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Companies are continuously moving their activities online. It helps them reach out to a more significant part of their audience and leads to a higher conversion rate. However, the internet comes with severe risks. Hackers are always on the prowl and searching for vulnerabilities in your networks. Therefore, it becomes essential to protect your customer data and other information on your servers.
The need for having a robust cybersecurity apparatus is immense in the cryptocurrency industry as cyberattacks have plagued it.
Annual costs due to cybercrimes are expected to reach US$ 6 trillion globally in 2021. As a result, it has become essential to buy SSL certificates, but can these certificates thwart data breaches in the future? We will discuss how Blockchain technology can be the future of these certificates.
Why are SSL Certificates Important in the Crypto space?
Businesses that utilize their website for online transactions must install an SSL certificate. It will help safeguard the customer data and ensure that the transactions take place over a secure communication channel.
The certificate will ensure that the communication exchange between the web server and the visitor’s browser is encrypted. It can only be read by the designated recipient and is not accessible by any unauthorized third party.
It is necessary to buy SSL certificate if you wish to undertake online transactions through your website. Apart from the padlock that acts as a trust factor, your website is authenticated by a reputed third-party Certificate Authority (CA). The incumbent data in your servers is kept confidential while ensuring the integrity of the data too.
Read: HTTP or HTTPS: What is the Difference and Which One is Better to Use
The Future of SSL Certificates
With cryptocurrency gaining in prominence rapidly, it has been the target of hackers. In a significant attack at one of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchanges – Binance, hackers stole an equivalent of US$ 40 million along with API tokens and two-factor authentication codes. In addition, online theft has been a problem, with the crypto industry stealing around US$ 1.9 billion in 2020.
In the Binance incident, there were rumors that the hackers mirrored the URL of the Binance exchange site. The users who were fraudulently led to the malicious site lost their assets. The exchange stored the data in the blockchain using SSL encryption technology. Crypto exchanges must have the highest form of security to prevent malpractices.
Read: What you need to know before investing in cryptocurrencies
What is Blockchain?
Blockchain, often referred to as DLT (or Distributed Ledger Technology), ensures that the digital asset cannot be altered and is transparent using adequate decentralization techniques and cryptographic hashing. It is a digital ledger of transactions that are duplicated and distributed across a chain of computers situated on the blockchain. There is a transparent ledger that ensures the data integrity is preserved.
The technology aids by removing fraud and mitigating risks in data integrity through a scalable and transparent method. Transactions are recorded through an unalterable cryptographic hash signature. It will essentially mean that if a single block of data were altered, it would be apparent right away that the data was tampered with. It would be impossible for a hacker to change all the blocks in the chain and across all the distributed versions.
Blockchain systems can be replicated and are distributed too in nature. Therefore, they are more resistant to cyberattacks. The security of the system relies mainly on these aspects:
Read: An Overview of the Pros and Cons of Using Blockchains in Digital Marketing
Confidentiality:
It is essential to ensure the confidentiality of data, and the technology has exhaustive capabilities to secure it. The networks can use advanced technologies to safeguard the confidentiality of the users. Blockchain technology is open and allows adequate transaction tracking but can also ensure the users are anonymous.
The integrity of data:
These are essentially ledgers where the blocks are linked to other blocks nearby through cryptographic hash functions. When a transaction is recorded, it cannot be changed or altered.
Availability:
Many nodes ensure that the blockchain is resilient even when some of the nodes may be unavailable. Each of the nodes in the network has a copy of the distributed ledger.
Read: Understanding the Latest Cybersecurity Trends
How can blockchain help in Cybersecurity?
Decentralized storage:
Businesses, especially crypto exchanges, store a treasure trove of information about their customers. Most of the data that businesses store is centralized, which increases the risk of a data breach. We are gradually moving towards Blockchain-based storage systems that allow users to archive their data on the blockchain while granting access to third parties. As a result, hackers can no longer have any single-entry point.
Prevent access fraud:
One of the most significant issues with access control is that the passwords on the PKI model rely on the CA for issuance. According to Blockchain-based security systems, the CA managing the passwords are easy to hack. But, using a Blockchain system, you can enable a distributed PKI model. The data can be stored on the new system.
Difficult to tamper data:
Blockchain technology ensures that your data does not get corrupt or lost. The data cannot be removed from the blockchain, and the new data is placed on the older blocks. Thus, you can have a quick audit or track any changes in the system. When a new block is added to the chain, a timestamp and the digital signature make tracing easier.
Prevents DDoS attacks:
A DDoS attack can bombard your website with traffic from several sources all at once. Websites can crash because the DNS is placed on a partly decentralized system. When you operate the DNS on the blockchain, the system gets decentralized, and the flood of traffic can be avoided. The hacker now must have access to several nodes to carry out the attack.
Read: What You Need to Know About DDoS Attacks
Conclusion
As businesses implement safeguards to prevent cyberattacks, they must install an SSL certificate. The increased risk of a cyberattack has led several companies to implement them as a part of their security strategy. However, recent technical advancements could see the certificates based on blockchain technology. Blockchain-based certificates use distributed and decentralized technology. It acts as a fail-proof technology that can help to thwart data breaches
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