Cybersecurity

One of the greatest use-cases of blockchain technologies is the ability to improve security and counter malicious actors, but we need to get serious about it.

We find it easy to talk about the benefits of the digital economy, whether the internet or digital assets, but the costs are often overlooked. Whether the surge in human trafficking that has emerged on social media platforms or the rise of cybersecurity vulnerabilities, the expansion of the digital economy comes with new risks to manage.

The digital asset community is no different and, to scale and become sustainable, it must confront the prevalence of fraud. And, it’s not hard: already distributed ledger technologies are demonstrating their value by solving concrete use-cases. This week in Vienna, Austria, the Austrian National Bank — together with the Complexity Science Hub and other sponsors — are hosting a conference on advances in financial technology, with a wide array of presenters who have researched value-enhancing uses of blockchain technology.

Thanks to pioneering work by the Federal Trade Commission’s Consumer Sentinel, we now have basic statistics on the incidence of fraud, the perpetrators, and the countries that exhibit the greatest violations. Using these data on complaints, Michel Grosz and Devesh Raval from the FTC show that it is possible to identify countries with excess levels of fraud based on their level of exports and to whom they are exporting. We need this caliber of data and the processes to support its collection to make strides in countering fraud.

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