ICORating recently published a report detailing the strength of the security protocols on show for 100 cryptocurrency exchange platforms. The report is based on research studies conducted by the independent virtual currency research and rating agency.
Details of the Study
According to the report published by ICORating on Tuesday (October 2, 2018), more than half of the top cryptocurrency exchange platforms have insufficient security framework. Thus, many are likely to fall victim to hackers.
The report went on further to reveal that cybercriminals have successfully stolen more than $1 billion from 31 different platforms over the course of eight years. These hacks attacks were made possible because of poor security on the part of the affected cryptocurrency exchange platforms.
2018 began with the Coincheck hack that saw more than $500 million in NEM tokens stolen by cybercriminals. Coinrail, Bithumb, and Zaif have also fallen victim to cryptocurrency hackers during the year.
While attempting to catalog the respective security strengths/weaknesses of these platforms, ICORating elected to use four main criteria – code errors, user account security, domain security, and web security. ICORating also limited its field of inquiry to exchanges with average daily trading volumes that exceeded $1 million.
Security Protocols Remain a Mixed Bag for Many Cryptocurrency Exchanges
The result of the study showed that many platforms had multiple security shortcomings. Even among the top-ranked platforms, there were still areas of grave concern. Less than half of the exchanges had top-of-the-line user account security features, but the majority showed no code errors.
Most of the issues relating to user account security come from password strength, email verification, and two-factor authentication (2FA). However, on the latter count, it appears the situation has improved tremendously with only three percent of platforms lacking 2FA protocols.
One major area of concern according to the study is domain security. None of the 100 platforms showed best practices in all areas of domain security. Considering the elaborate schemes hatched by cryptocurrency hackers, this is a glaring vulnerability.
According to the report, only two percent of exchanges used registry lock and only ten percent used DNSSEC.
As for the rankings themselves, Coinbase Pro emerged the best platform with a score of 89. Many of the top-ranked exchanges by trade volume occupied lower positions with relatively inferior scores. Binance, in the 15th position, scored 63, Bitfinex in the 54th position scored 43, while Bitstamp in the 68th position scored 37.
Do you agree with the ICORating ranking of cryptocurrency exchange platform? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.
Images courtesy of ICORating and ShutterStock