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Privacy & Security Built on the Hyperledger Fabric Blockchain

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    Shamsh Hadi

ZorroSign’s primary focus is the security and privacy of our customers’ data. We deliver such privacy and security with our digital signature and advanced digital transaction management (DTM) platform.

 

How?

 

Because unlike any other digital signature or DTM solution, ZorroSign was built from the ground-up on private permissioned blockchain, which is Hyperledger Fabric.

 

What is Hyperledger Fabric?

 

“Hyperledger Fabric is a modular blockchain framework that acts as a foundation for developing blockchain-based products, solutions, and applications using plug-and-play components that are aimed for use within private enterprises,” notes Will Kenton in Investopedia. “Because Hyperledger Fabric is private and requires permission to access, businesses can segregate information (like prices), plus transactions can be sped up because the number of nodes on the network is reduced.”

 

Hyperledger emerged as an open-source collaborative effort, hosted by The Linux Foundation, to advance cross-industry blockchain technologies and improve trust, transparency and accountability. Hyperledger Fabric distributed ledger technologies (DTL) are:

 

  • The framework for the IBM Blockchain Platform
  • Used by Honeywell Aerospace to create an Amazon-type marketplace for used aircraft parts
  • Used by Walmart to create a food traceability system—decentralizing its food supply ecosystem to quickly find the source when an outbreak of a food-borne disease happens
  • Deployed by Change Healthcare to demonstrate the feasibility of using Hyperledger Fabric to process hundreds of healthcare transactions per second
  • The technology architecture upon which ZorroSign’s advanced DTM platform was built

 

How does Hyperledger Fabric Ensure Privacy & Security?

 

Hyperledger Fabric blockchains are permissions-based and requires all users to authenticate themselves before making requests to read or write into the distributed ledger (i.e., the “blocks” on the “chain”) or taking any action that adds to the blocks on the distributed ledger.

 

As a private blockchain, ZorroSign can ensure privacy is always maintained as only approved nodes (endpoint users) can write to ZorroSign’s blockchain. This is opposed to public blockchains—like Bitcoin and Ethereum—where anyone can be an endpoint and write to the blocks.

 

As a result, ZorroSign’s architecture has even tighter privacy and security measures than other blockchains.

 

Further, if users make a change to the information recorded in one particular block of a blockchain, they cannot rewrite that block—instead the change is stored or recorded in a new block along with the date and time of the change, permanently capturing the chronological changes to the document.

 

ZorroSign’s patent-pending 4n6 (“forensics”) token is a kind of digital seal that captures the complete audit trail and the document’s DNA. The token is encrypted and contains information on all the details about the transaction including time stamps, user authentication, document, and attachments. The 4n6 token securely reads the information from the secure ZorroSign servers so it can be accessed by the document originator or third parties (with permission from the originator) when requested. The 4n6 token allows ZorroSign to manage permissions as to who gets to see what level of information about the transaction and the document.

 

Finally, the 4n6 token stores the ZorroSign security encryption certificates, which—unlike other digital security certificates—never expire.

 

Benefits of Private, Permissioned Hyperledger Fabric Architecture

 

The key benefits of ZorroSign’s blockchain architecture and 4n6 token technology thus include:

 

  • Immutability—A chronological record (with date and time stamps) of all transactions in multiple copies on the ledger are maintained to avoid any doubt or ambiguity. This chronological chain provides a robust chain of custody and audit trail capabilities. Blocks cannot be rewritten, edited, or deleted—only added to the ledge—and so ensure document immutability.
  • Privacy—Permissions-based private blockchain security and privacy of the users’ information (i.e. PII, PHI, etc.) by only allowing permissioned individuals to have access to the transaction.
  • Fraud Prevention—ZorroSign’s proprietary 4n6 token can readily detect any document fraud, document tampering, or signature forgery (as a tamper seal that runs on the blockchain).
  • Lifetime Escrow—While competitors often use third-party digital security certificates that expire every two years, ZorroSign issues its own certificates that never expire for lifetime document escrow.

 
ZorroSign’s blockchain architecture, built on Hyperledger Fabric, ensures that all aspects of all transactions are recorded on a private permissions-based blockchain—creating an immutable, non-reputable record of the transaction and the executed document. And delivering unmatched privacy and security the organizations using our digital signatures and advanced DTM platform.