Cybersecurity has always been at the top of mind for enterprise network development. Although blockchain is better understood for its data and value transfer functionality, solutions architects are gradually awakening to how a public blockchain infrastructure can be used to provide the utmost level of cybersecurity to any system.
To guide network architects in their understanding of the blockchain as a cybersecurity framework, the following infographic compares the BSV blockchain with industry standards of information security.
The BSV blockchain as an enterprise cybersecurity framework
BSV as a security system
Encompassing the CIA Triad of Information Security, BSV proves to be a security system that's effective and highly secure. Blockchain transactions run peer-to-peer without an intermediary, making them as direct as possible. With everyone's eyes on the ledger, fraud is almost impossible.
The new cybersecurity infrastructure provides transparency, auditability and security to the networks,while allowing granular permissioning that maintains the privacy and integrity of data.
BSV and the CIA triad of information security
The BSV blockchain utilises the CIA triad of information security, following the structure of confidentiality, integrity and availability.
- Confidentiality
The BSV blockchain is designed to allow individuals to exchange data in an entirely new architecture that provides a firewall between the user’s identity and the transaction. This removes the need for a third party trusted authority and empowers users to maintain control over their identity. This significantly increases the cost to cyber-criminals, as they are required to individually attack millions of customers' networks instead of targeting one network that exposes millions of customers' information.
- Integrity
The BSV blockchain utilises a SHA-256 algorithm that converts a string of text into a deterministic output called a hash. The output cannot reveal the input, but anyone with the input can verify its authenticity if the corresponding hash is public. Even the slightest change in the input will be met with a completely different output - for example, changing a letter from upper to lower case or simply adding a period.
This feature creates a ‘digital fingerprint’ and is used by transaction processors (aka nodes) for securing the integrity of the blockchain.
Any node or user can quickly validate and authenticate the integrity of the data inside a transaction by using just the Merkle proof of a transaction to ensure the hash is sound.
- Availability
A secure system must always have information and data available without interruption. Because the BSV blockchain is a distributed network, the ledger can be accessed via any of the nodes regardless of outages in certain parts of the network.
The BSV blockchain's trustless model for resilience and security
Today's information security is designed to create a Web of Trust environment for its users so that they can exchange data securely and privately. This exchange is done through a certificate authority (CA) to confirm the applicant's identity. An example is a domain SSL certificate granted by CAs to add security to a website.
Unfortunately, these CAs are not impenetrable. A single breach is enough to compromise the Web of Trust. Once compromised, every connected block is affected, forcing an intensive search. The breach reaches and affects all associated networks and systems, and most alarmingly, there's no way to know just how extensive the damage of the attack is.
In the case of the BSV blockchain, the outage or compromise of a single node has no adverse effect on the network. Instead of making use of an intermediary organisation like a bank, the blockchain relies on a consensus mechanism that identifies rogue nodes the moment they are compromised.
The blockchain’s hash-based, proof-of-work incentive structure also drives honest participation and behaviour. Members continually try to keep the network healthy through fast connections and the best hardware. With everyone having a copy of the ledger and all eyes on it, it's practically impossible to get away with fraud, making the blockchain secure.
How the BSV blockchain responds to an attack on the network
With the consensus mechanism in place, honest nodes reject blocks that attempt to double spend or violate protocols governing the network. Honest nodes combine their hash power to fend off attackers. Bad actors can try to overpower the honest network by maintaining a chain that includes fraudulent activity. And yet, it would be far more profitable to utilise the same computing power to participate in the network honestly
"The system is secure as long as honest nodes collectively control more CPU power than any cooperating group of attacker nodes" - Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System
The 5 core functions of CSF and the sub-categories of the NIST framework
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) cybersecurity framework (CSF) was designed as a template to provide guidance and standards for both public and private companies to protect their critical infrastructure through a risk-based approach.
When applying the BSV network to the five core functions of CSF and its sub-categories of the NIST framework, we can begin to see how enterprise cybersecurity can evolve to provide a much more resilient, secure and de-siloed architecture.
- Identifying assets and preventing risk with BSV
The first of the five core functions helps an organisation understand how to manage its risk involving assets and data. BSV's publicly distributed ledger allows for a single source of truth to keep track of asset management activities through an audit-friendly ticker tape of transactions that can be authenticated and provably shown to exist.
- Protecting critical Infrastructure with BSV
Once a solid asset inventory has been taken for each account and each machine and/or employee has been issued a blockchain-based identity (that links network activity through an extremely low-cost BSV transaction), there will always be an immutable trail to follow.
Tamper evident/resistant network activity logs, events and access control data can be recorded securely and privately on-chain. This prevents any alterations to the records, making discovering intrusions or inside attacks on a network much easier to detect and protect against.
This brings us to an important difference between today’s legacy cybersecurity solutions and the next-generation BSV-based cybersecurity framework. BSV’s protocol breaks data silos when applied to the NIST CSF, meaning it can potentially provide a true ‘one pane of glass’ implementation, reducing the total cost of cybersecurity defense due to reduced hardware, software and managed service needs.
- Detecting activities on a network with BSV
Since the chain is immutable or unchangeable, and all activity is recorded on-chain, it's easy to see when someone tries to make alterations to a block. Attackers cannot remove evidence of their activities, which makes it easy to spot the breach at the earliest and identify the exact extent of damage.
- Responding and Recovering from a security incident with BSV
BSV can help reduce the time between detection and response. Since every block has a part of the hash from the previous block, it's easy to verify whether or not the data has been altered; therefore, recovery takes less time.
BSV: excellent enterprise cybersecurity network
The very essence of blockchain, public distribution, is what makes it secure. Having millions of eyes on the ledger makes it almost impossible for anyone to get away with fraudulent activities. If you're dealing with highly sensitive information, blockchain will surely give you a better security boost than if you place your cybersecurity in the hands of those who handle everyone else's.
Bring the power of blockchain into your organisation and see just how innovative this technology is!
The world of blockchain may still be confusing to some, but we hope that this infographic could shed some light on the benefits of blockchain as a cybersecurity network. Learn more about how the BSV blockchain meets and exceeds information security requirements. Download our eBook here.
