Lesson from the Equifax Breach: Blockchain Must Secure Our Data

hatu (76)in #ico • 7 years ago

One of the greatest benefits of blockchain technology is the security and privacy it provides and that gives it obvious value in the data market as its extremely important to secure data. There is a major issue with siloed data warehouses as a single breach can lay millions as victims, and that’s exactly what happened when Equifax was breached.

The Equifax Disaster

During mid-2017, Equifax was attacked by hackers who were able to compromise its systems for several months.

Since Equifax holds personal data on over a 100 million Americans, the hack could have an alarming consequence. The Equifax hack allowed hackers to obtain consumers’ names, addresses, contact information, and even social security numbers—pretty much everything important beside bank pins was compromised (that’s because Equifax doesn’t have bank pins).

The problem here is certainly that Equifax should have strengthened its security measures since its absurd that the breach lasted months. However, a hack of data goliath was inevitable due to the sheer monetary value data has. This shows that have centralized, siloed institutions controlling such massive amounts of data is extremely risky for society’s safety. If the hackers start selling the information they acquired, almost every other American could be a victim of identity theft.

The Remedy

Opiria is offering a solution to the way data is currently being handled. Instead of having centralized, middlemen institutions handle data, Opiria puts the consumers in power. Opiria is a blockchain-powered marketplace where anyone can sell their personal data to any company.

This removes the centralized control of personal data and thereby secures consumers’ private personal information
A major issue in Equifax’s breach was that the public wasn’t notified of the breach, but the blockchain is designed to offer transparency.

With Opiria, consumers become in charge of their information and they don’t have to worry about a data broker losing their extremely sensitive private information to the hands of nefarious hackers. Another major benefit of Opiria is that instead of companies like Equifax profiting from consumer data, consumers can themselves sell this data and earn money.

The Big Picture

Companies need data to function successfully, but the way the data market functions is currently broken. It puts consumers at serious risk and that’s why Opiria sets the stage for how the data market needs to function: placing consumers first.

Opiria places the consumer at the heart of control of their information; they retain its security; they control which aspects of it get sold; they are the ones profiting from it.

This creates an environment of credibility where consumers are willing to give away more (correct) information as they know they are the ones in control. A direct consequence of this is that companies are able to harness accurate data and for the first time can have maximum credibility in the data they obtain.

Opiria is a personal data marketplace but its core function and operational goals are an example for how the entire data market should function.