Cryptographic security in 2020 and beyond

Cryptographic security in 2020 and beyond: The weakest links in the cryptographic system are the trustees. Those who do not have good security go bankrupt. This article is taken from the site Cryptonews, about cryptographic security and digital currencies and the challenges ahead in 2020 and beyond. If you are interested in this topic, stay with us till the end.

 Cryptography is the cornerstone of information security, but not everything in the cryptographic world is completely secure. Cryptographic exchanges are still regularly exposed to attacks and hacks, and even encrypted currencies face a rare 51% attack.

 How will this change in 2020 and the next decade? As cryptocurrencies grow and become more popular, in parallel, cybercriminals' efforts to gain a share will inevitably increase.

 According to many experts, attacks on (or trying to do) digital currency exchanges are likely to increase in 2020, and halving the bitcoin mining bonus (BCH) and bitcoin SV may halve these altcoins. 51 percent more susceptible to attack.

2019 Overview of Cryptographic Security

How accurate were Cryptonews website security forecasts for the past year? The main prediction of experts last year was their concern about the growth of cryptographic extraction malware to target Internet of Things [IoT devices].

 McAfee's chief security scientist, Raj Samani, said that given the increasing number of IoT devices in homes and businesses, and given their insecure nature, such increases are expected.

 His prediction was largely true, at least as far as McAfee's threat report from August increased by a 29 percent increase in "crypto-jacking" attacks (theft of computing resources such as computers or laptops to extract currency) between It showed the fourth quarter of 2018 and the first quarter of 2019. However, this was not the only result of the increase in IoT attacks.

Digital currency exchange attacks and data theft

Bitcoin developer Jimmy Sang told crypto news website:

<I suspect that the exchanges will continue to be the target of hacking attacks in 2020, just as they have in the past eight years.>

 Other commentators have more explicitly predicted a real increase in hacks and attacks next year. Charles Fen, chief technology officer of Interdax cryptocurrency exchange technology, predicts that these attacks will include <cryptographic platforms>, such as wallets.

 <Cipher Trace> - China Block Cryptographic and Security Intelligence Company - said in its third quarter 2019 cryptocurrency anti-money laundering report:

 While robberies and scams have declined in the third quarter, the total amount for the year to 2019 has so far exceeded $ 4.4 billion.

 But hackers are not just focusing on direct theft of public cryptographic resources. They also work to steal personal information and data and to hack into accounts, allowing cybercriminals to transfer personal resources to their wallets.

Charles Fen says:

<While hackers usually try to steal people's money, they also target and exploit sensitive personal information, such as the information leakage of BitMEX exchange users' emails and Coinmama abuse. (A cryptographic exchange platform) we saw in early 2019.>

 He also says that hackers are always using more sophisticated methods to always be one step ahead of their goals, as evidenced by the $ 40 million hacking in May 2019.

 Old problems, new ways hackers deal with cryptographic security

In 2020 and the years that follow, hackers will increasingly focus on new ways of violating cyber security on currency exchanges and other platforms.

 According to a report released this year by CER Cryptography Research, Charles Fan says:

 <One of the major problems for many cryptographic exchanges is the lack of HTTP security headers, data on the top 100 exchanges shows that only 11% of them have sufficient security in this area. We expect hackers to exploit this security flaw.>

 However, as many experts have already emphasized, cryptographic users need to keep their private keys offline, for example in hardware wallets like Ledger, Trezor, KeepKey, and so on.

 Von also points to the fact that only 40 out of the top 100 ciphers have implemented DNSSEC (Domain Name System Security Extension) encryption, while the other 60 do not have proper records for their domains, meaning They are vulnerable to DNS (Domain Name Server) poisoned memory attacks. This could also lead to an increase in related attacks from next year.

 The problem is not limited to what is said, we are likely to see increased phishing scams and malware attacks in 2020.

Fann says:

 <Phishing attacks are likely to become more complex because criminals will use other methods, such as texting and social media to deceive their victims, instead of using email as their preferred method.>

Cryptographic currencies and attacks 51%

The 51% attacks are the nightmare of the cryptographic world. As the experience of 51% attacks on Verge, Vertcoin, Classic Ethereum and Bitcoin Gold encrypts shows, these attacks are particularly likely to occur with low hashrate coins or low network computing power over the total amount of hashrate available.

 Jimmy Sang admits we will see an increase in attacks next year, though hackers may not always succeed in directing Fiat currencies to their banks.

Sang says:

 <Half the Bitcoin Cash Extract (BCH) and Bitcoin SV extraction half should make the attacks very cost effective. The question is how will an attacker benefit?>

He said:

 <Usually this will require some financial benefits, but the only thing everyone has to do is double-spend. I think much more can happen, but it's not very popular because the exchanges are increasing the number of endorsements.>

Bitcoin and the future of cryptographic security

Looking more closely into the future, Sang - a Bitcoin maximalist - believes that bitcoin will be powerful against hypothetical threats.

He says:

 <Bitcoin has many game theories to execute. It is very difficult to make a profit by trying to attack Bitcoin. On the other hand, altequins have many problems. Most of them are centralized, and this reduces the possibility of using altequoins to combat hackers.>

 While Charles Fen also agrees that the Bitcoin network is well protected from cyberattacks, he says many systems and platforms built on the network do not have such protection and will remain as weaknesses in the coming years.

He says:

 <The problem with bitcoin is not the protocol itself, which is proven to be secure, but the problem with businesses operating on the bitcoin network.>

 <The strength of a chain is only as weak as its weakest ring, and the weakest in the cryptographic system are its carriers. If their security is not enough, their customers may lose.>

 However, increasing cyberattacks on currency exchanges and wallets may lead to the weakest being removed from the encryption ecosystem, leaving only the healthiest alive and thus increasing overall robustness.

Jimmy Sang says:

 <Those who don't have good security go bankrupt, this is the nature of the world, and the ones that live are much better in security, so I think there will be fewer hacks over time.>