Blockchain is an exciting new technology that companies are flocking to invest in, patent, and create their own variations of. Some companies are using blockchain for payment processing. Others are using blockchain for keeping track of shipments. Still more are testing blockchain in industries as vast as solar energy.
Experts are understandably enamored with the potential for blockchain in various industries. One company, called Gladius, is trying to use blockchain to fight against cyber security threats. According to The Hacker News:
Gladius, a blockchain service for DDoS prevention and website acceleration aims to leverage on its global network of individual and independent nodes in mitigating the effects of a DDoS attack and caching content all across the world to make the website load faster.
Being a decentralized network, users can rent out their spare bandwidth through a desktop client and earn money by sharing their bandwidth. Then, their excess bandwidth is distributed to nodes which in turn funnel the bandwidth to websites under DDoS attacks to make sure they stay up.
During “peace time” or periods without a DDoS, Gladius’ network also speeds up access to the internet by acting as a content delivery network, wherein web content is cached for faster delivery to the target client’s browser.
A number of DDoS attacks have crippled the internet in the past year alone, the most famous of which is the attack on Dyn that created outages for sites as massive as Twitter and Amazon. It’s understandable that companies large and small are afraid of these types of attacks. A sophisticated DDoS attack could destroy a company’s credibility or shut it down long enough to cut profit significantly.
The scariest part is that there’s little that can be done if a botnet decides to turn its sights on your company.
According to this DDos Impact survey, almost half of respondents say they have encountered a DDoS attack, with more than 90 percent of these businesses being attacked a span of 12 months.
The average DDoS attack lasted between 6 to 24 hours, and at the cost of $40,000 per hour, these cost businesses about $500,000 per attack on average, with some even costing more for larger enterprises.
For small businesses, the cost can be more severe, especially for those that depend solely on their online operations and sales to thrive.
That’s why blockchain is such an interesting option in the fight for cyber security. Small businesses that would be ruined by a DDoS attack could use the technology at a relatively low price. These businesses can rarely afford the type of expert-level cyber security personnel that Forbes 500 companies are competing for. By utilizing blockchain, these organization can mitigate the risk of an attack without breaking the bank.
It will be interesting to see where this new technology leads. Cyber security experts remain hopeful.
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