Current Due Diligence on Strikeforce and Subsidiar
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Current Due Diligence on Strikeforce and Subsidiary Blocksafe Technologies in 2018
April 19,2018
The Mighty Blockchain Has Mighty Security Problems – Opinion
Blockchain, Crime, FinTech, News | April 19, 2018
By: Rich Zaziski, CEO, BlockSafe Technologies
Often touted as immutable, blockchain technology and its unlimited potential have garnered much attention lately, and rightly so. The mathematical model that the technology is built upon as well as its time-stamped, verifiable nature certainly makes it a reliable option for monitoring and tracking purposes, one that industries across the globe are looking to implement. In fact, according to a recent report from IDC, global spending on blockchain solutions in 2018 is estimated to be $2.1 billion. Furthermore, according to CoinMarketCap, the cryptocurrency markets – the more widely known application of the blockchain technology – grew to $600 billion by the end of 2017.
While blockchain technologies continues to hold much promise, we cannot neglect the numerous hacking incidents that have crippled the crypto economy. From DAO and Mt. Gox to CoinCheck and GDAX, crypto exchanges have already lost multi millions. In addition, nearly $400 million has been lost or stolen during ICOs, according to Ernst & Young. Only last week, the UK National Cybersecurity Center (NCSC) issued a warning about cryptojacking, and recommended the use of ad blockers and anti-virus programs which include browser mining blocks to prevent these types of attacks.
Now, if the past hacking incidents have taught us anything, it is that hackers follow the money, and to hackers, blockchain is a big pot of gold, and not a very secure one at that. The last several years of crypto breaches are proof that blockchain has vulnerabilities, and by extension, crypto wallets and crypto exchanges are also vulnerable, and that the immutable blockchain isn’t exactly impenetrable.
The reality is that while the blockchain is secure in and of itself, access to it is not. This is because of non-existent or subpar enforcement of rules and policies on the user side and lack of authentication in blockchain transactions. So, for enterprises looking to implement blockchain technology, it is paramount that they understand the security risks involved and take proactive measures to combat these risks.
As noted by Bloor Research’s David Norfolk in his recent report on Blockchain Governance, “One of the chief issues around a secure technology (such as Blockchain is capable of being) is that it becomes trusted – and if someone puts corrupt garbage into it, the garbage that comes out is probably trusted too.” Hackers are smart and while they will continue to come up with sophisticated hacking techniques, the existing whack-a-mole method that we employ to thwart cybercriminals isn’t sufficient. We need to stop reacting. What we need instead is a proactive approach which employs things like two-factor authentication, keystroke encryption, transaction authentication, and policy and rules engine so that we can go a step further than just identifying the problem. By bracing for a cyber-attack, we are acknowledging the imminent presence of hackers and are making sure we are prepared to stop them right in their tracks.
Rich Zaziski is CEO of BlockSafe Technologies, Inc., a company securing the blockchain ecosystem with a suite of solutions that protect against an array of cyber vulnerabilities. His experience spans more than 30 years in the technology industry, as a developer, architect, executive, adviser and entrepreneur.
Rich’s expertise bridges functional areas across diverse industries, allowing him to quickly understand complex business problems and synthesize actionable, technology-driven solutions. He is passionate about fostering emerging technologies and exploring how they can positively impact people and improve business performance.
Previously, Rich founded and ran a technology consulting firm that delivered measurable value to Fortune 500 companies for over 28 years. He holds an MBA in information technology from Fairleigh Dickinson University and a BA from Rutgers University.
April 14, 2018
The grim state of cybersecurity: It’s awful, and it’s only going to get worse
BY PAUL GILLIN
This year has witnessed the embarrassing disclosure of 119,000 documents left on an unprotected server by Fedex Corp., a similar compromise of 37 million customer records by Panera Bread Co., the theft of up to 5 million records of Saks Fifth Avenue and Lord & Taylor customers, ransomware attacks at Boeing Co. and the City of Atlanta, and Facebook Inc.’s admission that 87 million customer accounts were compromised prior to the 2016 election by the data firm Cambridge Analytica.
And it’s only April.
The inescapable fact is, the state of cybersecurity keeps getting worse despite an explosion in the amount of investment and energy plowed into improving it going years back. And it’s only going to get worse, according to the unanimous assessment of 22 security industry chief executives, chief technology officers, security analysts and independent security experts contacted by SiliconANGLE.
As the annual RSA Conference run by Dell Technologies Inc.’s RSA Security LLC subsidiary opens Monday in San Francisco, SiliconANGLE asked a cross-section of people who are on the front lines of the cybersecurity wars two simple questions: Are we winning the battle against cybercriminals? And if not, what can be done to reverse the tide?
On the first question, the glum consensus of the experts was nearly unanimous: Not only are we losing the war, but the scope and severity of successful attacks is accelerating. “It’s not even close,” said Paul Kurtz, a former National Security Council member who’s now CEO of TruSTAR Technology Inc. “We are taking it on the chin day after day.”
Mike Simon, CEO of Cryptonite LLC, agreed the situation is “extremely serious. We’re seeing a massive ramp-up at the start of 2018 in a number of different areas, particularly intellectual property theft.”
No silver bullet
Their opinions are backed up by mountains of research. A recent survey of 1,200 enterprises commissioned by Thales SA found that 46 percent of U.S. companies said they been hit by a data breach in the past 12 months, nearly double the percentage of a year earlier. And breaches whose scope would have been breathtaking not long ago are now run-of-the-mill, despite the nearly $100 billion that organizations are expected to pour into defenses this year.
“The tools the criminals use haven’t gotten that much more sophisticated, but the volume of breaches has exploded,” said Harry Sverdlove, chief technology officer at Edgewise Networks Inc. He noted that last year’s theft of more than 145 million consumer records from Equifax Inc. affected nearly half the U.S. population. “It would almost be comical if it weren’t so tragic,” he said.
