Blockchain Impact of Security and Privacy in Digital Identity Management
Smita Bansod, Lata L. Ragha · Auerbach Publications eBooks · 2021
Digital Identity Management (DIDM) is the oldest problem in the digital world and it continues to be the toughest. There is currently no fool-proof method of ensuring the security and privacy of online identity. The Identity Theft Resource Centre reports an annual increase in the number of breached records, making identity theft a major problem to be addressed in the management of personal, financial and sensitive government information. The emerging Blockchain technology offers new approaches to deal with the privacy and security challenges of the DIDM problem leading to the risk-free use of private transactions without the assistance of a third party. The architecture based on Blockchain technology provides a perfect path for DIDM. The comparison table summarizing the various DIDM systems which have been developed based on Blockchain technology indicates that Blockchain is a suitable technology to overcome the drawbacks of historical IDM systems. The conflict of the Blockchain characteristics with some of the clauses of the Personal Data Protection Regulations of different countries needs to be studied in detail and suitable measures taken to resolve such conflict. This technology is in its infant state, with its own limitations and challenges relating to scalability, security, and privacy aspects. These are to be identified, researched and viable digital identity solutions are to be developed using Blockchain.