The Blockchain’s Biggest Vulnerability is its Fundamental Idea

Introduction

The world is changing. A lot has changed and we are at the edge of a new era of cybersecurity challenges. There is so much hype around blockchain, which have been around for a while but now seem to have entered mainstream consciousness as they become part of everyday life. This means there will be more hackers looking for opportunities to exploit these technologies and the questions is: Are we ready?

What is Blockchain?

The blockchain is a decentralized system that stores data across multiple computers in a way that makes it difficult to alter. This means that if you want to change the data on a blockchain, you need to make changes across all of the nodes in the network. In addition, there are no middlemen between any parties involved in transactions; everything runs through peer-to-peer networks without any intermediary being needed.

But unlike many other technologies, blockchain is not in a phase of rapid innovation. It’s already being used for everything from virtual currencies to supply chain management. And as it becomes more widely adopted, we’re seeing a growing number of companies that are building on top of the technology — creating new ways for people and businesses to use it.

This is what makes blockchain so exciting. It’s not just a new technology, it’s a new way of thinking about technology. The decentralized nature of many blockchains means that no one person or company controls them — and this means there are fewer barriers to entry for new developers and entrepreneurs who want to build applications on top of them as well as, hackers.

Cybersecurity Threats in Blockchain

Identifying the specific risks associated with a particular blockchain is the key to being able to implement it safely. Many of these risks are related to human factors, such as maintaining the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of private keys; human coding errors that can lead to cybersecurity risks for offline applications; insecure data that may be obtained from external sources; Identity-based attacks on chain consensus mechanisms; and advanced threats that can disrupt blockchain decision-making processes. Recent attacks on blockchain have focused less on technology and more on potential human vulnerabilities.

The biggest vulnerability is the fundamental idea of blockchain is giving control back to the user. And that actually conflicts with cybersecurity because in cybersecurity, what we have learned is people make mistakes, like people are always the weakest link. So we aim to build systems to basically protect people from themselves and give them the right tools to do the right thing. So there’s all these layers in our traditional interaction with online non-Blockchain applications to basically protect us from ourself. By the idea of blockchain applications is giving control to the user. it is like saying your keys, your coins or your keys, your NFTs, and while that is great from a freedom perspective, it is horrible from a security perspective.

Adding to that, Users’ capacity to transact in the blockchain paradigm is based on cryptographic keys. Cryptographic keys are notoriously difficult to handle; entire businesses have been formed on key management and continue to be built around key management.

Even if we don’t like it, the difficulty and risk of managing private keys is the primary factor that leads consumers to select hosted wallets over non-custodial wallets in using blockchain applications.

In recent years, there have been several high-profile cyber attacks on cryptocurrency blockchains. Financially motivated attacks on cryptocurrencies have largely merged with pre-existing attack patterns that were seen in the phishing environment before the advent of blockchain-based applications.

A number of factors can make blockchains vulnerable to man-in-the-middle attacks, including insufficient encryption, weak or incorrect keys, incorrect key management, improper encryption implementation, or improper verification of digital signatures or certificates.

That also combined with a big critical skills gap in the blockchain security space, as fewer cybersecurity professionals have blockchain skills or understand the new security risks of the emerging decentralized economy.

Strategy to Protect Against Threats

Cryptographic techniques, advanced automation, and regulatory efforts and address cyber security skills gap, all need to be incorporated into a comprehensive strategy to protect against these threats if we want our online lives with blockchain safe from hackers.

It is essential not to focus only on technology and security but to implement an integrated approach across people and processes and initiatives that necessitate technological changes for accessing blockchain applications.

Without this holistic approach, you’ll be vulnerable to all kinds of problems.

Conclusion

Blockchain is a paradigm shift, and it’s been described as a future of decentralized, trustless infrastructure for creating and sharing value. While this vision has the potential to create new markets and opportunities for businesses everywhere, it also introduces new vulnerabilities into our everyday lives. As we have seen in this post, there are many ways that attackers can exploit vulnerabilities in blockchain technology to gain access to sensitive data or even launch cyber attacks against others. In order to protect ourselves from these types of threats, we need to understand how they work so that we can implement countermeasures against them before they become an issue at scale. The best way forward is through proactive security measures that includes people, process and innovative technical changes while transiting to the new era of blockchain.