Many of the security providers we contacted sell products and services that address part of the cybersecurity problem, but none purports to have a silver bullet. And most agree that the most common vulnerabilities are best addressed by changing user behavior, rather than technology.
The reasons experts say organizations are falling further behind in the fight against cybercrime range from skills shortages to sloppiness to the failure of regulators and law enforcement agencies to enforce stricter penalties for organizations that suffer a breach.
Krebs: "No incentives to write secure code"
Brian Krebs: “No incentives to write secure code”
Despite their high profile, incidents such as the Equifax hack, which triggered the resignations of several top executives, are relatively rare. Regulators don’t aggressively pursue prosecution of victimized companies, and attackers are almost never caught. The result: “Companies don’t have a lot of incentive to write secure code or to produce secure Web sites and apps because they view the cost of doing so to outweigh the cost of fixing it when things are discovered or broken,” said Brian Krebs, author of the popular Krebs on Security blog, which broke the news of the Panera attack among others.
For criminals, he said, “the barriers to entry have never been lower and the low-hanging fruit never more abundant. The chances of success with low to moderate effort are high and there are seldom consequences for criminals. It’s no wonder that cybercrime is such a fast-growing industry.”
Even if substantial improvements arrive on all these fronts, the prospects for gaining a sustainable advantage against adversaries appear dim. “It’s like asking if we’re winning the war against our fingernails,” said Troy Hunt, founder of HaveIBeenPwned.com, a site that matches visitors’ email addresses against stolen records found on the dark web. “They keep growing back.”
Attackers have an inherent advantage because they only need to find one weakness to launch an attack, whereas organizations must plug every possible security hole. That makes even trial-and-error a pretty lucrative strategy. “ The reality is that we will never win the war unless all of the world’s cybercriminals suddenly decide to stop hacking ,” said George Waller, a strategic adviser at BlockSafe Technologies Inc., a maker of products for securing blockchain-based services.
April 13, 2018
https://www.twst.com/interview/Interview-with...CMKTS-SFOR
TWST: Please update us, and tell us about how your recently announced subsidiary, BlockSafe Technologies, evolved?
Mr. Kay : StrikeForce learned a lot about the blockchain over the past number of months, actually reading a lot about it. And then a company came to us and wanted to get involved, and they felt they could use our products and be the only blockchain company with cybersecurity products. And so we said, these are products that make sense, so we should do it ourselves. So we started a company, subsidiary called BlockSafe Technologies, Inc., which we feel could be very strong, and currently we're setting it up. We’ve released a PR and it is now live .
We're now doing a Pre-sale private fund, followed by a Pre-ICO fund, followed by the ICO. We'll have a website on our ICO in about the next week or so. We feel very confident and strong about what we're doing, especially the advantage we have with our BlockSafe Technologies .
TWST: How did you get up to speed on the new blockchain technology so quickly? And how will BlockSafe be integrated into StrikeForce’s existing business model?
Mr. Kay : Blockchain has been in the news quite a bit over the past couple of years, especially over the last year. We've read a lot about it, then we got involved, and we're going to be making a very unique contribution in terms of the products we'll be providing. We will still be providing StrikeForce's security products, but we're going to brand them for BlockSafe, and we're going to change them and add features and functions to them. Two of them — GuardedID and MobileTrust — would be close to what we have now, so we actually can make the products available pretty quickly, and they will be re-branded of course.
So we will be the only blockchain company selling cybersecurity products. So we're actually adding a major function to the blockchain by adding security products that especially provide Out-of-Band Authentication that will also allow other features to occur, such as giving permission to the person — rules engine — and policy server, etc. We will have a major kickoff meeting in the next month or so, and we've hired a major PR firm to work with us, Fusion PR .
TWST: Did you hire new technology experts to execute the blockchain technology for BlockSafe?
Mr. Kay : We did, and we can now announce the names, which are Richard Zaziski, CEO , and Scott Whitman, COO , for starters. We're still in process as we hire the rest of the strong team. We find it to be very exciting; everybody wants to get involved, of course. We did start collecting monies for ...
Fusion PR??
www.fusionpr.com
Fusion helps clients build and get into bigger stories in top-tier media, broadcast and the most important tech blogs.
April 3, 2018
Blocksafe Technologies CEO is quoted today
Blockchain governance - Even if Blockchain is secure (often moot), its whole ecosystem needs governance.
Written By: David Norfolk
Content Copyright © 2018 Bloor. All Rights Reserved.
Blockchain (the technology behind cryptocurrencies), however, is not any sort of a joke. And not just because simply renaming one’s company with “blockchain” in the name seems to markedly increase its value: here.
Friends of mine in the BCS CMSG are convinced that Blockchain has a future – see the PDF here (BCS members only) or book the workshop here – as a distributed asset register for (in essence) Agile or Mutable Configuration Management – mutable CM, that is, that can cope with the rate of change typical of modern automated business environments.
I think that Blockchain governance, which isn’t talked about much (yet) will be key to its success in this role . There is a Japanese girl band that sings about the importance of not losing one’s private key to one’s cryptocoins; I’d be happier to hear them singing about 2-factor authentication and about the importance of policy-managed, controlled access to the Blockchain. Perhaps it’s difficult to make that scan – but I believe that the Virtual Currency Girls themselves may have lost out in one of the recent cryptocoin scandals.
Potential Blockchain issues include the “51% attack” where over half the nodes are induced to agree on a corrupted transaction. Not impossible to arrange, I’d have thought, in these days of botnets and state-sponsored hacking. But there are other possible issues – how do you manage a blockchain that grows without limit; how do you enforce policies for what goes on a blockchain; is latency an issue (how long does it take for all occurrences of the blockchain to come into synch?); “deletion” of transactions in error is a problem (since you can’t delete off the blockchain, how long does it take for a transaction correcting an error to get everywhere?); guaranteed performance would be useful (cryptocoin exchanges have been known to overload); authentication of people allowed to use a blockchain might be a good idea; and, of course, there is the quantum computing issue (Blockchain needs to get into “quantum encryption” before someone works out how to factor large almost-primes easily). Many of these issues are now being recognised and addressed, by companies such as Blocksafe Technologies (see below).
