How blockchain technology is changing the security landscape in the banking sector

Simple logins and centralized IT infrastructure are also some of the biggest vulnerabilities that banks face. End-user protection becomes an especially daunting task, given that - despite comprehensive cybersecurity - weak passwords often give cyber attackers an opportunity to penetrate the network infrastructure. The deployment of blockchains enables authentication of users and devices without password protection; the decentralisation of the network helps in generating consensus between different parties for verification through blockchain-based SSL certificates. The distributed and decentralized nature of the network that verifies the integrity of the transactions and associated account balances makes a successful attack mathematically impossible."

This delinks the human factor from the security of banking operations and provides strong authentication. It also facilitates speedy identification of the point-of-attack in case of a network security incident.

Certain block-less distributed ledgers are additionally enhancing structural security of IoT devices. Devices in such network environments can recognise and interact with each other in a peer-to-peer manner, without the need for a third-party authority. Complemented with two-factor authentication, this offers unprecedented security to the network infrastructure and makes it impossible to forge digital security certificates.

Blockchain technology can also play a pivotal role in securing internal communications, which are prone to data leaks and cyberespionages. End-to-end encryption fails to cover the metadata - something which can lead to leakage of sensitive information. In blockchain-based systems, the metadata used for communications is scattered in the distributed ledger and cannot be collected at one centralised point.

Blockchain has emerged as one of the most disruptive technologies and has minimized the prevailing security issues in financial transactions. As other viable implementations for the technology are being explored, blockchains are coming to fore as top-contenders for solving an array of cybersecurity challenges and providing end-to-end security to banking institutions.

Though blockchain has several advantages over other systems, there are still a few challenges in terms of compliance, regulations and enforcement that will need to be addressed. For example, regulatory issues demand clarity over jurisdictions and how to comply with KYC (Know your customer) and AML (anti - money laundering) laws. But, the increasingly growing demand and acceptance by enterprises would help overcome these challenges sooner than anticipated.