Hackers To Receive BTC For Breaking Blockchain Encryption Platform For Consumer Data

Data breach has emerged as an malicious and serious problem in the industry today, and blockchain has been touted as an intelligent solution for the menace. Verizon’s 2019 Data Breach Investigations Report states that:

“No matter what defensive measures security professionals put in place, attackers are able to circumvent them. No organization is too large or too small to fall victim to a data breach… Regardless of the type or amount of your organization’s data, there is someone out there who is trying to steal it.”

The Tide foundation has tried to design such a solution, which would offer protection against data breaches on a large scale. The non-profit’s technology aims offer their technology to big companies, in the hopes that it would prevent companies breaching consumer data by denying them unchecked access on any level.

It also wishes to compensate consumers when their data is monetized, provided that they have given permission for their data to be monetized. Co-founder Michael Loewy has issued a challenge saying “come hack us if you can.” He added:

“The callout is asking for anyone in the blockchain, security or wider developer community to have a play, have a crack and test our claim… It’s truly an unbreakable encryption standard. We’d be equally happy if a contribution from the community helps us improve the standard. To put our money where our mouth is, we’ve placed a Bitcoin behind our protection, so if anyone gets through it’s there for the taking.”

What Tide has done is stored the details of a single Bitcoin in “the simplest website setup possible, in a database record behind a web server.” If one can use the correct username and password to break it, then they shall receive the Bitcoin.

Michael has however pointed to a twist:

“we used our unique protection mechanism for the data and the website authentication. Even if you crack the whole thing, you won’t be able to crack the authentication or extract the data. But if you do, the Bitcoin is yours, and we’re back to the drawing board.”

It remains to be seen if anyone can take on this challenge and prove Tide wrong.