I’m not really interested in public cryptocurrencies here. Most business Blockchain ecosystems will be Private or “Permissioned”: permission is required for a user to read the information on the blockchain and conduct transactions; and nodes that perform the mining are defined by the entity that manages the private blockchain. Here, the biggest issue is probably authentication and the biggest threat the malware (keyboard loggers etc) that infects many desktops and mobile devices, possibly looking out specifically for wallet-type activities.
Whatever the issues with any particular blockchain technology (and the technology will evolve and improve) Blockchain has huge potential for distributed ledger applications in business generally (far beyond just cryptocurrencies). However, in order to be useful to the business, Blockchains will usually be private to that business (“permissioned”) and will be part of a well-governed ecosystem. This ecosystem must control who has permission to put transactions on the blockchain, and must secure the endpoints (digital wallets or whatever) against attack.
One of the chief issues around a secure technology (such as Blockchain is capable of being) is that it becomes trusted – and if someone puts corrupt garbage into it, the garbage that comes out is probably trusted too. BlockSafe CEO Rich Zaziski says : “ Our goal is to secure the blockchain ecosystem with a suite of distinct solutions that protect against an array of cyber vulnerabilities. We plan to secure private blockchains with the Blockchain Defender that acts as a gateway to a blockchain and authenticates transactions, scans transaction data for malicious content and mitigates DDoS attacks. We also aim to secure desktop and mobile crypto wallets with Crypto Defender which takes a proactive and preventative approach in protecting crypto wallets, versus a reactive approach, which is usually easy to thwart ”. I think that some such governance technology is badly needed, and sooner rather than later.
Blockchain is a big topic and some of its concepts can be complex. There is a useful repository of Blockchain information here. This looks pretty useful to me but always remember that Blockchain is at the top of its hypecurve and even good quality information is usually eminating from someone who has wholly “bought into” the Blockchain and Cyptocurrency concepts and is therefore not exactly disinterested. When hype is around, Buyer Beware takes on a new importance!
March 26, 2018
Ropes & Gray, Strikeforce Technologies world-class Lawfirm files scathing Appeal Brief
$SFOR Federal Appeal @ jmp.sh/EcdD0pJ
MOMENTUM & GROWTH 3-21-2018
StrikeForce Technologies Inc (OTCMKTS:SFOR) T outs Cryptocurrency And Blockchain Growth Opportunities
With the threat of cyber-attack always on the rise, investors have started to take note of the company’s, novel technologies that have positioned it on the cusp of rapid growth . While the stock is still languishing near all-time lows, we remain optimistic about its prospects as the company continues to diversify its revenue streams.
Let us first review the company’s core business before we look at the catalysts, likely to push it up the charts.
StrikeForce Technologies Business Description
StrikeForce Technologies bills itself as a software development and service company focused on the development of solutions for preventing cyber theft and data security. The company develops identification protection software for protecting computer networks from unauthorized access.
Consumer’s corporations and government agencies routinely use the company suite of products to shield themselves from network and data breaches. The management strives to achieve growth by deploying a robust sales channel rather than relying on acquisitions.
Cryptocurrencies and blockchain Protection Ambitions
The cryptocurrencies space has felt the full force of cyber-attacks as the industry continues to evolve. Cases of people waking up to find their digital wallets have been hacked are not new. However, that could soon change, as StrikeForce Technologies moves to expand its footprint in the space .
The software development company has unveiled a new subsidiary dubbed BlockSafe Technologies that will specifically focus on providing security solutions for protecting blockchain and cryptocurrencies .
Becoming a leader in Blockchain technologies is the company’s latest ambitions as it continues to explore new opportunities for growth and for generating shareholder value. The new unit will offer three security solutions.
Blockchain Defender is the most advanced and comprehensive solution, dedicated to blockchain firewall specifically designed for access control and policy enforcement. Desktop defender and Mobile defender are designed to protect digital wallets and cryptocurrencies from being hacked.
“Protecting blockchain and cryptocurrencies is a huge greenfield opportunity for us. Cybersecurity has typically lagged far behind innovation, but in this instance, we know exactly what’s needed, and the best part of it is that our existing patented technologies will play a key role in protecting private/corporate blockchains as well as digital wallets and cryptocurrencies,” said CEO Mark L. Kay.
StrikeForce is to license its existing technologies to BlockSafe Technologies, which will customize them to offer protection to cryptocurrencies and blockchain applications.
What This Means
Expansion into the blockchain space provides a unique opportunity for the company to diversify its revenue-generating streams. Given that the industry is still in the early stages of development, StrikeForce remains well positioned to generate significant value as demand for security solutions in the space continues to grow.
The company has also announced plans to engage in a SEED and ICO Round as it seeks to raise funds to support BlockSafe ambitions. There are also plans to create BSAFE cryptocurrency tokens .
GuardedID upgrade
In addition to pursuing opportunities in the cryptocurrency space, StrikeForce is also aggressively strengthening and expanding its current portfolio of Cybersecurity solutions. The company recently released a major software upgrade for GuardedID, consequently making it the best anti-keylogging software for PC or MAC .
GuardedID features a Keystroke encryption capability and will now include Microsoft Windows 10 Operating System and Windows 10 desktop applications . Clickjacking and hooking are some of the new attack vectors that the new spyware will shield against .
“Today, practicing smarter Cybersecurity requires a layered approach, an approach that addresses these new attack vectors like Keylogging, Clickjacking, and hooking. This is why this release is so significant for everyone, it addresses those attack-vectors head-on, and comes in just the nick of time,” says Kay.
StrikeForce Technologies 2018 Prospects
Expansion into the cryptocurrency and Blockchain space is one of the developments that makes StrikeForce Technologies an exciting pick at current valuations .
