Sixgill backstops security with blockchain data integrity for IoE applications

Sixgill, a leader in sensor data services for governing Internet of Everything (IoE) assets, has unveiled Sixgill Integrity, a ledger-agnostic solution and is designed from the ground up to solve the fundamental need for an end-to-end, real-time sensor data authenticity system. Blockchain-powered Sixgill Integrity assures organizations that their emitted data, transmitted data, ingested data, and acted-upon data are the same.

Sixgill seeks a fresh approach to fundamental industry challenges of data security and authenticity:

As the volume and velocity of sensor data traversing complex networks exponentially grow, system vulnerabilities become increasingly consequential. Current and future automated sensor data networks face potentially disastrous malfunctions, if transmitted data is compromised and wrongly trusted. Already, Thales reports that 71% of enterprises are now gathering data for IoT initiatives while security remains a major concern and impediment to their IoT deployments.

SECURITY IS AN ILLUSION; DATA IS DEFENSIBLE

The thesis behind Sixgill Integrity is that security is an illusion and despite best efforts, bad actors can and likely will eventually intrude in any system. If the cat-and-mouse game of security cannot be conclusively won, Sixgill asserts that sensor data itself is defensible. Further, a propensity for data silos in the enterprise necessitates an increasing number of middlemen and brokers, creating more fissures for an intrusion.

Security vendors should keep trying to deny access to bad actors, but Sixgill will presume failure and focus on assuring the intactness of data streams, and on immediately exposing any successful compromises so people and automated systems do not act on inauthentic data. Integrity for data includes not only the data itself, but also assuring authentic sequencing of time-series data that predominates in sensor-informed processes.

ON-CHAIN / OFF-CHAIN INNOVATION

By uniquely combining DLT and edge computing (where possible), Sense Integrity uses blockchain and cryptography to provide authenticity of data origin and verification of data content and chronology. Integrity is built with a public on-chain, and distributed off-chain, hybrid architecture.

This combines the unparalleled security, transparency, and immutability of public blockchain networks, with a distributed off-chain architecture capable of verifying, storing and processing vast amounts of data centrally or at the edge of the network using data handling and storage methods that can be chosen for maximum performance. This gives enterprises continuous, automated knowledge that their data has not been changed or otherwise compromised, and allows them to more easily contain the costs associated with high volume data processing and storage.

Ponemon Institute reports that the average time to resolve a data breach is 191 days, an unacceptable lag between incidence and repair. Integrity is a real-time system designed to slash awareness intervals and speed correction. Whether a network is compromised by a bad actor, a defective or hacked sensor, or a faulty algorithm, Sixgill Integrity is designed to make sensor data automation progressively more resistant to attack and resilient in response, such that it is exceedingly difficult to undermine data integrity or conceal same if successful.

“To be actionable, sensor data must be truthful, accurate, complete, retrievable, and verifiable. Today’s sensor-populated networks are intrinsically unsecure. The potential for processes dependent on millions of devices and billions of data records to be compromised by corrupted or planted data is becoming a reality for many, with an especially worrisome horizon for utilities, communications providers, the industrial internet, public safety agencies, heavy manufacturers, and the like.” Ressler added, “The future of the Internet of Everything and its IoT subset depends on trusting the integrity of actionable data.”

Phil Ressler, CEO of Sixgill

Sixgill Integrity answers the needs of organizations that rely on the mission-critical data they gather. Use cases are not restricted to, but include:

Sixgill Integrity is tightly-integrated with Sixgill Sense, the company’s sensor data automation platform, and its companion SDKs, APIs, partner gateways and dashboard. Integrity functions are both cloud and edge-resident and can be run with Sense or independent of it. Like Sixgill Sense, Integrity is optimized end-to-end for the unique processing requirements imposed by prolific time-series data generation and related real-time operations. However, Sixgill Integrity is a discrete product that can provide blockchain-based integrity to a wide variety of other data chains where veracity, immutability, and auditability are vital. Sixgill Integrity provides:

Sixgill Integrity is beginning test engagements and is expected to be generally available in Q2 2019.

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