3 Ways Blockchain Reinforces Data Integrity in the Cloud

People initially became interested in blockchain several years ago after learning about it as a decentralized digital ledger. It supports transparency because no one can change information stored on it once added. People can also watch transactions as they happen, further enhancing visibility. But how does blockchain support the integrity of cloud-stored data?

3 Ways Blockchain Supports the Integrity of Cloud-Stored Data

1. Protecting and Facilitating the Sharing of Medical Records

Technological advancements have undoubtedly improved the ease of sharing medical records between providers. When patients go to new healthcare facilities, all involved parties can easily see those individuals’ histories, treatments, test results, and more.

Such records keep everyone updated about what’s happened to patients, which significantly reduces the likelihood of redundancies and confusion that could extend a health management timeline. Cloud computing has also accelerated information-sharing efforts within healthcare and other industries. It allows medical professionals to access and collaborate through scalable platforms.

Many healthcare workers also appreciate how they can access cloud apps from anywhere. That convenience supports physicians who must travel for continuing medical education events, travel nurses, surgeons who split their time between multiple hospitals, and others who often work from numerous locations.

However, despite these cloud computing benefits, a security-related downside is platforms use a centralized infrastructure to allow record sharing across users. That characteristic leaves cloud tools open to data breaches. In one case, researchers proposed addressing this shortcoming with a blockchain architecture to authenticate users and enable opportunities for sharing medical records securely.

The group prioritized blockchain due to its immutability while seeking to create a system that allowed patients and their providers to share and store medical records securely. The researchers also wanted to design something that was not at risk of data loss or other failures.

The researchers implemented so-called “special recognition keys” to identify medical-related specifics, such as identifying doctors, patients, and hospitals. When testing their system, some metrics studied included the time to complete a transaction and how well the communication-related attributes performed. The outcomes suggested the researchers’ approach worked far better than existing solutions.

2. Improving Access Control

Data breaches can be costly, catastrophic events. Although there’s no single solution for preventing them, people can make meaningful progress by focusing on access control. One of the most convenient things about the cloud is it allows all authorized users to access content regardless of their location. However, as the number of people engaging with a cloud platform increases, so does the risk of compromised credentials that could allow hackers to enter networks and wreak havoc.

Many corporate leaders have prioritized cloud-first strategies. That approach can strengthen cybersecurity because service providers have numerous security features to supplement internal measures. Additionally, cloud-based backup capabilities facilitate faster data recovery if cyberattacks occur.  However, research suggests some access control practices used by cloud administrators have significant shortcomings that could make cyberattacks more likely.

For example, one study about access management for cloud platforms found 49% of administrators store passwords in a spreadsheet. That’s a huge security risk for many reasons, but it also highlights the need for better password hygiene practices. Fortunately, the blockchain is well-positioned to solve this problem.

In one example, researchers developed a blockchain system that uses attribute-based encryption technology to improve how cloud users access content. The setup also contains an audit contract that dynamically manages who can use the cloud and when.

The team’s creation built a fine-grained and searchable system that maintained access control by strengthening cloud security and getting the desired results without excessive computing power. Results also showed this system increased storage capacity.

When the group performed a security analysis on their blockchain creation, they found it stopped chosen-plaintext attacks and cybersecurity breaches based on guessed keywords. A theoretical examination and associated experiments suggested this tool worked better from a computing power and storage efficiency perspective than comparable alternatives.

3. Curbing Emerging Technologies’ Potential Threats

Even as new technologies show tremendous progress and excite people about the future, some individuals specifically investigate how they could harm others through technological advancements. Developments associated with ChatGPT and other generative AI tools are excellent examples. Indeed, these chatbots can save people time by assisting them with tasks such as idea generation or outline creation.

However, because these tools create believable-sounding paragraphs in seconds, some cybercriminals use generative artificial intelligence (genAI) chatbots to write phishing emails much faster than before. It’s easy to imagine the ramifications of a cybercriminal who writes a convincing phishing message and uses it to access someone’s cloud-stored information.

ChatGPT runs on a cloud platform built by OpenAI, which created the chatbot. A lesser-known issue affecting data integrity is OpenAI uses interactions with the tool to train future versions of the algorithms. People can opt out of having their conversations become part of the training, but many people haven’t or don’t know the process for doing it.

As workers eagerly tested ChatGPT and similar tools, some committed potential security breaches without realizing it. Consider if a web developer enters a proprietary code string into ChatGPT and asks the tool for help debugging it. That seemingly minor decision could result in sensitive information becoming part of training data and no longer being carefully protected by the developer’s employer. Some leaders quickly established rules for appropriate usage or banned generative AI tools to address these threats.

A February 2024 study also showed some workers kept entering sensitive information when using ChatGPT despite knowing the associated risks. It’s still unclear how the blockchain will support data integrity for people using cloud-based generative AI tools, but many professionals are upbeat about the potential. 

Conclusion: Using Blockchain for Cloud Data Protection

Entities ranging from government agencies to e-commerce stores use cloud platforms daily. These options are incredibly convenient because they eliminate geographical barriers and allow people to use them through an active internet connection anywhere in the world. However, many cloud tools store sensitive data, such as health records or payment details. Since cloud platforms hold such a wealth of information, hackers will likely continue targeting them.

Although most cloud providers have built-in security features, cybercriminals continually seek ways to circumvent such protections. The examples here show why the blockchain is an excellent candidate for much-needed additional safeguards.