Playbook Objectives:

• Understand the vulnerabilities intrinsic to blockchain technologies.
• Improve the security posture of the company’s blockchain-reliant systems.
• Establish best practices and protocols in protecting blockchain technologies.
• To validate the effectiveness of security mechanisms currently in place.
• Sharing knowledge and best practices among cybersecurity teams, especially those working on blockchain technology.

Difficulty Level:

• Advanced

Scenario:

• Our fictitious organization for this scenario is Acme Bank – a global leader in digital finance, handling billions of dollars in transactions daily. The bank has been a beacon of digital innovation, leading the race in integrating blockchain technology into its critical operations. The company has implemented blockchain technology in its transaction logging system, smart contracts, and distributed ledger technology to store critical customer data.
• Acme Bank is particularly concerned about the security of its blockchain implementation, partly due to its public visibility and the financial stakes at hand, but also due to a recent cyber threat. An unnamed hacker group has made their intention clear to exploit vulnerabilities in the bank’s blockchain technologies.
• In this simulation exercise, Acme’s cybersecurity team, led by their chief security officer, James Connor, projects a realistic attack scenario – an attempt to breach the integrity of their blockchain implementation. Acme Bank’s goal from this exercise is multi-fold: Validate existing defensive measures, identify possible system vulnerabilities, create a blueprint for securing blockchain implementation, and boost the overall security of their network.

Category:

• Blockchain Security

Exercise Attack Steps:

• The scenario begins with the anonymous hacker group attempting to force its way into the Acme Bank’s network system using a targeted phishing campaign. They send phishing emails to potential personnel who have access to the critical blockchain systems.
• Once they acquire user credentials and infiltrate the system, they will attempt to exploit potential vulnerabilities within the smart contract system. Their objective would be to manipulate the blockchain transactions and smart contracts logic to siphon funds.
• In the next phase, the hacker group tries to compromise the integrity of the company’s distributed ledgers by launching a ‘51% attack’ attempting to gain control of over half the network nodes to double-spend transactions or disrupt financial operations.
• The final step involves exfiltrating customer data from the blockchain-ledger, with an intrusion in the consensus algorithm, resulting in a significant data breach.

The cybersecurity team’s challenge is to detect, mitigate, and respond to these steps by implementing a robust blockchain security infrastructure, close monitoring for suspicious activity, robust fail-safe policies, security audits, and formulate a comprehensive after-incident response and recovery plan in case of an attack. By conducting this exercise, Acme Bank aims to protect its reputation, clients, and trade superiority while anticipating, preventing, and overpowering threats to its innovative blockchain implementation.