What Is Blockchain Security?

Core Principles of Blockchain Security

Blockchain as a whole is founded on a few core principles that dictate how it works, exchanges and stores data, and establishes trust without a central authority. 

Below are the main principles of blockchain and how they influence blockchain security:

• Decentralization: Blockchain networks distribute data across multiple peer-to-peer nodes, avoiding any one single centralized point. Without a core architecture to attack, it is much more difficult for malicious actors to disrupt blockchain architecture. However, decentralization also expands a network’s attack surface, requiring node-level security monitoring and controls.
• Immutability: Data written to a block and saved to a blockchain becomes impossible to alter or delete. This level of immutability prevents data tampering, making blockchain systems a fantastic choice for industries that rely on auditing and traceability. At the same time, incorrect data or data that contains potentially malicious information is permanent if entered into the blockchain, making strong data validation and monitoring essential.
• Transparency: Public blockchains maintain a transparent ledger where individuals can audit transactions and verify their details. By publicizing this information, it becomes extremely easy to identify and flag suspicious transactions. But for private data that falls under data protection laws, businesses need to implement further obfuscation layers to protect sensitive information.
• Cryptographic Integrity: Blockchain networks use many forms of cryptography, like digital signatures and hashing, to verify participants and confirm new blocks of information. Maintaining cryptographic keys securely and educating employees on the need to protect their credentials will help to ensure none of these secure systems are undermined by weak key management. 

While some of the core principles of blockchain make it more secure, they do not mitigate all forms of risk. Instead, they shift the potential sources of cyber events, meaning that security teams need to apply distinct controls and systems to effectively monitor blockchain networks.

Challenges and Limitations of Blockchain Security

While blockchain security shuts the door to certain attack vectors, it unintentionally makes itself more vulnerable to others. Due to its fundamental pillars, a range of alternative challenges arises that companies must tackle.

Here are some of the main limitations of blockchain security: 

• Lack of Standardization: As a decentralized system, it’s more difficult to standardize how different blockchain systems operate. The minimum security configurations, consensus mechanisms, and governance models all vary, making it difficult to apply consistent security controls across all deployments. Instead of using standardized frameworks, security teams using blockchain solutions will have to design custom strategies for each environment, increasing complexity.
• Scalability Issues: In order to solve blockchain scalability issues, experts employ strategies like connecting layer-2 networks and sharding. However, these techniques all expand the attack surface of a blockchain while doing so, introducing more security considerations and making end-to-end visibility more challenging. 
• Magnitude of Errors: The immutable nature of blockchain systems means that once a successful attack occurs, it becomes extremely difficult to reverse any of the process. A well-executed malicious transaction will result in permanent financial loss, with the lack of a centralized authority that could insure and return the funds simply not existing. With that in mind, businesses using blockchain solutions need to pay additional attention to real-time threat monitoring to move toward prevention rather than response.

These limitations demonstrate why blockchain security requires additional precautions and specialized considerations. Any organization looking to adopt blockchain systems into their networks must also take steps to ensure they have blockchain security solutions in place that can offer a safe transition.

Public vs. Private Blockchain Security

Public and private blockchains are vastly different, both in architectural structure and security requirements. When opting to use a blockchain network, understanding these differences will help ensure a company is able to apply the correct security controls to best mitigate risk.

Public blockchains are systems that are completely open to the public. Absolutely anyone can interact with these systems, validate transactions (if called upon), and operate nodes. Public blockchains are the foundation of most blockchain systems, as they directly align with the foundational principles of transparency and decentralization. 

However, a public blockchain also has a large attack surface, meaning malicious actors have a wide network of smart contracts, nodes, or decentralized applications to interact with. Protecting a public blockchain requires constant transaction monitoring, smart contract validation, and behavioral monitoring at scale.

A private blockchain is an invite-only network that businesses construct to gain the benefits of a blockchain system without exposing their data to the public. While restricting access reduces the external attack surface, it also means that other threats, like risks from misconfiguration or weak access controls, become central concerns.

Businesses that want to secure private blockchains need to monitor node behavior, encrypt all data transactions, apply strict access controls, and use identity management and Zero Trust: across the board. 

Types of Blockchain Attacks

Understanding the most common types of blockchain attacks will allow businesses to put in place the right security controls to mitigate them.

Here are the most pressing attacks to consider:

• Ataques de phishing: Malicious actors may target individual users, blockchain developers, or network administrators (in private blockchains) to phish for private keys, wallet credentials, or login information. If able to access an account, any transactions that steal funds will be irreversible.
• Routing Attacks: Routing attacks aim to intercept blockchain communications as they move through internet routing protocols. By hijacking traffic that flows between blockchain nodes, attackers can influence transactions and edit data. Businesses may also need to monitor for potential man-in-the-middle attacks between nodes and users.
• 51% Attacks: A concern for public blockchains is when a single entity gains control over the majority of a proof-of-work chain’s total computational power. This is a rare form of attack (due to the many resources required), but it can be critical for a network, with the malicious group actively changing transactions before processing, reversing existing transactions, and blocking out other individuals from participating in the chain. 
• Endpoint Vulnerabilities: Node infrastructure, user wallets, and developer computers are all endpoints that malicious groups can target to breach blockchain systems. These attacks aim to expose private keys or steal blockchain assets from the target.
• Sybil Attacks: Sybil attacks focus on creating malicious nodes and integrating them into a blockchain network, influencing the overall consensus mechanism and corrupting a network from the inside out.
• Smart Contract Vulnerabilities: Flaws in code logic within smart contracts allow malicious groups to exploit transactions and steal funds without users realizing. Again, due to the immutable nature of blockchain, any successful attack is likely irreversible. 

Especially in heavily regulated industries, like healthcare and finance, where blockchain is increasingly used for payments and data integrity, even a single attack can be severe. Beyond data exfiltration or financial losses, blockchain cyberattacks can lead to regulatory violations and reputational damage that can harm companies for years after the event. 

Security Controls Specific to Enterprise Blockchain Solutions

The specific blockchain security controls that enterprises need to integrate reflect the range of potential attacks that could occur. Some attacks, like phishing and endpoint compromise, need employee education and endpoint monitoring to prevent. Others, such as 51% attacks,, instead require consensus analysis, real-time transaction verification, and extensive blockchain network monitoring.

Additionally, when working with blockchain solutions, businesses should also consider the architectural components within the system. For example, auditing smart contracts and validating transaction logic before execution will help to address the infrastructure-specific weaknesses that a blockchain network may have.

As always, standard controls like identity and access management, encryption, and improving visibility over the entire network will also help to reduce risk across the spectrum.

Strengthen Your Blockchain Security with Check Point

Check Point was identified as a market leader in the blockchain security industry due to its innovation in protecting public blockchains from emerging cyber threats. Included in the Next Big Things in Tech list for its ability to detect risky payloads and suspicious logic before blockchain threats can cause damage, Check Point is helping to develop proactive on-chain protection.

Check Point Web3 Security delivers comprehensive network visibility across entire blockchains, leverages AI-powered threat engines to prevent malicious transactions in real time, and provides enterprise-grade controls for compliance, monitoring, and threat response across decentralized environments.

Enhance your blockchain security system today by requesting a demo.