Blockchain technology has made quite the wave ever since it became wildly popular in the cryptocurrency world. Every industry has taken notice of this advanced tech and are exploring ways to incorporate it into their specific operations.
One of the highlighting characteristics of blockchain is its distributed ledger of transactions which has been proven to be extremely vital for ensuring security. Now, over the years, there are extensive fields where blockchain is being utilized for the protection of documents. Blockchain’s distributed ledger tech has powered a lot.
But how bulletproof is blockchain technology when it comes to protecting confidential documents. After all, a lot of organizational processes rely on documents. Documents containing essential information or data that makes processes accountable and traceable.
However, by default, documents are not really free from manipulation. This means that anyone with the access to these documents can alter and modify it which makes the documents severely challenging to reconstruct to their original state. This leads to the rising case of document frauds.
But there are several document security solutions where blockchain tech has been utilized to prevent document manipulation and tampering. In fact, blockchain has been integrated with the QR Code system to give document security and easy scope to operate. The blockchain secure QR code is used in many confidential documents to safeguard them from fraudulent activities.
If you are willing to learn more about blockchain technology protecting confidential documents then make sure to read till the end.
Importance of Document Integration in Organizations
While there is the availability of document management systems that helps in keeping a track of every version of each document, the reality is most organizations tend to rely on shared folders for monitoring their documents. Since it is the most straightforward approach.
Also, documents themselves are generally office text documents that don’t involve in-built versioning, let alone tamper-proof system. This leads to manipulating documents way more easily even for the not so technically savvy users.
It has been observed that a large number of companies have adopted technical solutions that don’t do much for protecting the documents and contributes to the increasing cases of document frauds.
There are blockchain-based solutions that offer document integration.
Blockchain Protecting Documents
If you are still wondering how exactly the blockchain technology is used for protecting confidential documents and documents in general then here are some of the characteristics of this tech that ensures total document security.
Through Document Integrity
Blockchain-based document security solution ensures complete integration of documents. This is done simply by generating a hash of every version of the document. This unique hash makes it impossible to alter or manipulate the document versions without leaving prominent traces.
All the hashes are stored either on public or private blockchain, so that no one can manipulate or erase them.
Inclusion of Timestamping
Blockchain tech allows timestamping of each version of the document. By having each and every hash being timestamped, companies are able to keep track of the exact moment when a specific document has been modified and by whom.
Any changes happening to the file can be easily viewed by the stakeholders that have access to the version control panel and also view it in a separate timestamp.
Authorship and Origin Protection
Since every single modification made to the document is saved and stored automatically as a new version along with a new timestamp, it becomes convenient for authorized users to follow and trace the origin and authorship of the document.
This means that who created the document, what data was included in the original document, what changes were made to the document each time, who accessed the document and who shared the document can all be broken down by the controlling user or users that have been authorized.
This not just protects authorship and origin of the documents but also gives relentless control over the management of documents.
Verification of Document Data
Blockchain protection can be easily used for verifying the documents. Over the years, there are many instances in the educational field where institutes are using blockchain encrypted QR code to authenticate academic records such as certificates, diplomas, marksheets, etc.
The verification of data through blockchain-based solutions usually operates when a user uploads the document it can check if the uploaded data has been previously added to the blockchain.
In case of any identical data, the origin can be tracked and found easily. This helps in ensuring verification of origin/authorship and gets rid of the risks related to it.
Legal Protection and Compliance
There are many data privacy related regulations that need suitable technological measures to be deployed for ensuring protection of data. Therefore, safeguarding fundamental parts of every organization’s processes, like documentation, is a huge step for attaining data protection regulation compliance.
Who is in Need of Document Protection?
Small businesses that generally do not process high volumes of confidential documents may find document protection much more desirable than being mandatory.
The use of blockchain integrated QR code for university certificate can be an overall game changing. However, there are essentially four types of organizations that are in need for such document protection and they are –
- Organizations that have the requirement to ensure confidentiality of documents.
- That have the requirement for complying with the data protection regulations and standard.
- That prioritize in preventing documents from malicious tampering.
- That have the need to demonstrate high information security standards coverage.
