Cybersecurity and Blockchain
Blockchain over the many years since its inception has been used primarily for one use-cryptocurrency. With its immutability due to the blocks and each being recorded after 51% of the block members’ approval. As time has passed, more industries have started to research this for their own use case.
As the protocol is not application-specific, there are many industries this is perfectly in tune with. With the wide variety of uses, it’s no wonder this has been researched in the food industry. Transparency and traceability are significant benefits here. Recently, a mango producer has embraced the blockchain platform. The PoC (proof of concept) testing for this lasted 2.5 years. The blockchain application was co-funded by the Cooperative Research Centre for Developing Northern Australia (CRCNA), in partnership with Trust Provenance, blockchain subject matter experts, mango producer Manbulloo and Growcom, an industry group.
The blockchain in this instance includes data from all of the systems, including critical information within their supply chain. With this application, the real-time data (e.g. time, temperature, and location) were included in the blocks, approved, and placed into the blockchain. With the transparency factor, the data could be accessed by the member through a dashboard. With this data all in one place, Manbulloo is able to check in one area for the secured information. Previously, every organization in the supply chain had its own version of record-keeping, which created additional costs and redundancy. Another benefit is once this is placed in the blockchain, it is immutable or not able to be altered or adjusted.
About the Author - Charles Parker, II has been working in the info sec field for over a decade, performing pen tests, vulnerability assessments, consulting with small- to medium-sized businesses to mitigate and remediate their issues, and preparing IT and info sec policies and procedures. Mr. Parker’s background includes work in the banking, medical, automotive, and staffing industries.