As blockchain technology is emerging, concerns are rising around how blockchain improves cybersecurity, and what are the potential vulnerabilities or exploits in the blockchain technology itself.  Peak Blockchain analyst Garvit Tanjea put forth these queries in front of one of the Certified Blockchain Consultants, Max EE, COO of Digital Nomad Labs. He recognizes and has expertise in the design and development of blockchain technology like no one else. 

Certainly, cyber attackers specifically take advantage of the decentralized nature of the internet to maintain their anonymity and to resist the repercussions of the attack. However, the decentralized,  trustless, and consensus-driven nature of blockchain technology makes it automatically irrepressible to attacks.

One of the recent examples of one of the largest cyberattacks is the one that Google disclosed in October 2020, which it encountered in the year 2017, and mentioned as distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack of foreign origin.

According to Max Ee, “In a traditional cyber security system, we usually have one central point of failure, for example, if the hacker is able to access the central database, he can get access to all the clients, or if he brings down one single server, the entire application can fail to perform. However, with blockchain, being a decentralized technology, right now, there is no one central point of failure and it’s actually difficult to bring down the whole network unless the entire internet is shut down.”

He explained the other characteristics of blockchain technology by claiming, “Blockchain has another characteristic, i.e, immutability, which means that transactions on the blockchain technology aren’t changeable right now, although, a few fundamentalists will argue on that as there were some hiccups in the past decades of Bitcoin and Ethereum. However, all the transactions posted in the blockchain are publically visible, and transparent. One cannot change the records as we have the liberty to do so with the traditional systems.” 

Blockchain solutions, such as Bitcoin, that utilize proof-of-work validation functionality, make it more difficult and expensive for hackers to hijack or manipulate ledger transactions.  

In various blockchains or distributed ledger technologies (DLT), usually, the data is stored in blocks, and all the transactions or bundles of transactions that happen across the technology get stored in the blocks. A new block connects to all the previous blocks in a cryptographic chain in such a manner that it becomes impossible for any hacker to manipulate it or anyone to tamper with it. A consensus mechanism validates and agrees upon all the transactions within the blocks to ensure that each transaction is true and correct.

The new world requires new ways to fight the attackers. Cybersecurity is a growing concern around the world, especially among law and policymakers, geopolitical leaders, regulators, and even big or small enterprises. As long as the cyber world is growing, so does cyberattacks. Whether the attackers are politically or financially motivated, the results are always catastrophic and the effects are sweeping.  

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Digital Nomad Labs is a Singapore-based blockchain technology company that develops a suite of innovative solutions.