Understanding Uncloak: Q & A with AI & Blockchain Advisor Asad Mahmood

uncloak (32)in #uncloak • 6 years ago (edited)

“This is a user-friendly platform designed to bring the expertise of top cybersecurity experts within reach of every business whether they are massive corporations or tiny startups employing two people. This is a really innovative solution because it’s not run by a central authority, it’s managed by Blockchain smart contracts, so it’s faster, fairer, more transparent and much more secure.
Experts from across the globe will be able to work together to fight cyber-attacks as well as help businesses protect themselves from cyber threat vulnerabilities.”

Meet Asad Mahmoud M.D., Uncloak’s AI & Blockchain Advisor.

Uncloak is an innovative cybersecurity solution that uses Blockchain and AI to achieve better protection for businesses, but to understand why Uncloak is so effective requires an understanding of the mechanisms that drive it.

Aside from being a Medical Doctor and computer scientist, Asad Mahmood is also an experienced Cryptocurrency investor, ICO advisor and Blockchain engineer.

With his background in computer science and Blockchain engineering, Asad brings a hands-on technical skill set to the Uncloak team, and he’s therefore the perfect person to ask about how Uncloak works and why it’s such a significant step forward in cybersecurity.

Data breach and cybercrime stories are in the news a lot recently; Equifax, Facebook, million-dollar phishing scams. Is cybersecurity something that should be on regular business owner’s radar, or is it just a problem for the top end of town?

Asad: Cyber attacks are a pressing global issue. We’re hearing stories all the time on Blockchain blogs about multi-million dollar crypto-hacking attacks, but of course, it’s not just affluent crypto-influencers who are being impacted by cybercrime. Online criminal syndicates are targeting regular businesses every day. It’s their bread and butter, and actually, they are getting away with massive thefts, not only through financial fraud but by stealing and selling sensitive data as well.

Governments too, military and industrial organisations, professionals like lawyers and accountants… right down to small high street businesses; cyber-attacks can affect any organisation with an email inbox, and that’s everybody!

Based on current trends, financial forecasters and security experts are predicting that the annual cybercrime damage bill will hit somewhere around $6 trillion annually by the 2020s. Cybersecurity spending by companies trying to confront this new online crime wave will probably exceed $1 trillion by 2021. Those are staggering numbers, aren’t they?

Clearly, we’re facing a very big challenge. What can Uncloak do to help businesses tackle this problem?

Asad: We obviously need a better approach than just throwing more and more money at the problem. The issue that companies are facing right now is that effective cybersecurity measures can be prohibitively costly. Tactics like conventional bug bounty programs and endpoint software cost a lot, and unfortunately, they aren’t that effective compared to what they cost.

To stay a step ahead of hackers worldwide, we have to think outside the box, look for better ways of defending ourselves. Uncloak is a unique new way of doing cybersecurity. It’s the first Blockchain-based cybersecurity solution that uses artificial intelligence. Uncloak combs through public and hidden databases for new and emerging cyber threats and then ensures that businesses are protected against new security issues.

Uncloak is a cyber threat vulnerability scanning system, and it brings together cybersecurity experts worldwide. The platform is completely automated using EOS Blockchain smart contracts together with AI. There are no update delays and no wasted time. It rewards bug hunters for discovering new threats and then shares that intel across the whole platform, so it’s always current.

The big question: how does the Uncloak platform work?

Asad: Uncloak is a blockchain-based cybersecurity application. It uses artificial intelligence - namely, advanced machine learning algorithms - to check massive amounts of online data for cyber threats; not just on the internet, but on the dark web as well, where a lot of criminal activity takes place.

Uncloak includes a next-generation vulnerability scanning system which is designed to ensure that businesses remain compliant and aware of new security issues.

The third element of the Uncloak system is that it’s built on top of Blockchain 3.0 technology. What that means in real terms is that Uncloak allows IT security experts to collaborate, worldwide, more efficiently and safely than any other platform. The Blockchain system facilitates the process of resolving cyber-threat vulnerabilities, and it rewards the expert bug hunters through a fully automated token system. Everyone participating in the Uncloak threat bounty system has a strong incentive to discover new issues as fast as possible because the Blockchain platform is always up-to-date and rewards the discovery of previously unrecognised threats.

Who is Uncloak for?

Asad: This is actually a relatively easy question to answer because Uncloak is designed for everybody. This is a user-friendly platform designed to bring the expertise of top cybersecurity experts within reach of every business, whether they are massive corporations or tiny startups employing two people. This is a really innovative solution because it’s not run by a central authority, it’s managed by Blockchain smart contracts, so it’s faster, fairer, more transparent and much more secure.

Experts from across the globe will be able to work together to fight cyber-attacks as well as help businesses protect themselves from cyber threat vulnerabilities.

On the user end, for businesses, it works all the time, with no updates required, and no human intervention. It’ll give business owners peace of mind about their data, regardless of their knowledge of cybersecurity or even the underlying blockchain technology.
With pressure on companies from mounting cybercrime stats and new regulations like GDPR, Uncloak is the cybersecurity solution we need.

Learn more about Uncloak