“Unfortunately, even the harsh regulation of crypto markets is no silver bullet. Digital coins are extremely attractive for cybercriminals who can easy launder them and convert into spendable cash, even inspite of some losses due to “transactional commissions”. Most of these operations remain technically untraceable and undetectable, granting an absolute impunity to the attackers. Thus, cybercriminals will readily invest into additional efforts to break in, even if security is properly implemented and maintained.
Compliance does not necessarily mean security – major data breaches of PCI DSS certified merchants are not that unknown for example, likewise intrusions into organizations under even more rigorous regulatory and compliance requirements. Moreover, the vast majority of crypto-companies, including large crypto exchanges, are operating in a very turbulent, hostile and merciless market where a minor mistake can drive you out of business. Therefore, cybersecurity is rather complementary to their growth strategy. Some startups even ignore security and privacy, recklessly using out-of-the-box solutions, putting their customers’ assets at huge peril.
Hence, we will likely see even more data breaches involving crypto-currency companies in 2018 and for the next few years.”
Ilia Kolochenko is a Swiss application security expert and entrepreneur. He started his career as a penetration tester and has 15 years of experience in security auditing and digital forensics. After serving in Swiss artillery troops in 2007, Ilia founded his first pentesting and cybersecurity consultancy High-Tech Bridge. In 2014, Frost & Sullivan named the company a leading service provider in the European pentesting market. Later Ilia invented and built the concept of the ImmuniWeb Platform, which combines the strengths of human intelligence with Machine Learning, and is now entirely dedicated to it.As a Chief Architect at ImmuniWeb, he leads our data scientists, security analysts and software engineers. Ilia holds a bachelor degree in Computer Science and Mathematics from Webster University, a Master of Legal Studies from Washington University in St. Louis and a Master of Science in Criminal Justice (Cybercrime Investigation) from Boston University. Currently, Ilia is a Doctoral student (Ph.D. in Cybersecurity Leadership) at Capitol Technology University. Ilia Kolochenko is a member of Europol Data Protection Experts Network (EDEN), a Member of GIAC Advisory Board and a Committee Member at Boston University MET CIC (Cybercrime Investigation & Cybersecurity) Center. Ilia is a certified GIAC GLEG professional (Law of Data Security & Investigations) and a Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP/US and CIPP/E) by IAPP.
The opinions expressed in this post belongs to the individual contributors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Information Security Buzz.
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