Can You Hack a Blockchain?
Hacking a Blockchain – Blockchain offers many exciting possibilities and is still in its early days. However, despite its growing popularity, some networks aren’t satisfactorily secure.
Several attack vectors can be used against them, dumping their integrity and slowing down the much-needed adoption.
To understand how a hack happens, one must first know how public chains operate and their basic security features.
How Does a Blockchain Work?
A blockchain is a decentralized digital ledger that stores information about financial transactions and keeps tracking them from one “block” to the next. It is community-driven and maintained by, ideally, globally distributed node operators.
Although multiple users maintain copies of the ledger, it is one enormous, irreversible chain. It can’t be altered retroactively without colliding with every other copy of the ledger in the network.
While blockchain has evolved into a trillion-dollar market and a potent infrastructure, it is still in its infancy and has a long way before it finds mainstream adoption. The same can be said about its core security features anchored primarily on decentralization and cryptography. Though some of its security features are integrated by most ledgers and proven to be hacker-proof, many remain novel and not yet fully understood.
Public blockchains are secure and anchor multi-billion dollar dApps. However, they are some which are susceptible to DDoS attacks, Sybil attacks, and 51% or Majority attacks. Learn more here: Click To TweetAttack Vectors
The decentralized nature of blockchains makes them susceptible to attacks that seek to subvert the system by tampering with the ledger.
The most common attacks on blockchains are distributed denial-of-service (DDoS), majority attacks, and Sybil attacks.
A DDoS is a cyber-attack that floods a blockchain with so much traffic that it cannot respond to legitimate requests. In a Sybil attack, attackers create fake addresses to fool other users into sending funds or censoring nodes.
Besides, public chains are vulnerable to 51 percent or the Majority of attacks, leading to double-spending. Double-spending occurs when a crypto user spends the same transaction twice.
This serious hacking problem undermines trust in the system and potentially leads to widespread fraud.
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