Blockchain Security: Popular Attacks and Risks to Avoid or Prevent

In the digitalized age of technologies, everyone is concerned about cybersecurity. Given the growing number of cyberattacks, blockchain is a promising technology for the future of data security. Many are still hesitant about the invulnerability of the blockchain.

When Bitcoin faced cyber security issues, blockchain technology came to the fore to protect users' data. Nevertheless, blockchain gained immense popularity in other fields as well, allowing its users to securely store data and process transactions in different walks of life. Thus, it found application in banking, insurance, healthcare, government services, and beyond.

Blockchain is an in-depth system to manage risks for network users. It records transactions and categorizes them into hierarchical blocks. According to participation and data access privileges, blockchains can be private or public.

The public is an open domain and lets anyone in by ensuring the anonymity of the other participants. On the other hand, private blocks depend on an identity to get permission to access, and only certain people or organizations are granted the privilege.

Vulnerabilities of Blockchain

Although blockchain is immutable, it is not immune to fraud and various attacks. There are several ways hackers can breach the system.

There are some popular ways third parties can hack your blockchain—top among them are the likes of routing, Sybil, phishing, 51% attack, transaction privacy leakage, blockchain endpoint vulnerabilities, and beyond.

Here’s the preview of security issues that you may need to deal with:

• 51% Attack: This happens when an individual or a group of miners access more than half of the network’s hash rate. It means they can get complete control of the data. The hacker can do this by renting mining hash from the others. For instance, 51% of attacks can greatly affect cryptocurrencies.
• Routing Attacks: Another way a third party can hack a blockchain is a routing attack. Routing attacks may happen when a real-time big data transaction is being processed. The hacker tries to intercept while the transaction is still in progress. Malicious actors try to break the network into components to prevent communication between nodes within the specific component. The aim is to force communication outside of the components, creating a parallel blockchain.
• Blockchain Endpoint Vulnerabilities: The malicious actor’s primary goal is to get the user's key. To achieve this, they must find the weakest point in the whole system, which is the device. If the device is cracked, the hacker can piggyback off all the credentials.
• Sybil Attacks: In this cyberattack, a cracker tried to gain valuable data by creating many false network profiles. The hacker aims to flood the system and eventually crack it. The name Sybil has quite an interesting origin. It comes from a homonym book ‘Sybil’ in which the protagonist had a psychological state known as dissociative identity disorder.
• Other Blockchain Scams or Phishing Attacks: Probably one of the most popular cyberattack types is phishing. Everyone has heard of it in the digital space. In this case, the attacker’s goal is to steal sensitive data like login and password, credit card info, personal data, and beyond. This usually can be achieved by driving users to open emails. A third party invades the system disguised as an authentic source and gains users' trust, thus they open the email and become victims of the attack.

While Hexens offers comprehensive cybersecurity services and have you covered, it’s important to understand how the blockchains work. You’ll need to be aware of how third parties can get access to sensitive information. By knowing this, the users can lower the risk of being hacked.