Securing Cryptocurrency: A Space-based Solution

Whether in transit or at rest, data is the world’s most sought-after commodity. Organizations today are investing heavily in cybersecurity, which has escalated to an executive-level discussion as cybercriminals devise increasingly complex attacks in greater and greater numbers. Storing and sending data securely is a priority, but today’s technology deck seems stacked against success.

Cyber-attacks and data breaches in businesses almost doubled globally in 2017 compared to 2016, according to research firm Cybersecurity Ventures, and spending on cybersecurity is predicted to exceed $1 trillion from 2017 to 2021. This level of spending reveals that businesses are willing to pay a premium to protect their organizations from the damage to brand equity and the potential insolvency that a cyber-attack can cause.

Companies today are using multi-tenant data centers, but in doing so, they run the risk of exposing high-value, highly sensitive data to bad actors, not to mention the challenges associated with jurisdictional hazards. Organizations of all sizes are subject to the vulnerability of the public internet and a global, disparate network infrastructure. No cybersecurity strategy can fully address this evolving threat.

Not even blockchain-based cryptocurrency is exempt. While it is true that blockchain technology itself is highly secure, hackers have already pulled off cryptocurrency heists that have left online vaults empty. As the world shifts to cloud services, it is becoming clear that the time is now for a paradigm shift in how to store and access sensitive data such as digital currency.

The Shift Cryptocurrency Needs

Cryptocurrency is an unorthodox form of currency, and its providers need an unorthodox, secure storage and transport solution to meet customer and market demands. What if there was a way to bypass the terrestrial network infrastructure entirely to mitigate exposure and secure this data from theft, while reducing costs both from an infrastructure and risk perspective?

The two primary reasons behind the need for this shift are:

• The Cost of Jurisdictions – When data has been replicated or backed up to a cloud service provider’s data center in an undesirable jurisdiction, a government action could restrict or force the exposure of company information. This has created the requirement for companies to operate separate data centers in each jurisdiction – which can be financially prohibitive for many small and medium-sized businesses.
• A Vulnerable System of Networks – Cloud services run across both public and private networks using cybersecurity solutions that are not robust enough to stay ahead of continuously evolving cybersecurity threats. Currently, cryptocurrency data can be subject to government agency monitoring and exposed to acts of competitor sabotage through unauthorized access to computers, passwords and cloud storage on public and private networks.

Currency Storage and Protection

An independent cloud infrastructure platform created by a space-based global network could serve cryptocurrency asset owners, entirely isolating and protecting sensitive data from the vulnerable global terrestrial network infrastructure. Blockchain technology already provides an immutable record of transactions, and storing that transaction data in space would provide an additional layer of impenetrable security. Since this data never traverses the terrestrial network infrastructure, an ultimate “air gap security” or “Space Gap” would be created to offer unprecedented data security.

This means eliminating exposure to terrestrial networks; data can be stored in data vaults designed to enable secure cloud storage. This would result in the ultimate cold wallet vault. Its architecture would provide a truly revolutionary way of reliably and redundantly storing data, greatly mitigating the risk of cyberattack and jurisdictional exposures.

Though it may seem that such a system would be prohibitively expensive, costs for such a solution would run the same or less to build, operate and maintain as terrestrial networks. The solution would serve as a key market differentiator for companies that are looking for solutions that provide physical protection of their currency and that of their customers. This is because such a system would need to include its own terrestrial network infrastructure to be entirely secure. While this is extremely expensive to accomplish on the ground, it need not be the case if properly architected as a space-based storage platform and network.

Time for a New Solution

Sooner rather than later, global companies and governments will look to the skies for the centralized storage and distribution of sensitive or classified data, and the distribution, storage and protection of video and audio feeds from authorized personnel in remote locations. It only makes sense that cryptocurrency companies would do the same for their digital currency assets. Organizations can no longer rely on terrestrial infrastructure and cloud storage services, which are notoriously leaky and continue to fail. A space-based solution is needed that bypasses this broken system and provides the isolation and protection that critical, sensitive, high-value data such as cryptocurrency needs.

Cliff Beek is the president of Cloud Constellation Corporation