Following the news that hackers taken control of virtual cash worth $60m (£41m) by exploiting a bug in the DAO, a system designed to help start-ups, Chris Campbell, Solution Architect at Veracode commented below.
Chris Campbell, Solution Architect at Veracode:
“Crypto currencies and the markets that they are traded on have seen rapid expansion in the last few years. These currencies and markets are based on software code, just like the everyday applications that every company is developing to achieve an advantage over the competition. Unfortunately, the pressure to be the first/best/biggest causes the same problems with crypto currencies and their markets as we see in standard software development, namely a focus on features ahead of security.
The attack on The DAO shows that any system that manages vast sums of money needs to be thoroughly assessed by security conscious professionals if is to be a place where safe transactions can take place. Attacks like these threaten to destroy confidence in early stage technologies that have the potential to revolutionise the way the world thinks about currency, getting security right at the very beginning is crucial to their survival.”