Demand for security solutions is on the rise given that most digital wallets are usually at the risk of being hacked. Given that very few companies offer security solutions in the space, the company stands a better chance of enjoying a fast-mover advantage given its proven security solutions in other sectors .
March 8, 2018
Mr. Kay reiterates large deals and information on BlockSafe Technologies
SecuritySolutionsWatch.com: Thank you for joining us again today Mark at this very exciting time in the growth of StrikeForce. The blockchain tsunami is undeniably now upon us.
We read with great interest in your recent Press Release that StrikeForce has, “…been closely following the extraordinary growth of blockchain, Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies for some time now. When we saw that they were becoming mainstream disruptive technologies, we knew that hackers would quickly follow. In recent months, crypto-criminals have successfully hacked companies like Youbit, BitFinex, Nicehash, Coindesk, Enigma and Tether. Attacking blockchain, digital wallets and crypto-exchanges are becoming a daily occurrence and the current landscape of security solutions on the market just wasn’t designed to protect them.”
Please tell us more about your new subsidiary, BlockSafe, and the security solutions it will deliver to protect blockchain and cryptocurrencies.
Mark Kay: That is a great question and of course, what BlockSafe is all about. BlockSafe is a NEW blockchain company with a BSAFE™ token. This seems to be the only security software company that provides security solutions for a blockchain company that prevents hacking a wallet one uses to process their blockchain transaction through the use of our Crypto Defender product that stops keyloggers from stealing your keystrokes and also from the camera, Clipboard and audio copy prevention and anti-ransomware and eventually self-healing . We also will provide our Blockchain Defender™ Agent that acts like a blockchain firewall that authenticates users, enforces corporate policies, acts as a load balance and protects from DDoS attacks. These products will be available in a short time for some features and within a year for some others. A very unique opportunity.
SecuritySolutionsWatch.com: What are the latest developments regarding your core product line: ProtectID®, GuardedID®, and MobileTrust® ?
Mark Kay: Thanks for asking, and this year really is the year for StrikeForce , even though I did say it last year. Unfortunately, the companies implementing our products in our channel did a lot more testing than planned, but fortunately they are about ready for large implementations to over millions of clients during this year . We are getting ready and we should have some real soon. We will let you know at least a few months after they go live and we can then PR them. Also our retail deals and company is about to sell through Canada through another Home Shopping website that could go internationally, as well as continuing selling through HSN and other stores and websites in the US.
SecuritySolutionsWatch.com: Thank you again for joining us today Mark. Any other subjects you would like to talk about?
Mark Kay: Martin, I believe this is becoming a great year for us with the starting of our blockchain subsidiary, BlockSafe, and the continuation and finally implementation of our channel partners and our own enterprise clients . Stay tuned for more great reports and thanks for the opportunity to let everyone know about our great products, as we continue to grow them.
March 4, 2018
Wall Street Journal interviews Blocksafe Technologies advisor and current EVP from Strikeforce Technologies George Waller
Wall Street Journal ARTICLE
Cryptocurrency traders are learning that where they buy and sell digital tokens can be just as risky as choosing a coin or picking a price.
Investors have lost more than $700 million this year in hacks of two major cryptocurrency exchanges. The thefts at Florence, Italy-based BitGrail and Japan’s Coincheck bring total investor hacking losses since 2014 to around $1.4 billion, according to a Wall Street Journal review of recent hacks.
The hacks reflect an oft-overlooked risk of trading in bitcoin and related digital currencies: While scores of online exchanges have sprung up in the past two years as crypto prices surged, they typically bear little resemblance to the well-financed, better-regulated venues that enable investors to buy and sell stocks, bonds and commodities.
Given the peer-to-peer nature of cryptocurrencies, investors don’t have to deal directly with exchanges when they buy these assets. But many have done so because exchanges seem safer and more convenient, a judgment some have come to regret.
Jeff Furman, a 22-year old student at Northern Virginia Community College, said he lost about $60,000 worth of nano tokens on the BitGrail exchange in a hack disclosed in February.
“It’s hard for me,” he said. He sold some nano at a profit but now wishes he had sold the rest. “I didn’t heed my own gut.”
Unlike traditional stock and futures exchanges, whose businesses center on matching up trades for a small fee, crypto exchanges also safeguard investors’ virtual tokens. It is a task that many aren’t up to, investors and technology experts say.
“ As cryptocurrencies grow, hackers are going to go after digital wallets” and exchanges even more , said George Waller, an adviser at security firm BlockSafe Technologies Inc . Wallet companies act as cryptocurrency brokerage firms and often work closely with exchanges.
The two recent hacks show the particular vulnerability investors can face when buying unproven, speculative tokens on startup exchanges that aren’t regulated and derive a large chunk of volume from the new, untested currencies.
The website coinmarketcap.com tracks data for about 190 cryptocurrency exchanges, but only a handful are regulated in the U.S.
There are established digital-currency exchanges such as Coinbase’s GDAX, Gemini from Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss’ Gemini Trust Co., and Japan’s BitFlyer that are regulated and employ a variety of security measures. All are regulated by New York state’s Department of Financial Services, which requires measures designed to detect, prevent and respond to fraud and market manipulation.
There is nothing to compel an exchange to submit to regulations, however, and many don’t. Moreover, it is possible to buy standardized trading-program software, meaning all the exchange operators have to do essentially is come up with a name and logo.
The result is that many new exchanges are plagued by “shoddy management and shoddy systems,” said David Fragale, co-founder of security-services firm Atonomi. A mature financial-services firm, Mr. Fragale said, would implement security controls, risk-management systems, and compliance systems. They want to know who their customers are and what kinds of high-risk activity is taking place on their platforms.
On many smaller exchanges, that isn’t happening, and retail investors are exposing their money to a kind of counterparty risk from the exchanges themselves, said Jonathan Levin, chief executive of research firm Coinanlysis. “People don’t know how to protect themselves.”
