Researchers and technologists alike are talking about how blockchain technology is the next big

thing across industries from finance to retail to even healthcare. According to Gartner, their client
inquiries on blockchain and related topics have quadrupled since August 2015. This article attempts
to provide a short executive summary on what blockchain technology is, how it works, and why has it
captured everyone’s fancy.
Blockchain is a database, or ledger, that allows companies and enterprises to initiate trade digitally
without the need for approval from a central authority.
First things first, what is blockchain technology?
Blockchain is the underlying technology behind cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. Unlike physical
currency, digital cash and cryptocurrencies come with a very real problem called Double-Spending.
Let me explain what that is. When I email you a picture of my cat, I’m sending you a copy and not
my original picture. However, when I need to send you money online, as much as I would love to
send you a copy of it, it’s a bad idea if I really do that! With Bitcoin, there was a risk that the holder
could just send copies of the same bitcoin token in different transactions, leading to “Double-
Spending”.
Blockchain technology helps counter issues like double spending. The simplest way to think of
blockchain is as a large distributed ledger of sorts that stores records of transactions. This “ledger” is
replicated hundreds of times throughout the public network so it is available to everyone. Every time
a transaction occurs, it is updated in ALL of these replicated ledgers, so everyone can see it.
Every time a new transaction is initiated, a block is created with the transactions details and
broadcast to all the nodes. Every block carries a timestamp, and a reference to the previous block in
the chain, to help establish a sequence of events. Once the authenticity of the transaction is
established, that block is linked to the previous block, which is linked to the previous block, creating
a chain called blockchain. This chain of blocks is replicated across the entire network, and all
cryptographically secured which makes it not only challenging, but almost impossible to hack. I say
almost impossible because it would take some significant computational power to even attempt
something like that.
In the context of security, both transparency of the system and immutability of the data stored on
blockchain comes into play. Immutability in computer science refers to something that cannot be
changed. Once data has been written to a blockchain, it becomes virtually immutable. This doesn’t
mean that the data cannot be changed – it just means that it would require extreme computational
effort and collaboration to change it and then also, it would be very difficult to cloak it.
Evolution into new, alternative implementations
Blockchain technology can really be applied to not just a cyptocurrency like bitcoin, but to any
“asset” that can be stored, distributed or transacted – property titles, music, insurance, physical
goods and assets, even your data.
This technology has great implications for the financial services industry as well. On implementing a
decentralized database or a public registry like blockchain to verify the identities of all parties, no
longer will we need to have our transactions stay “pending” for three days. Settlement would be
instantaneous since the transaction and settlement would happen simultaneously once the ledger is
updated. There are many such use cases.
Perhaps the biggest use of blockchain technology is in identity management, as described in this
insightful TED talk by Don Tapscott.
According to him, as we go through our lives, we leave this trail of digital data crumbs behind us.
These are then collected and created into a digital profile of us – which is not owned by us! If we
were to reclaim our “virtual” data, and take control over how much and who we give it out to,
wouldn’t that be a great step towards helping us protect our privacy?
Blockchain technology can fundamentally change how we exchange value and perhaps that’s why
this has caught everyone’s fancy. This is still in its nascent stages but definitely a technology that
holds vast promise and something to watch for, in the future.
Since blockchain runs on coded software, it allows transactions to be automated, and also avoid
duplication.
Currently, most people use a trusted middleman such as a bank to make a transaction. But
blockchain allows consumers and suppliers to connect directly, removing the need for a third party.
Using cryptography to keep exchanges secure, blockchain provides a decentralized database, or
“digital ledger”, of transactions that everyone on the network can see. This network is essentially a
chain of computers that must all approve an exchange before it can be verified and recorded.
Advances in blockchain technology offer incredible opportunities for innovation by streamlining
digital transactions. Recent tech media coverage promises revolutionary developments for many
industries, changing the way commerce is transacted and records are kept. But what is at the heart
of this technological development? What is blockchain? How is it applicable to so many different
uses and industries?
The answers to these questions are explained in ISACA’s new research report, Blockchain
Fundamentals: An Inside Look at the Technology With the Potential to Impact Everything. This
extensive research report provides a deeper technical dive into the use of this technology.
Blockchain promises to become a major force for innovation, changing the way you process
everything with records. As more businesses realize the value of making this investment,
practitioners will need to keep their skills up-to-date.
Blockchain is the data sharing technology behind digital currencies exchanges: blockchain create a
