Cybercrime has increasingly surged at a high rate in the U.S. Annually, cybercrime amounts to damage worth trillion dollars. One of the top cyber threats has been digital identity theft, in which threat actors leverage the stolen personal information of the victims, with the intent of causing financial havoc.
The issue of cybercrime has persisted over the years and is certainly not going away anytime soon. In regard to the issue, the CEO of Sony, said, “the solution to cybercrime isn’t two-factor identification or your mother’s maiden name. The solution to cybercrime lies in the transition to Web3.”
What is Web3?
Web3, also known as Web 3.0 serves as the succeeded iteration of the internet after Web 2.0. While Web 2.0 is marked as a centralized internet model in which most of the data, content, and other services are controlled by some of the internet giants, also referred to as ‘Big Tech.’
WWe3 on the other hand can be described as a decentralised version of the internet, allowing users to communicate with one another in a secure, peer-to-peer environment.
How are users vulnerable to Web2?
Since a “digital identity” in Web2 includes more than just a username and a profile picture, a user is supposed to enter a verifiable email address in order to create an identity.
Certainly, there is no limit to how many email addresses can one user make. Most of the users have multiple email addresses, serving different purposes, such as personal usage, work communication, spam filtering, etc.
As there is no method to confirm that the person logging in is who they claim to be, beyond the two-factor identification, employing this means anyone with the credentials can get into any of these emails.
Adding to the misery, once a company gets hold of a user’s personal data, he practically has no control over it. Thus, personal information is sold for the sake of targeted adverts. The data access and secondary sale increase the opportunities for a threat actor to exploit it.
How is Web3 solving the problem?
Login security: Centralized authorities would not control the user in the future. It will be as simple as utilising a biometric unlock with the use of DIDs and Blockchain-backed verification.
Bots are always searching the internet for stray credentials that they may use to access bank accounts, emails, and other accounts.
This will be stopped in its tracks by consolidated digital identities that are accessed by biometric logins.
Control and Monetization of User Data
With the consolidated digital identity, a user can now utilize the data as they see fit, since he has overall control over who sees the data and who has to pay for the same. For an instance, one could build a decentralised ad network on Web3 and allow users to either opt in or out of the system.
Although, Web3’s growing popularity is being considered the ‘next big revolution’, in digital tech, for its take on making lives easier for the unbanked and others involved in it. It still needs much improvement in regard to risks pertaining to the loopholes and potential vulnerabilities that could cause a great many problems in the future.