Many of the newer exchanges—BitGrail launched in 2017—hurried to capitalize on an exploding market for smaller, speculative cryptocurrencies that large exchanges wouldn’t handle, said Charles Hayter, CEO of research site CryptoCompare.
Established exchanges that host stock, options or futures trading face a variety of federal standards for fair access, cybersecurity and other areas of regulation. They also work closely with heavily regulated banks or brokerage firms, which regularly reimburse customers when a hack or technology problem leads to losses.
BitGrail, run by Italian entrepreneur Francesco Firano, was operating without any significant regulatory oversight. It focused on nano, a tiny cryptocurrency that began trading in 2015 under the name raiblocks.
For most of its history, raiblocks traded for pennies. Then, in December, it surged from around 20 cents to about $36. Mr. Firano didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Coincheck had applied with Japanese regulators for a cryptocurrency-exchange license. In recent weeks, Coincheck has said it plans to compensate its customers. A spokeswoman for the exchange said this week that “we are finalizing how we can pay back money for affected customers.”
Customers don’t have to put their money on an exchange when investing in a cryptocurrency, the spokeswoman added. Indeed, when organized cryptomarkets began appearing, it ostensibly added a layer of protection and an institutional element to the nascent market. One of the first such markets was Mt. Gox, which opened in 2010. Within a few years, it was handling around 70% of bitcoin transactions globally.
The site had extremely weak security protocols, however. In 2014, it announced that 850,000 bitcoin had been stolen, worth $450 million at the time. The site later recovered 200,000 bitcoin, which today are worth considerably more than they were in 2014. Creditors are still battling to recover their lost funds.
—Takashi Mochizuki and Alexander Osipovich contributed to this article.
Write to Paul Vigna at paul.vigna@wsj.com
February 14, 2018
Mr. Mark Kay reaffirms large deals and revenues...
Must listen to Mr. Kay's 13 minute interview from 2/14/2018 .
https://upticknewswire.com/featured-interview...nk-sfor-4/
January 28, 2018
Mr. Mark Kay announces major deals and revenues...
Must watch : Mr. Kay's Fox Business News Television interview during the broadcast of "New to the Street" https://youtu.be/6zcJqecJZl4
January 09, 2018
Strikeforce announces NEW Blockchain subsidiary
EDISON, N.J., Jan. 09, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- StrikeForce Technologies, Inc. (OTC PINK:SFOR) announced today the opening of a new subsidiary, BlockSafe Technologies , Inc. BlockSafe will focus on providing security solutions to protect blockchain and cryptocurrencies .
“We have been closely following the extraordinary growth of blockchain, Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies for some time now,” says Mark L. Kay, CEO of StrikeForce. “When we saw that they were becoming mainstream disruptive technologies, we knew that hackers would quickly follow.” In recent months, crypto-criminals have successfully hacked companies like Youbit, BitFinex, Nicehash, Coindesk, Enigma and Tether. “Attacking blockchain, digital wallets and crypto-exchanges are becoming a daily occurrence,” says Kay, “and the current landscape of security solutions on the market just wasn’t designed to protect them.”
“ That’s why we are so excited about StrikeForce becoming a leader in blockchain security ,” says Kay. “ Protecting blockchain and cryptocurrencies is a huge greenfield opportunity for us . Cybersecurity has typically lagged far behind innovation, but in this instance, we know exactly what’s needed, and the best part of it is that our existing patented technologies will play a key role in protecting private/corporate blockchains as well as digital wallets and cryptocurrencies.”
BlockSafe Technologies will offer three uniquely redesigned security solutions . The first is Blockchain Defender™, which will be the industry’s most comprehensive dedicated Blockchain firewall which includes access control and policy enforcement. The other two solutions are Desktop Defender™ and Mobile Defender™; both products will protect digital wallets and cryptocurrencies on MS Windows, Apple, iOS & Android platforms .
StrikeForce will license its existing technologies to BlockSafe Technologies, and in turn, BlockSafe will customize those technologies specifically to protect blockchain(s), digital wallets and cryptocurrencies.
Additionally, BlockSafe Technologies will engage in a Seed, a Pre-ICO and an ICO funding round, as part of this process, BlockSafe will also create its own BSAFE™ cryptocurrency tokens. For more information about BlockSafe Technologies Inc., go to www.blocksafetech.com.
Strikeforce announces MAJOR technology upgrade
EDISON, N.J. (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- StrikeForce Technologies, Inc. (OTC PINK:SFOR) announced today a major software upgrade for GuardedID®, making it the best anti-keylogging software for your PC or MAC, with the most unprecedented security benefits .
“We are extremely pleased about this new release,” says, Mark L. Kay, CEO of StrikeForce. “We have added several new critical features to enhance the security for both consumers and corporations. GuardedID’s main security feature is its keystroke encryption capability. We are now extending its patented encryption capability to include Microsoft Windows 10 Operating system and Windows 10 desktop applications. Another feature that people have always loved is our Crypto-Color® visual verification capability, which shows you that GuardedID is protecting your browser inputs by highlighting what you type in green (or the color of your choice). Crypto-Color is now available as a browser extension and supports MS Edge, Chrome, Safari & Firefox and Internet Explorer browsers. Additionally, an anti-clickjack warning feature (which un-hides invisible objects embedded into infected iFrames) automatically comes as part of our Crypto-Color feature. Last, but certainly not least is our new anti-hooking capability which un-hooks unwanted malware from trying to steal your personal & confidential information.”
While cyber criminals know that keylogging malware is the de facto standard on how to steal login credentials and confidential information, they are constantly adding new attack vectors to trick and deceive. Clickjacking and hooking are examples of two new attack vectors that should not be underestimated. This new breed of spyware is also designed to avoid detection from all the popular anti-virus programs. GuardedID can now prevent this new breed of attack vectors from being successful.
“Today, practicing smarter cyber security requires a layered approach, an approach that addresses these new attack vectors like Keylogging, clickjacking and hooking. This is why this release is so significant for everyone, it addresses those attack-vectors head-on, and comes in just the nick of time,” says Kay.
