Ericsson and Guardtime create blockchain 'fingerprint' system to ensure data integrity

Swiss telecommunications network company Ericsson has created a system for ensuring data integrity, using blockchain technology to strengthen the company’s presence in the cloud.

Erik Forsgren, the firm's head of portfolio management, said the company had the system up and running since January, and it was developed in partnership with GuardTime, a data security startup founded in 2014.

Ericsson's history can be traced back to the late 1880s, and it currently has more than 100,000 employees worldwide. The company plays an important role in the global telecommunications solutions market, with sales exceeding $6 billion in the second quarter of 2016.

However, the company has come under pressure in recent years to cut jobs and find new avenues, such as the cloud market, due to competition from China and the increasing need to innovate in a rapidly evolving ecosystem.

Ericsson isn’t the only company exploring the use of blockchain technology to ensure data integrity, however. Blockchain has long been considered as a way to provide a record of how data changes, and startups and individual developers are also working on using the bitcoin blockchain and other implementations to address data integrity issues.

Earlier this year, the state of Vermont even passed legislation to provide a legal basis for blockchain-based information after informally discussing the idea of ​​developing a record-keeping system using blockchain technology, though the system was ultimately shelved. The sector is also attracting interest from the banking industry.

Forsgren explains that people using Ericsson's system sign a kind of data 'fingerprint', an approach that makes the process very efficient while also maintaining a mechanism to ensure that information is time-stamped and recorded whenever it is changed.

Putting cars on the blockchain

According to Ericsson, blockchain technology has the greatest potential for use cases where data needs to be trusted in real time. In today's increasingly connected world, there is a corresponding need for data security and authenticity.

During the talk, Forsgren cited the example of connected cars connected to the vast Internet of Things network as an example of how blockchain technology could be used to verify the authenticity of certain types of data. More directly, blockchain could be the key to preventing you, the manufacturer, or the maintenance person from being tricked by the car's computer.

Take the software running inside a car, for example. Whichever company provides the code to a car will want to track when and where the code was deployed in order to maintain a history of updates provided to a particular car.

According to Forsgren, this can also help track whether the software has been tampered with at some point.

Forsgren explained:

“First you develop the software for the car, and you need to protect the software supply chain all the way to your subcontractors, and then to the point where the software is deployed in the car. Once the information is in the car, you want to be able to validate that information in real time while you’re driving.”

This can also be applied to storing information received from the car.

Forsgren explained:

“It’s also very important to make sure that this data is correct and has not been manipulated in any way by the owner of the car or any external party. A classic example of this is insurance cases, when there is a dispute and people can make arbitrary claims. You need to be able to prove at any time that your data is valid.”

Non-Bitcoin blockchains

The backbone of the system Ericsson has created in partnership with Guardtime is the so-called 'Keyless Signature Infrastructure'.

It’s not quite a bitcoin blockchain, but according to Martin Frojd, head of product for Ericsson’s Cloud and Data Platform, it offers a commercial-grade way to back up the integrity of important information.

“We don’t store customer information in our blockchain, we store a fingerprint of that data that is mathematically linked to the previous hash on the hash tree. We think that’s a huge benefit, especially in industry use, because of the speed and the value, you can’t expose any customer data on the ledger.”

While the use of the term 'blockchain' may be driven to some extent by marketing, the technology is certainly attracting interest from companies beyond Ericsson.

In 2015, the Estonian government announced that it was working with Guardtime to back up health records. Last month, DARPA, an agency under the U.S. Department of Defense, announced a $1.8 million award to Guardtime and Galois to pursue blockchain technology applications.

Forsgren said the results of the Ericsson-Guardtime collaboration have extended to Ericsson's customer base, whose customers have expressed interest in the technology.

As a result, Ericsson is now pursuing a number of proofs of concept, such as applications focused on supply chain and cloud-based data management. Forsgren also said Ericsson is working with GE on similar applications through its Predix cloud platform.

Forsgren was very conservative about when Ericsson would be able to launch a commercial-grade product, saying that, as it stands, Ericsson is only focusing on blockchain research and development.

“It’s still early days for us.”