{"id":29890,"date":"2019-11-04T10:51:39","date_gmt":"2019-11-04T10:51:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/?p=29890"},"modified":"2022-06-23T13:15:56","modified_gmt":"2022-06-23T12:15:56","slug":"kaspersky-expert-ramy-al-damati-on-securing-the-crypto-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/2019\/11\/04\/kaspersky-expert-ramy-al-damati-on-securing-the-crypto-economy\/","title":{"rendered":"Kaspersky expert Ramy Al Damati on securing the crypto economy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Blockchain industry and cryptocurrency market have been rapidly developing and now constitutes a significant share of the global economy. In fact, as Ramy Al Damati, Enterprise Security Expert for Middle East, Turkey and Africa at Kaspersky tells us, Blockchain-based technology is becoming increasingly popular and is being used to solve a wide range of tasks and becoming a key element in establishing business processes. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The benefits of Blockchain are evident. From anonymity to \u2018out of the\nbox\u2019 consistency \u2013 where new blocks can only be\nadded if they satisfy Blockchain rules, ensuring consistency and integrity\ncannot be easily compromised, to allowing the transfer of money without some\nkind of center \u2013 which industries didn\u2019t know how to do before Blockchain. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, with all technology still in its infancy, there are a few\ndisadvantages – especially with regards to scalability, interoperability and\nstandardisation. Concerns have also been raised around inefficiency, cost and\ngiven that Blockchain increases in volume at an incredible rate, there are\nfears that it is too large to manage tightly \u2013 which could present some risk. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Exposing the Blockchain <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

While many organisations are driving Blockchain-based\nproducts and applications, many also worry about investing in the crypto\neconomy. Despite being a security-driven measure, a Blockchain itself can be exposed to various risks and we are seeing\nvarious threats and cybersecurity risks around the crypto economy emerge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

From phishing copies of popular tokenized websites, to targeted attacks\non crypt exchange companies as well as adware intended to steal cryptocurrency,\nthe risks are very real and given the fact that Blockchains contain sensitive\ninformation about the assets and infrastructure of specific users and\nenterprises, it\u2019s easy to understand the apprehension. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To understand the risks better and implement the appropriate security\nmeasures, organisations first need to distinguish between public and private Blockchains.\nA private Blockchain is typically used by organisations\nand consortia \u2013 where only specific members will have the right permissions.\nPermissioned networks place restrictions on who is allowed to participate in\nthe network and in what transactions. Also, all private Blockchains can be\nreplaced by a traditional centralised solution with the same properties. Public\nBlockchain, on the other hand, may be used by the whole world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

All public Blockchains are, in essence, cryptocurrencies. They are\npermissionless where anyone can join the Blockchain\nnetwork, meaning that they can read, write, or participate. Public Blockchains\nare also decentralised, which means that no one has control over the network,\nand they are secure in that the data can\u2019t be changed once validated on the Blockchain.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The common thinking is that the more members a Blockchain has, the more\nsecure it is. Blockchain has an inherent property in that it is impossible to\nrewrite historical data during normal operation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, in centralised systems, as a rule, unauthorised access to one main\nnode can jeopardise the entire system. Public Blockchains are often called\n‘censor-free’ and are particularly resistant to distributed denial-of-service \u2013\nDDoS \u2013 attacks. A private blockchain, on the other hand, can be altered by its\nowner, making it also more vulnerable to hacking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Applying adaptive security <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In general, Blockchain-based systems are subject to about the same\nnumber of risks as traditional centralised systems. Like any growing digital economy, where there is opportunity,\nthere are cyber-criminals, but it shouldn\u2019t deter the market. Rather they\nshould be looking at a proactive approach to Blockchain security; the same way\nthat cybersecurity awareness, technology and threat and risk mitigation forms a\ncritical component of any digital business, this should expand to include Blockchain\nas it slowly becomes an integral part of the business process. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

An\norganisation should start with a security audit for smart contracts and\nchain-code to make sure they are thoroughly analysed for vulnerabilities, business logic\ndiscrepancies and undeclared functionality. Highlighting all potential threats\nallows the organisation to react and update relevant contracts accordingly.\nThis should be followed with an Application Security Assessment for distributed\nledgers \u2013 looking at vulnerabilities in applications that work on top of Blockchain\ninfrastructure and make use of the architecture. Then endpoint protection\nshould be considered \u2013 securing the entire system at the device level. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a growing demand for cybersecurity from Blockchain start-ups\nthat are looking for both protection from cyberthreats and additional evidence\nthat they can be trusted by investors. And just like adaptive, comprehensive security that safeguards continuity\nand assets, this thinking should be applied to blockchain security and the\ncrypto economy if we are to continue to see its maturity and benefits come to\nthe fore. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Blockchain industry and cryptocurrency market have been rapidly developing and now constitutes a significant share of the global economy. In fact, as Ramy Al Damati, Enterprise Security Expert for Middle East, Turkey and Africa at Kaspersky tells us, Blockchain-based technology is becoming increasingly popular and is being used to solve a wide range of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":29891,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4950,5,136,6,10675,13],"tags":[11591,676,1887,95,388,1053,563,226,1415,11588],"class_list":["post-29890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analysis","category-enterprise-security","category-industry-expert","category-insights","category-thought-leadership","category-top-stories","tag-application-security-assessment","tag-blockchain","tag-cryptocurrency","tag-cyber-criminals","tag-cybersecurity","tag-ddos","tag-distributed-denial-of-service","tag-kaspersky","tag-phishing","tag-ramy-al-damati"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29890"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29890\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29892,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29890\/revisions\/29892"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}