April 19,2018
The Mighty Blockchain Has Mighty Security Problems – Opinion
Blockchain, Crime, FinTech, News | April 19, 2018
By: Rich Zaziski, CEO, BlockSafe Technologies
Often touted as immutable, blockchain technology and its unlimited potential have garnered much attention lately, and rightly so. The mathematical model that the technology is built upon as well as its time-stamped, verifiable nature certainly makes it a reliable option for monitoring and tracking purposes, one that industries across the globe are looking to implement. In fact, according to a recent report from IDC, global spending on blockchain solutions in 2018 is estimated to be $2.1 billion. Furthermore, according to CoinMarketCap, the cryptocurrency markets – the more widely known application of the blockchain technology – grew to $600 billion by the end of 2017.
While blockchain technologies continues to hold much promise, we cannot neglect the numerous hacking incidents that have crippled the crypto economy. From DAO and Mt. Gox to CoinCheck and GDAX, crypto exchanges have already lost multi millions. In addition, nearly $400 million has been lost or stolen during ICOs, according to Ernst & Young. Only last week, the UK National Cybersecurity Center (NCSC) issued a warning about cryptojacking, and recommended the use of ad blockers and anti-virus programs which include browser mining blocks to prevent these types of attacks.
Now, if the past hacking incidents have taught us anything, it is that hackers follow the money, and to hackers, blockchain is a big pot of gold, and not a very secure one at that. The last several years of crypto breaches are proof that blockchain has vulnerabilities, and by extension, crypto wallets and crypto exchanges are also vulnerable, and that the immutable blockchain isn’t exactly impenetrable.
The reality is that while the blockchain is secure in and of itself, access to it is not. This is because of non-existent or subpar enforcement of rules and policies on the user side and lack of authentication in blockchain transactions. So, for enterprises looking to implement blockchain technology, it is paramount that they understand the security risks involved and take proactive measures to combat these risks.
As noted by Bloor Research’s David Norfolk in his recent report on Blockchain Governance, “One of the chief issues around a secure technology (such as Blockchain is capable of being) is that it becomes trusted – and if someone puts corrupt garbage into it, the garbage that comes out is probably trusted too.” Hackers are smart and while they will continue to come up with sophisticated hacking techniques, the existing whack-a-mole method that we employ to thwart cybercriminals isn’t sufficient. We need to stop reacting. What we need instead is a proactive approach which employs things like two-factor authentication, keystroke encryption, transaction authentication, and policy and rules engine so that we can go a step further than just identifying the problem. By bracing for a cyber-attack, we are acknowledging the imminent presence of hackers and are making sure we are prepared to stop them right in their tracks.
Rich Zaziski is CEO of BlockSafe Technologies, Inc., a company securing the blockchain ecosystem with a suite of solutions that protect against an array of cyber vulnerabilities. His experience spans more than 30 years in the technology industry, as a developer, architect, executive, adviser and entrepreneur.
Rich’s expertise bridges functional areas across diverse industries, allowing him to quickly understand complex business problems and synthesize actionable, technology-driven solutions. He is passionate about fostering emerging technologies and exploring how they can positively impact people and improve business performance.
Previously, Rich founded and ran a technology consulting firm that delivered measurable value to Fortune 500 companies for over 28 years. He holds an MBA in information technology from Fairleigh Dickinson University and a BA from Rutgers University.
April 14, 2018
The grim state of cybersecurity: It’s awful, and it’s only going to get worse
BY PAUL GILLIN
This year has witnessed the embarrassing disclosure of 119,000 documents left on an unprotected server by Fedex Corp., a similar compromise of 37 million customer records by Panera Bread Co., the theft of up to 5 million records of Saks Fifth Avenue and Lord & Taylor customers, ransomware attacks at Boeing Co. and the City of Atlanta, and Facebook Inc.’s admission that 87 million customer accounts were compromised prior to the 2016 election by the data firm Cambridge Analytica.
And it’s only April.
The inescapable fact is, the state of cybersecurity keeps getting worse despite an explosion in the amount of investment and energy plowed into improving it going years back. And it’s only going to get worse, according to the unanimous assessment of 22 security industry chief executives, chief technology officers, security analysts and independent security experts contacted by SiliconANGLE.
As the annual RSA Conference run by Dell Technologies Inc.’s RSA Security LLC subsidiary opens Monday in San Francisco, SiliconANGLE asked a cross-section of people who are on the front lines of the cybersecurity wars two simple questions: Are we winning the battle against cybercriminals? And if not, what can be done to reverse the tide?
On the first question, the glum consensus of the experts was nearly unanimous: Not only are we losing the war, but the scope and severity of successful attacks is accelerating. “It’s not even close,” said Paul Kurtz, a former National Security Council member who’s now CEO of TruSTAR Technology Inc. “We are taking it on the chin day after day.”
Mike Simon, CEO of Cryptonite LLC, agreed the situation is “extremely serious. We’re seeing a massive ramp-up at the start of 2018 in a number of different areas, particularly intellectual property theft.”
No silver bullet
Their opinions are backed up by mountains of research. A recent survey of 1,200 enterprises commissioned by Thales SA found that 46 percent of U.S. companies said they been hit by a data breach in the past 12 months, nearly double the percentage of a year earlier. And breaches whose scope would have been breathtaking not long ago are now run-of-the-mill, despite the nearly $100 billion that organizations are expected to pour into defenses this year.
“The tools the criminals use haven’t gotten that much more sophisticated, but the volume of breaches has exploded,” said Harry Sverdlove, chief technology officer at Edgewise Networks Inc. He noted that last year’s theft of more than 145 million consumer records from Equifax Inc. affected nearly half the U.S. population. “It would almost be comical if it weren’t so tragic,” he said.
