Since the creation of the Bitcoin, engineers have been working on finding ways to implement the technology behind it into other sectors. The blockchain technology is something that can easily be implemented into anything. These applications range from the financial sector, health, military, government, etc. Even though this technology was initially intended to be used in the financial sector, today it is used in other sectors, such as security. Over the past several years governments and private companies are working hard on implementing the blockchain in as many sectors as possible.
The idea of blockchain isn’t something that was created several years ago. Back in 1991 scientist was working on implementing a system with timestamps on documents to prevent tampering. A year later, the hash tree or Merkel tree was implemented which improved the efficiency. Things went somewhat quiet for almost two decades. The first real-life use for the blockchain technology was for bitcoin in 2008. Since then, experts have been looking for ways to implement technology in other sectors. Today we are going to talk about three security applications of the blockchain
Blockchain applications
Cybersecurity
Data protection is one of the biggest concerns in modern times. The biggest problem occurs when certain data is tampered with. That is where blockchain comes to the rescue. Once the data is broken down in the blocks and spread across a network of thousands or millions of nodes, the chances of someone tampering with it are almost zero.
Last year the British justice ministry started working on a plan to implement blockchain technology to prevent tampering with evidence. In another part of the Brtish government, the Department of Defense is working with a consultancy company. This collaboration aims to improve the integrity of the data that the networked sensors provide.
A collaboration between Australia’s Criminal Intelligence Commission and HoustonKemp will result in a blockchain built system that will record, store and share sensitive data gathered during criminal investigations.
The Russian government, specifically the Ministry of Defense, is working on a laboratory that will research applications of blockchain technology in protecting the military from cyber-attacks.
If you’re still sceptical about this, you should consider that about two years ago DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) was on the lookout for contractors that would develop messaging and transaction platform. Other government agencies are beginning to think about implementing distributed networks for communication and share sensitive data.
Governments aside, private companies are also working on implementing blockchain technology in other sectors. Last week IBM registered a patent for a network that will be built on the blockchain network. The main purpose of this network will be to detect cyber-attacks, especially those attacks that are intended for covering the tracks of a previous attack.
Recently, Leonovus released the Blockchain Evidence Locker. The goal of this application is similar to what the UK‘s Ministry of Justice is working on to prevent the tampering of evidence.
Transactions
One of the main advantages of bitcoin is the anonymity of the transactions. That has opened the doors for funding a lot of illegal activities.
Fortunately, Chainalysis is a company that has been working on tracking the transactions that are funding the illegal activities. They developed software that analyzes the blockchain which helps them find the people behind those activities. Two years ago, Chainalysis worked with the FBI to track down rogue agents that have been stealing Bitcoins from Silk Road.
Chainalysis are not alone. Elliptic, a competitor of Chainalysis, developed tools that identify transactions related to illegal activities. Their main focus is to identify the persons that try to cash-out the funds related to those activities.
The Bitfury group launched their transaction tracking software called Crystal. The tool’s purpose is to provide as much details as possible on any bitcoin transaction, to map and group them and to give out an educated guess if the transaction is used in illegal activity.
CipherTrace is a company that also works on tracking transactions and coins, but they have kicked it up a notch. They deliberately infect computers in their labs with ransomware. Once they pay the ransom for the kidnapped data, they track the coins and try to find who is behind the ransomware.
Blockchain Alliance is a group of companies that aim to teach law enforcement on the blockchain technology, as well as how to prevent the cyber crimes associated with it. The group’s transaction tracking tools are already deployed by Europool and the US Department of Homeland Security in certain investigations.
Military
Military application of blockchain can mean war or peace. The blockchain applications in this sector are practically endless. At this point, any weapon system in the world is some centralized system. That means that there is a specific location from where the weapons are getting commands.
In late 2016, DARPA paid Galois almost two million dollars for the Guardtime Keyless Signature Infrastructure. Essentially it is a blockchain based code that can’t be hacked and is intended to be used to improve the security in certain weapons systems.
For example, the Aegis Combat System is a naval system designed to guide missiles. The entire system relies on a supercomputer “ a centralized system. A similar story is with NATO’s battleships. All the weapons are controlled and monitored from the command center. Both of these are specific targets that can be attacked.
A similar application for blockchain is with autonomous drones. Today, the pilot behind the drones is the person with the remote control. Google and the Department of Defense plan to change that. The idea behind this partnership is to use AI and machine learning for the drones to think for themselves. That will eliminate the human factor. If we add the blockchain technology to this, you get drones that think faster and make fewer mistakes than humans.
Final thoughts
The blockchain technology can be implemented into almost anything “ military, cyber-security, even in the healthcare system. Even though it’s new to us, there will come times when it will be implemented in more ways than we can imagine.
