MIT Professor Claims Blockchain Technology Is Not as Secure as Claimed

A professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology says that blockchains are not as secure as they are purported to be in an editorial in the Wall Street Journal on June 6.

Stuart Madnick - the John Norris Maguire Professor of Information Technologies at the MIT Sloan School of Management and the Founding Director of the Cybersecurity at MIT Sloan research consortium - highlighted a forthcoming study on blockchain, stating that the technology is not as secure as many purport it to be.

The MIT study analyzed 72 cases of publicly reported security breaches in blockchain systems between 2011 and 2018, subsequently developing a taxonomy of blockchain vulnerabilities.

Among major vulnerabilities, the study named transparency, distributed control and anonymity, which are also blockchain tech's purported key advantages.

Distributed control means that there is no central "On" or "Off" switches like in traditional centralized systems.

When it comes to an attack discovered on a blockchain system, it is purportedly impossible to turn off.

As for anonymity, Madnick stresses that it is impossible to restore access to a user's blockchain account if they lose the key.

"The bottom line is that while the blockchain system represents advances in encryption and security, it is vulnerable in some of the same ways as other technology, as well as having new vulnerabilities unique to blockchain. In fact, human actions or inactions still have significant consequences for blockchain security."

Sheila Warren, head of Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technology at the World Economic Forum, recently claimed blockchain could be a solution to the worsening trust crisis globally.

"This technology could provide access to information that could enable third parties or other groups to actually come in and conduct audits of what is happening. And I actually think that could build faith back in institutions."