digital ledger of transactions which can be shared with networks of computers using advanced
cryptography. By sharing the digital ledger, it creates a record that can be authenticated by the
community, without the need of a central authority, thereby creating trust in a trustless environment.
According to Biehn, Blockchain-based decentralized systems can be used in cybersecurity,
particularly in such areas as hardware and software supply-chain problems. He added that the
increased transparency offered by the technology can solve many complex cybersecurity issues.
"If you look at other ways of doing this, if a single database were shared for example, or a traditional
leader-election protocol were used, any one of the members can change the data-store at any time.
In applications like identity or supply-chain tracking, you obviously don't want a consumer of the data
to be able, or someone who has compromised a participant, to change all the information in that
ledger."
Hackers can shut down entire networks, tamper with data, lure unwary users into cybertraps, steal
and spoof identities, and carry out other devious attacks by leveraging centralized repositories and
single points of failure.
The blockchain’s alternative approach to storing and sharing information provides a way out of this
security mess. The same technology that has enabled secure transactions with cryptocurrencies
such as Bitcoin and Ethereum could now serve as a tool to prevent cyberattacks and security
incidents.
Blockchains can increase security on three fronts: blocking identity theft, preventing data tampering,
and stopping Denial of Service attacks.
1. Protecting identities
Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) is a popular form of public key cryptography that secures emails,
messaging apps, websites, and other forms of communication. However because most
implementations of PKI rely on centralized, trusted third party Certificate Authorities (CA) to issue,
revoke, and store key pairs for every participant, hackers can compromise them to spoof user
identities and crack encrypted communications.
More recently, tech research company Pomcor published a blueprint for a blockchain-based PKI that
doesn’t remove central authorities but uses blockchains to store hashes of issued and revoked
certificates. This approach gives users a means to verify the authenticity of certificates with a
decentralized and transparent source. It also has the side benefit of optimizing network access by
performing key and signature verification on local copies of the blockchain.
. Protecting data integrity
We sign documents and files with private keys so that recipients and users can verify the source of
the data they’re handling. And then we go to great lengths to prove that those keys haven’t been
tampered with, which is difficult when the key is meant to be secret in the first place.
The blockchain alternative to document signing replaces secrets with transparency, distributing
evidence across many blockchain nodes and making it practically impossible to manipulate data
without being caught. How do you prove that the San Antonio Spurs were the champions of the 2014
NBA Playoffs? You don’t need to because it’s general knowledge. The same applies to data on a
blockchain distributed ledger.
Keyless Signature Structure (KSI), a blockchain project led by data security startup GuardTime, is
one group that aims to replace key-based data authentication. KSI stores hashes of original data
and files on the blockchain and verifies other copies by running hashing algorithms and comparing
the results with what is stored on the blockchain. Any manipulation of the data will be quickly
discovered because the original hash exists on millions of nodes.
Protecting critical infrastructure
A massive October DDoS attack taught us all a painful lesson about how easy it has become for
hackers to target critical services. By bringing down the single service that provided Domain Name
Services (DNS) for major websites, the attackers were able to cut off access to Twitter, Netflix,
PayPal, and other services for several hours, yet another manifestation of the failure of centralized
infrastructures.
A blockchain approach to storing DNS entries could, according to Coin Center’s Peter Van
Valkenburgh, improve security by removing the single target that hackers can attack to compromise
the entire system.
Blockchain will also remove the network fees associated with DNS reads and will only impose costs
on updates and new entries. “This has great potential for lifting a great deal of pressure from the
physical backbone of the Internet,” Saunders said. “It also means we can do away with many of the
redundancies of the traditional DNS and come up with something much better.
1. What is blockchain? (not to be confused with Bitcoin, blockchain is the technology)
2. Can blockchain be used to improve security?

ANSER:
1. Blockchain is a technology and is like a database or ledger which stores the transactional data
uniquely and maintain securely as well and maintain concurrency of data throughout the network. It
is cryptographically secured and is almost impossible to hack which means very very secured and
capable technology. It will create a block for every transaction and store timestamp for that
transaction and it linked to the previous transaction and like this it creates a chain of blocks like this.

2. Yes of course, blockchain is the best to improve security. This technology uses a
cryptographically secure procedures and also blocks the identity theft, and also by providing data
integrity and it doesn't allows DoS attacks. Blockchain uses cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and
Ethereum as tools to improve security by preventing cyber attacks. In this way it blocks all the forms
of leaks. It could be impossible to hack these blockchain technology by the hackers. This way is
most secured and also best one.