Cybercrime Is Exploding…Blockchain Will Be the Solution
By Henry Haley on The Capital
Who has not been the victim of a cyber attack in some form?
We’re talking anything from stealing your credit card information to even hacking the Pentagon!
It comes in many forms: malware, identity and data theft, email scams, ransomware, hacking of bank accounts, cyberattacks on essential infrastructure, and so on.
It has been said that cybercrime is the greatest threat to every company in the world. It is also the fastest-growing crime globally.
Presently, the costs are estimated at nearly $6 trillion annually! And that figure is expected to rise parabolically.
In addition, there is a multitude of hidden costs associated with this problem that don’t show up in that number…things such as loss of productivity, opportunity costs, damage to reputation, lawsuits from disruption of business and exposure of private customer data, etc.
And because the Internet (and everything connected to it)is growing exponentially, the targets for cyberattacks also grow exponentially.
Think of all of the IoT (Internet of Things)that will be connected:
- “smart” wearables and monitors
- digitally-monitored implantable medical devices
- miniature (and eventually microscopic) sensors monitoring essential infrastructure, buildings, and equipment
- electricity grids
- air and road traffic control
- autonomous vehicles
- satellites in space…
You get the picture.
Billions of dollars and innumerous man-hours are being thrown at the problem, but nothing has been able to control or even slow it down.
Why not?
Because in order to combat these threats, there will need to be a massive increase in the training of cybersecurity professionals and ongoing funding to supply them with the latest technology to keep up.
This will, of course, come with a significant but necessary financial cost to every business and institution.
However, there is a better solution waiting to be deployed — and that is blockchain technology.
How can that possibly be, you ask?
Well, because Bitcoin, which is built on blockchain, is already the most secure computing network in the world.
It has several features which could potentially render cybercrime obsolete :
- It has NEVER been hacked.
- It is globally decentralized, with the data stored over millions of servers. Thus, there is no single point of access or failure.
- It is immutable, so no cybercriminal could ever change the time-stamped data in the chain.
So, even if an attacker was able to hack the Bitcoin code, which is nearly impossible, it would only be ONE data point. The hacker would still not have access to the rest of the network, and wouldn’t be able to alter anything without every other node in the network being immediately aware of it.
Imagine using this network as the basis for a new Internet, which already has the moniker “Web 3.0.”
You see, the Internet as it presently exists was never built with security in its core. It was set up as a method of communication. That is why it is so vulnerable to hacking, and why all the frequent software security patches are necessary but never effective for long.
Blockchain technology, and its usage as the core infrastructure of Web 3.0, will finally allow the Internet to reach its full promise.
Now can you understand the power of the Bitcoin ecosystem as being much, much more than a form of digital currency or even a store of value?
Corporations and institutions are waking up to the power of using the Bitcoin platform and blockchain technology to secure their businesses.
The potential use cases for cryptos are enormous, and cybersecurity is just one…but one of the most crucial.
NOW is the time for adoption and growth of blockchain technology. The world’s security literally depends on it.
