Seagate, Together with IBM, Launches a Pilot to combat Fraud

Seagate has announced a project to test the potential of blockchain technology in the fight against fraud. This is a partnership started in 2018 with IBM, based on a concept developed by the research departments of the two companies.

The project aims to track the hardware produced by Seagate on the blockchain and seeks to assess how scalable a possible live platform could be.

IBM is one of the main consumers of Seagate hard drives. The blockchain platform will monitor the products sent to the customer, and the returns are also tracked. In a practical application, this would help to combat counterfeiting.

The potential of blockchain technology

Another potential use case for the platform is extremely useful especially in Europe, under the General Data Protection Regulation of 2016. The system can confirm whether the units returned due to defects or other reasons have been subjected to the “certified deletion” process. to remove user data.

“When a unit … is returned, if we can prove that the unit has been deleted cryptographically and therefore the information is no longer on the device, then, from a risk perspective, this reverse supply chain can treat the device in a different way,”

explained the project manager at Seagate.

Seagate products already have a trademark protectionbased on QR codes, but do not use blockchain technology. If the pilot of the supply chain goes well with other factors, QR codes could be used to include relevant source information as well.