In the age of the Internet, many companies, banks, and government organizations migrate their financial and economic assets into the web in order to improve the speed, efficiency, and ease of operations. At the same time, the accessibility of the systems by users and customers also suggests increased security risks for the entire superstructure. With devastating hacking attacks happening since 2015, affecting both the financial and political landscape of the world, the standardization and security of systems and processes became the primary focus of IT specialists and organizations around the globe. Some of the approaches to improving the situation include blockchain as well as traditional computer and software protection against unauthorized access and theft.
Blockchain technology was initially developed with the simplification and improvements in packet sharing, modulation, and security in mind (Lin & Liao, 2017). The code is heavily encrypted and uses a combination of private and public protocols in order to operate. Its decentralized nature makes blockchains very hard to undermine and next to impossible for any individual government to control. Blockchain-related technologies are, therefore, innately safer for businesses. At the same time, small businesses do not benefit from technology as much as large-scale ones.
Traditional approaches to security include the standardization of security protocols for different software operators, better encryption, and continuous updating in accordance with the lists of known threats and viruses. As it stands, the discrepancy in security systems lies from user ignorance, a lack of unified standards for online security, and the inability to frequently upgrade and update the systems to respond to the newest challenges in the security system (Bugliesi, Calzavara, & Focardi, 2017). Both large and small businesses could benefit from keeping their hardware and software up to date and training their employees in the basics of managing and responding to online security challenges. In my opinion, both approaches to security have their innate strengths and weaknesses, and it will take decades before one would become preferable over the other.
References
Bugliesi, M., Calzavara, S., & Focardi, R. (2017). Formal methods for web security. Journal of Logical and Algebraic Methods in Programming, 87, 110-126.
Lin, I. C., & Liao, T. C. (2017). A Survey of blockchain security issues and challenges. IJ Network Security, 19(5), 653-659.