The new ICOrating study published recently came to a conclusion that 54% of cryptocurrency trading platforms have “holes” in the security system that can be used to carry out hacker attacks and breaks-ins.
The ICOrating study assessed the security level of various cryptocurrency exchanges and revealed a number of shortcomings that are observed at many platforms, including several fairly well-known and popular ones.
"Over the years, digital thieves have stolen millions of dollars’ worth of cryptocurrency from various exchanges. Transactions and assets are not secured in any way, which makes investing in cryptocurrencies really hazardous. The largest cryptocurrency exchanges contain vast amounts of digital cash. These facts are really attractive for hackers," the report said.
ICOrating examined the security level of 100 crypto exchanges, whose daily trading volume exceeds $1 million, and recorded vulnerabilities and shortcomings in a number of security stages:
- 41% of exchanges allow you to create passwords shorter than 8 characters;
- 37% of exchanges allow you to create passwords only with numbers or letters;
- 5% of exchanges allow you to create accounts without email verification;
- 3% of exchanges do not have 2FA;
- Only 46% of exchanges correspond to all four parameters;
- Only 4% of exchanges have good domain protection.
ICOrating also analyzed in detail domain security systems of the exchanges. In particular, researchers examined the presence of the “Registry Lock” domain status, which prevents attempts to change or delete a domain by the registrator.
ICOrating also tested the use of DNSSEC for domain name administrators. DNSSEC is an extension of the DNS protocol that uses digital signatures of DNS data to secure the platform cache:
- Only 2% of exchanges have a registry lock domain
- Only 10% of exchanges use DNSSEC
ICOrating also ranked the security rating of all exchanges, with Coinbase Pro resulting on the top. The second place belongs to Kraken, and the third to BitMEX. Binance ranked only 17th on the list.
Zaif exchange that recently became a subject of a hacker attack resulting in more than 6,000 BTC stolen from the exchange, is ranked 89th by the ICOrating.
One of the latest studies also confirmed that 70% of the TOP-100 cryptocurrency exchanges on CoinMarketCap falsify trading volumes, exaggerating them a thousand times.
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