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Topic: Cyber security and blockchain — is blockchain really as secure as everyone says? (Read 117 times)

member
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Merit: 11
I think that it was the security of blockchain that made it so popular, if, of course, people can figure out the distributed data registry system and hack it, whatever it was, it probably will not be good.
full member
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Presale is live!
If blockchain hadn't been secure than someone would have hacked it by now. The only thing that blockchains should be worried about is quantum computers. But still then the blockchains can change their algorithms to something that is quantum resistive.
full member
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Merit: 114
You need your facts straightened out regarding blockchain technology and hackable exchanges.
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Merit: 13
INGOT Coin
I appreciate what your convey about. We know that no one of human technology not have fault. In case one of your said, that is a scam project and that not blockchain fault, but it is the DAC owner is scamming. In case two, that is web exchange fault, and also not blockchain black holl. The security of blockchain is on their transaction that very impossible to get hacked and blockchain tecnology also use P2P network that also impossible to hack because there is so big resource of server. In bitfinex case, hacker got access to bitfinex server that save private key of their members. That is why to never save your asset on exchange except for trading work.
member
Activity: 420
Merit: 15
Cryptocurrency is cryptography + currency.
Cryptography = secure algorithms are designed around computational hardness assumptions, making such algorithms hard to break in practice by any adversary. It is theoretically possible to break such a system, but it is infeasible to do so by any known practical means.
jr. member
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Block chain is secured to an extend but I believe every site can be hacked. It's human that build it, so it's can also be decoded by humans too.
jr. member
Activity: 196
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Cyber Security and Blockchain. Is Blockchain really as secure as everyone says? 24.09.2017 / Blockchain Technology. There is a common misconception, that Blockchain technology automatically guarantees high security because of its cryptography and inalterability. Despite these definite strengths of the technology, the
member
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I just want to give you some information, to take care about Wink

There is a common misconception, that Blockchain technology automatically guarantees high security because of its cryptography and inalterability. Despite these definite strengths of the technology, the Blockchain ecosystem is not necessarily a safe haven. Even small security gaps can have a big influence.

What gaps or risks could apply, can be showcased by two fatal incidents, where hackers exploited weaknesses in the code of the particular organizations with the help of the underlying Blockchain Smart Contract technology.

In june 2016 the venture capital fund organization “Decentralized Autonomous Organisation (short “DAO”) has been deprived of approximately $ 50 Mio. in form of Ether during a business operation. DAO is a decentralized virtual organization, where members decide via votes, which company receives suitable risk capital - represented by a Smart Contract based on the Ethereum Blockchain. At the end of the voting the gathered Ether will be transferred to the elected wallet. An additional feature, the “split DAO” function, was the downfall of the organization. This function allowed to split the transfer of Ether onto multiple wallets, so called “child DAO”. It was possible via a Smart Contract, which worked technically flawless, but enabled participants to request multiple splits simultaneously, despite not yet balanced ledgers. The attackers were able to request a split up to 200 times and almost completely empty the DAO wallet. The weakness was in the DAO Smart Contract, the Ethereum Blockchain worked faultless and even to the attackers advantage.

To prevent this hack a simple review and testing before publishing the Smart Contract would most likely have been sufficient.

In August 2016 the cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex in Hong-Kong has been compromised. 120,000 Bitcoins have been stolen from user wallets. To increase security, Bitfinex introduced a so called “Multi-Signature Key Management System”, where private keys of users were stored by Bitfinex itself and third party provider BitGo. The exact cause of the attack has never been confirmed, but the hackers were able to access all three necessary keys to perform a transaction on the accounts. Again the security gap was in the organizations concept and not the Blockchain technology itself.

Both examples show that the underlying Blockchain technology worked reliably and safe, but the applications built upon showed a lack of security and missing risk assessment, which enabled the hacks.
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