ALTR uses blockchain to protect data like it’s money

The conventional cybersecurity thinking is to protect the network. The reality is that networks are regularly hacked and hard to defend. Even worse, companies are often unaware of hacks. Austin-based ALTR starts from a conservative assumption: if hackers have breached your network, how do you protect your data? Their answer is to use blockchain as a tool. While standard practice is that blockchains involve multiple parties, cybersecurity is one of the few cases where that isn’t the case. ALTR sees itself as an enterprise data security company that leverages blockchain’s architecture. In this case, clients will have their own private in-house blockchain. If one had to pigeon-hole ALTR, it’s more of a SaaS company than a blockchain business.

The cybersecurity problem

Major data breaches are now commonplace. A week ago British Airways (BA) announced that 380,000 payment transactions were compromised, most likely via the website payment process. In the 2014 Home Depot case, the breach lasted for six months, and 40 million customers’ credit card details were stolen. Hackers installed the malware on most of the company’s cash registers.

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