Protecting Your Blockchain Network From Cybersecurity Threats

Blockchain networks are an increasingly important piece of the financial infrastructure that carries out a daily trading volume of around $34b. The blockchain is also home to more than 22,000 crypto projects.

This growth naturally creates many opportunities for cybersecurity attacks, fraud, and bad actors to take advantage of rushed and unprepared blockchain deployments. In the last few years, we have seen a massive expansion of DDoS attacks, DeFi hacks, exit scams, and phishing attacks. These attacks have led to massive losses of over $4 billion.

OVHcloud’s high-performance stack adds several critical components to create a VAC DDoS mitigation service that can alert and prevent potential DDoS attacks. To protect a blockchain project from DDoS attacks, it is crucial to select the appropriate hosting environment and choose a cloud provider that offers up-to-date hardware and software services to combat cybersecurity threats.

Types of Threats Commonly Found in the Web 3.0 Space

The objective of blockchain cyberattacks is to reveal valuable customer information, including private keys and other sensitive data. In the following section, we aim to identify the most prevalent forms of attacks on web3 and blockchain networks. These include crypto bridge, phishing, and DDoS attacks.

Crypto Bridge Attacks

According to Chainalysis, a blockchain research company, 70% of all cyberattacks target crypto bridges. These bridges are a means of transferring crypto tokens between two blockchain networks. As crypto bridges grew in popularity in 2022, so did the number of attacks directed toward them. In the same year, Cryptobridge hacks resulted in the loss of over $1.4 billion worth of assets.

Phishing, & Ransomware Attacks 

Social engineering and phishing attacks are common in the web3 space. A “phishing” attack is the practice of stealing sensitive information through deceptive communication methods. Attackers misrepresent themselves and/or the website they guide you to in order to gain access to usernames, passwords, bank accounts, etc.

Phishing and ransomware attacks often target wallets and exchange credentials to gain access to funds. When an unsuspected user connects their crypto wallet (like MetaMask) to the misrepresented user or website, the attacker accesses the victim’s account. Phishing and ransomware attacks resulted in $730 million of stolen funds over the last 4 years.

DDOS Attacks 

Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks are the most prevalent blockchain network threat. DDoS attacks cause billions of dollars in damages each year.

A DDoS attack is the process of overloading the responsiveness of a server by flooding it with waves of synthetically generated requests. These attacks clog up the network and limit connectivity to users, interrupting service and access. Two of the most common DDoS attacks are “Bandwidth Depletion: and “transaction flooding” attacks.

What Makes DDoS the Most Significant Cyber Threat to a Blockchain Network? 

While Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks are preventable, they lead to substantial financial losses for blockchain services. In 2016, the Ethereum network experienced a DDoS attack that caused a significant increase in network activity, resulting in the loss of $50 million worth of Ethereum.

To protect your project from DDoS attacks, it is crucial to choose the appropriate hosting environment. When selecting a cloud hosting option for your blockchain network, it is essential to opt for a provider that offers comprehensive DDoS protection mechanisms. By choosing the right hosting environment, you can prevent DDoS attacks from targeting your project and minimize their impact.

What are the Hardware and Software Requirements to Prevent a DDoS Attack?   

As DDoS attacks continue to occur with increasing frequency and intensity on both large and small blockchain networks, the question is not if, but when. Consequently, every network administrator should proactively seek technical and system solutions and remain prepared. This also places a responsibility on their cloud provider to offer up-to-date hardware and software services to combat cybersecurity threats.

Companies that offer secure blockchain node hosting services typically provide several benefits, including:

• Access to top-notch security standards and tools such as anti-DDoS systems on both the hardware and software levels.
• The ability to quickly set up servers with optimal configurations at fair and transparent prices.
• Vertical and horizontal scaling capabilities that follow pre-configured rules and policies.
• Rapid detection and protection with active filtering starting at the first malicious packet.
• Hardware detection tooling built into the system to ensure that blockchain networks are always on.
• Unmetered bandwidth regardless of the attack volume without any additional charges.
• Guaranteed trust and data sovereignty, meaning that your data remains confidential and is never shared with third parties.

How to Protect Yourself from Blockchain DDoS Attacks?  

OVHcloud’s high-performance stack adds several critical components to create a VAC DDoS mitigation service that can alert and prevent potential DDoS attacks, as illustrated below.

HCAP stands for Hardware Client Amplitude Policer. It can offload any VAC nodes for optimal performance but also serves as a rate-limiter and load distribution service.

The Edge Network Firewall is part of the VAC, and it activates on-demand when it detects an active DDoS. It can spin up to 20 customer-side-subset rules which can filter packets and adapt to the server’s activities. This is a great feature that businesses can set and forget and trigger automatically.

Shield and Armor is a set of services that prevent the server's resources from being saturated. For example, the Shield helps when the attacker uses IP spoofing or a reflection attack vector. Conversely, the Armor is the most advanced filter in VAC DDoS protection. It mitigates against the most advanced cyberattacks, such as TCP/SYN/cookie auth handshake, zombie detection, spam, and heavy traffic via TCP or UDP protocols and floods.

How to Use NSX Data Center for vSphere for Blockchain Networks?  

Another enterprise-grade service that enables the development and deployment of highly scalable and secured blockchain networks is the VMware SDDC (Software-Defined Data Center) Hosted Private Cloud offering. By securing the network with NSX Data Center for vSphere, one can enable easy management of logical commutation, logical routing, load balancing, and distributed firewall.

You can also leverage the NSX Data Center for vSphere to easily follow the best practices for network security and actively manage all the network and security for your OVHcloud services, regardless of their type (Public Cloud, Hosted Private Cloud or dedicated servers).

Blockchain Security & DDoS Protection  

Blockchain networks are facing an increasing number of cybersecurity threats as they continue to grow and expand. Attacks such as DDoS attacks, phishing attacks, and crypto bridge attacks are becoming more common and leading to significant financial losses for blockchain services. To prevent such attacks, it is important to choose the right hosting environment that offers comprehensive DDoS protection mechanisms and access to top-notch security standards and tools.

OVHcloud is a trusted blockchain node hosting provider that can help sustain and resist any significant DDoS or spam attacks by providing configured software and hardware features and services that can be triggered on demand. In the 24/7/365 transacting world of blockchain, it's essential for crypto node operators to work with experienced and reputable providers who have the right infrastructure in place.

OVHcloud provides a high-performance stack with several critical components to create a VAC DDoS mitigation service that can alert and prevent potential DDoS attacks. For more information about blockchain node hosting and security, contact a solutions expert at us.ovhcloud.com