Blockchain.io — Putting High Emphasis On Security against Network Attacks
There have been several cyber-attacks on cryptocurrency exchanges in the recent months which lead to significant losses from the exchanges and their users. Some of these examples are Coincheck, a Japan-based exchange which was hacked in January 2018 with over 500 million USD in losses, and Coinrail, a South Korean-based exchange which was also hacked this June 2018 with losses amounting to 37 million USD. These hacking events on cryptocurrency exchanges weaken the trust on cryptocurrencies, resulting into a slow down on their adoption and development.

Security is a very important factor to consider in cryptocurrency exchanges. Blockchain.io, a European cryptocurrency exchange of trust, aims to overcome the shortcomings of modern cryptocurrency exchanges which includes security.

Hackers target exchange’s weaknesses in terms of data protection and therefore these must be addressed before an exchange starts its operations.
An example of a security breach is the lack of hot wallet protection. This is one mistake made by Coincheck which they admitted not securing a hot wallet with multisignature private keys. Hackers were able to access using a single private key alone to unlock the digital wallet.
Blockchain.io held cryptocurrencies in a cold storage (offline) for at least 98% of reserves. These cold wallets are protected by multiple signatures and a private key is split and held in several vaults in multiple locations. Therefore, there is a very low chance for intruders to access the wallets.

Another is transaction malleability, which has lead to Mt. Gox exchange bankruptcy. Blockchain transactions are highly secure because it is an immutable record. However, in the case of Mt. Gox, hackers submitted code changes to the blockchain ledger before transaction close, wherein they manipulated the signature which eventually changes the transaction ID, and 473 million USD worth of Bitcoin was diverted to them.
To avoid this, Blockchain.io implements periodic technical audits and timestamped logs to allow detection of any tampering attempts in the accounting database. They also perform periodic financial audits which verify that the inventory of coins (asset side) and records of liabilities are equally balanced with cryptographic proof.

Blockchain.io also prepares itself for mainstream adoption. Hackers usually try to bring down high volume cryptocurrency exchanges through DDoS attacks. Blockchain.io applies the highest standards in security and technology, building its platform with a reliable infrastructure which is resilient to high volume and DOS attacks.
Aside from external network attacks, Blockchain.io is also aware of possible internal security breaches. The exchange implements internal procedures that prevent social engineering attacks, and other in-house security procedures and technological features that prevent any employee related hacks or scams.

Overall, Blockchain.io is built by the team who created Paymium, Europe’s first crypto exchange which offers a service compliant to the European regulation. Paymium was launched in 2011 and has been operating hack free since the year 2013. Given that track record, Paymium already has a proven claim to have the highest standards in security, reliability and accountability, which will also be the hallmark of Blockhain.io.
