
In an escalating threat environment, marked by cyber-military-grade attacks, data from a 2017 Accenture cybercrime survey of 254 companies in seven countries highlights why small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are particularly vulnerable. Specifically, Accenture found that SMEs experience “a higher proportion of cybercrime costs relating to malware” and Web-based attacks.
With information loss emerging as the “largest cost component” of cybercrime for all enterprises, the proliferation of ransomware — a malware variant — inherently positions SMEs as proverbial sitting ducks.
That’s why RepuX, the world’s first decentralized marketplace for B2B data that securely connects SMEs with artificial intelligence (AI) developers, is using the blockchain to store and protect users’ sensitive information and business intelligence.
