How can decentralised storage models prevent data breaches?

The Equifax hack has been cited as very possibly the worst leak of personal info ever due to the “breath-taking amount of highly sensitive data it handed over to criminals”. As a consequence, “more than half of all US residents who rely the most on bank loans and credit cards” will be at a “significantly higher risk of fraud” for years to come.

Writing for The Guardian, Jathan Sadowski provides an EXCELLENT overview of the “fundamental problem of the data economy as a whole: databanks like Equifax are too big”:

As epic as Equifax’s hack was, things can get a lot worse. The credit reporting agencies Experian and TransUnion are data giants on par with Equifax and there are thousands of other data brokers that also possess large databanks. Data breaches like this one are not bugs, but rather features of a system that centralises immense amounts of valuable personal data in one place.

Sadowski continues:

The vaults of these databanks are impossible to secure, in large part, because the wealth of information they hold is a beacon for hackers. Even the most impenetrable cybersecurity will eventually fail under the pressure of dogged hackers probing for weaknesses to exploit. Better cybersecurity is important, but it is not a solution. It only postpones catastrophic failure.

KEY TAKEAWAY — The future of data storage is decentralised models and the US needs to introduce stronger data protection laws — Equifax would have be fined 4% of global annual turnover under the GDPR. This is a breach no one should get away with.