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What if a new technology could help safeguard and protect sensitive information from the hacks that all too often dominate the news in 2016?

Edmund John, founder and CEO of KYC-Chain, a Hong Kong-based security and authentication startup, believes distributed ledger technology, the same technology that powers bitcoin, can be a significant digital identity and security solution, as it provides a simple and secure method of two-factor authentication.

PYMNTS recently caught up with John to talk about the blockchain, what security advantages it can offer and what he sees in the future for this evolving technology.

Here’s a preview:

Hackers typically seek out massive troves of information, which can provide access credentials not just for email addresses but for any accounts that use the same username and password, he said. By reducing the attack surface and by utilizing multiple-factor authentication, hackers will have fewer reasons to target that company.

“I don’t want to call anyone out, but if you have a large email company that hasn’t properly protected their servers, once that server is compromised, all of the people with that certain company email account are now compromised,” John explained. “They’ve gotten everyone on that list.”

But with blockchain-enabled security in place, those effects can be minimized because the user can take more responsibility for their data. If a company stored only a limited number of emails in one place, it not only reduces the expanse of accounts that can be compromised but “also makes it so the incentives to go after that are much lower, because now [fraudsters] don’t have that same prize when they get in,” he said.

Around the Digital Identity world

Fraud prevention company Early Warning had a particularly busy news month. The company rolled out several new features, products and partnerships designed to make its offerings as appealing as possible for potential customers.

The company first made waves this month when it revealed plans for Zelle, a new faster payments network that is designed to transform how U.S. consumers and businesses send and receive money. The company also announced that it will bolster the mobile payment security capabilities of the Zelle Network by partnering with authentication and intelligence provider InAuth.

Finally, Early Warning also announced a new strategic alliance with NuData Security last month. Early Warning will utilize the NuData behavioral analytics and risk decision tools as part of the company’s authentication platform in a move designed to protect against an increase in data breaches and cybercrime.

For all the latest news around the Digital Identity world, check out the Tracker News section.

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About The Tracker

The PYMNTS.com Digital Identity Tracker™, powered by Socure, is a forum for framing and addressing key issues and trends facing the entities charged with efficiently and securely identifying and granting permission to individuals to access, purchase, transact or otherwise confirm their identity.