Many of the security providers we contacted sell products and services that address part of the cybersecurity problem, but none purports to have a silver bullet. And most agree that the most common vulnerabilities are best addressed by changing user behavior, rather than technology.
The reasons experts say organizations are falling further behind in the fight against cybercrime range from skills shortages to sloppiness to the failure of regulators and law enforcement agencies to enforce stricter penalties for organizations that suffer a breach.
Krebs: "No incentives to write secure code"
Brian Krebs: “No incentives to write secure code”
Despite their high profile, incidents such as the Equifax hack, which triggered the resignations of several top executives, are relatively rare. Regulators don’t aggressively pursue prosecution of victimized companies, and attackers are almost never caught. The result: “Companies don’t have a lot of incentive to write secure code or to produce secure Web sites and apps because they view the cost of doing so to outweigh the cost of fixing it when things are discovered or broken,” said Brian Krebs, author of the popular Krebs on Security blog, which broke the news of the Panera attack among others.
For criminals, he said, “the barriers to entry have never been lower and the low-hanging fruit never more abundant. The chances of success with low to moderate effort are high and there are seldom consequences for criminals. It’s no wonder that cybercrime is such a fast-growing industry.”
Even if substantial improvements arrive on all these fronts, the prospects for gaining a sustainable advantage against adversaries appear dim. “It’s like asking if we’re winning the war against our fingernails,” said Troy Hunt, founder of HaveIBeenPwned.com, a site that matches visitors’ email addresses against stolen records found on the dark web. “They keep growing back.”
Attackers have an inherent advantage because they only need to find one weakness to launch an attack, whereas organizations must plug every possible security hole. That makes even trial-and-error a pretty lucrative strategy. “ The reality is that we will never win the war unless all of the world’s cybercriminals suddenly decide to stop hacking ,” said George Waller, a strategic adviser at BlockSafe Technologies Inc., a maker of products for securing blockchain-based services.
April 13, 2018
https://www.twst.com/interview/Interview-with...CMKTS-SFOR
TWST: Please update us, and tell us about how your recently announced subsidiary, BlockSafe Technologies, evolved?
Mr. Kay : StrikeForce learned a lot about the blockchain over the past number of months, actually reading a lot about it. And then a company came to us and wanted to get involved, and they felt they could use our products and be the only blockchain company with cybersecurity products. And so we said, these are products that make sense, so we should do it ourselves. So we started a company, subsidiary called BlockSafe Technologies, Inc., which we feel could be very strong, and currently we're setting it up. We’ve released a PR and it is now live .
We're now doing a Pre-sale private fund, followed by a Pre-ICO fund, followed by the ICO. We'll have a website on our ICO in about the next week or so. We feel very confident and strong about what we're doing, especially the advantage we have with our BlockSafe Technologies .
TWST: How did you get up to speed on the new blockchain technology so quickly? And how will BlockSafe be integrated into StrikeForce’s existing business model?
Mr. Kay : Blockchain has been in the news quite a bit over the past couple of years, especially over the last year. We've read a lot about it, then we got involved, and we're going to be making a very unique contribution in terms of the products we'll be providing. We will still be providing StrikeForce's security products, but we're going to brand them for BlockSafe, and we're going to change them and add features and functions to them. Two of them — GuardedID and MobileTrust — would be close to what we have now, so we actually can make the products available pretty quickly, and they will be re-branded of course.
So we will be the only blockchain company selling cybersecurity products. So we're actually adding a major function to the blockchain by adding security products that especially provide Out-of-Band Authentication that will also allow other features to occur, such as giving permission to the person — rules engine — and policy server, etc. We will have a major kickoff meeting in the next month or so, and we've hired a major PR firm to work with us, Fusion PR .
TWST: Did you hire new technology experts to execute the blockchain technology for BlockSafe?
Mr. Kay : We did, and we can now announce the names, which are Richard Zaziski, CEO , and Scott Whitman, COO , for starters. We're still in process as we hire the rest of the strong team. We find it to be very exciting; everybody wants to get involved, of course. We did start collecting monies for ...
Fusion PR??
www.fusionpr.com
Fusion helps clients build and get into bigger stories in top-tier media, broadcast and the most important tech blogs.
April 3, 2018
Blocksafe Technologies CEO is quoted today
Blockchain governance - Even if Blockchain is secure (often moot), its whole ecosystem needs governance.
Written By: David Norfolk
Content Copyright © 2018 Bloor. All Rights Reserved.
Blockchain (the technology behind cryptocurrencies), however, is not any sort of a joke. And not just because simply renaming one’s company with “blockchain” in the name seems to markedly increase its value: here.
Friends of mine in the BCS CMSG are convinced that Blockchain has a future – see the PDF here (BCS members only) or book the workshop here – as a distributed asset register for (in essence) Agile or Mutable Configuration Management – mutable CM, that is, that can cope with the rate of change typical of modern automated business environments.
I think that Blockchain governance, which isn’t talked about much (yet) will be key to its success in this role . There is a Japanese girl band that sings about the importance of not losing one’s private key to one’s cryptocoins; I’d be happier to hear them singing about 2-factor authentication and about the importance of policy-managed, controlled access to the Blockchain. Perhaps it’s difficult to make that scan – but I believe that the Virtual Currency Girls themselves may have lost out in one of the recent cryptocoin scandals.
Potential Blockchain issues include the “51% attack” where over half the nodes are induced to agree on a corrupted transaction. Not impossible to arrange, I’d have thought, in these days of botnets and state-sponsored hacking. But there are other possible issues – how do you manage a blockchain that grows without limit; how do you enforce policies for what goes on a blockchain; is latency an issue (how long does it take for all occurrences of the blockchain to come into synch?); “deletion” of transactions in error is a problem (since you can’t delete off the blockchain, how long does it take for a transaction correcting an error to get everywhere?); guaranteed performance would be useful (cryptocoin exchanges have been known to overload); authentication of people allowed to use a blockchain might be a good idea; and, of course, there is the quantum computing issue (Blockchain needs to get into “quantum encryption” before someone works out how to factor large almost-primes easily). Many of these issues are now being recognised and addressed, by companies such as Blocksafe Technologies (see below).
I’m not really interested in public cryptocurrencies here. Most business Blockchain ecosystems will be Private or “Permissioned”: permission is required for a user to read the information on the blockchain and conduct transactions; and nodes that perform the mining are defined by the entity that manages the private blockchain. Here, the biggest issue is probably authentication and the biggest threat the malware (keyboard loggers etc) that infects many desktops and mobile devices, possibly looking out specifically for wallet-type activities.
Whatever the issues with any particular blockchain technology (and the technology will evolve and improve) Blockchain has huge potential for distributed ledger applications in business generally (far beyond just cryptocurrencies). However, in order to be useful to the business, Blockchains will usually be private to that business (“permissioned”) and will be part of a well-governed ecosystem. This ecosystem must control who has permission to put transactions on the blockchain, and must secure the endpoints (digital wallets or whatever) against attack.
One of the chief issues around a secure technology (such as Blockchain is capable of being) is that it becomes trusted – and if someone puts corrupt garbage into it, the garbage that comes out is probably trusted too. BlockSafe CEO Rich Zaziski says : “ Our goal is to secure the blockchain ecosystem with a suite of distinct solutions that protect against an array of cyber vulnerabilities. We plan to secure private blockchains with the Blockchain Defender that acts as a gateway to a blockchain and authenticates transactions, scans transaction data for malicious content and mitigates DDoS attacks. We also aim to secure desktop and mobile crypto wallets with Crypto Defender which takes a proactive and preventative approach in protecting crypto wallets, versus a reactive approach, which is usually easy to thwart ”. I think that some such governance technology is badly needed, and sooner rather than later.
Blockchain is a big topic and some of its concepts can be complex. There is a useful repository of Blockchain information here. This looks pretty useful to me but always remember that Blockchain is at the top of its hypecurve and even good quality information is usually eminating from someone who has wholly “bought into” the Blockchain and Cyptocurrency concepts and is therefore not exactly disinterested. When hype is around, Buyer Beware takes on a new importance!
March 26, 2018
Ropes & Gray, Strikeforce Technologies world-class Lawfirm files scathing Appeal Brief
$SFOR Federal Appeal @ jmp.sh/EcdD0pJ
MOMENTUM & GROWTH 3-21-2018
StrikeForce Technologies Inc (OTCMKTS:SFOR) T outs Cryptocurrency And Blockchain Growth Opportunities
With the threat of cyber-attack always on the rise, investors have started to take note of the company’s, novel technologies that have positioned it on the cusp of rapid growth . While the stock is still languishing near all-time lows, we remain optimistic about its prospects as the company continues to diversify its revenue streams.
Let us first review the company’s core business before we look at the catalysts, likely to push it up the charts.
StrikeForce Technologies Business Description
StrikeForce Technologies bills itself as a software development and service company focused on the development of solutions for preventing cyber theft and data security. The company develops identification protection software for protecting computer networks from unauthorized access.
Consumer’s corporations and government agencies routinely use the company suite of products to shield themselves from network and data breaches. The management strives to achieve growth by deploying a robust sales channel rather than relying on acquisitions.
Cryptocurrencies and blockchain Protection Ambitions
The cryptocurrencies space has felt the full force of cyber-attacks as the industry continues to evolve. Cases of people waking up to find their digital wallets have been hacked are not new. However, that could soon change, as StrikeForce Technologies moves to expand its footprint in the space .
The software development company has unveiled a new subsidiary dubbed BlockSafe Technologies that will specifically focus on providing security solutions for protecting blockchain and cryptocurrencies .
Becoming a leader in Blockchain technologies is the company’s latest ambitions as it continues to explore new opportunities for growth and for generating shareholder value. The new unit will offer three security solutions.
Blockchain Defender is the most advanced and comprehensive solution, dedicated to blockchain firewall specifically designed for access control and policy enforcement. Desktop defender and Mobile defender are designed to protect digital wallets and cryptocurrencies from being hacked.
“Protecting blockchain and cryptocurrencies is a huge greenfield opportunity for us. Cybersecurity has typically lagged far behind innovation, but in this instance, we know exactly what’s needed, and the best part of it is that our existing patented technologies will play a key role in protecting private/corporate blockchains as well as digital wallets and cryptocurrencies,” said CEO Mark L. Kay.
StrikeForce is to license its existing technologies to BlockSafe Technologies, which will customize them to offer protection to cryptocurrencies and blockchain applications.
What This Means
Expansion into the blockchain space provides a unique opportunity for the company to diversify its revenue-generating streams. Given that the industry is still in the early stages of development, StrikeForce remains well positioned to generate significant value as demand for security solutions in the space continues to grow.
The company has also announced plans to engage in a SEED and ICO Round as it seeks to raise funds to support BlockSafe ambitions. There are also plans to create BSAFE cryptocurrency tokens .
GuardedID upgrade
In addition to pursuing opportunities in the cryptocurrency space, StrikeForce is also aggressively strengthening and expanding its current portfolio of Cybersecurity solutions. The company recently released a major software upgrade for GuardedID, consequently making it the best anti-keylogging software for PC or MAC .
GuardedID features a Keystroke encryption capability and will now include Microsoft Windows 10 Operating System and Windows 10 desktop applications . Clickjacking and hooking are some of the new attack vectors that the new spyware will shield against .
“Today, practicing smarter Cybersecurity requires a layered approach, an approach that addresses these new attack vectors like Keylogging, Clickjacking, and hooking. This is why this release is so significant for everyone, it addresses those attack-vectors head-on, and comes in just the nick of time,” says Kay.
StrikeForce Technologies 2018 Prospects
Expansion into the cryptocurrency and Blockchain space is one of the developments that makes StrikeForce Technologies an exciting pick at current valuations .
Demand for security solutions is on the rise given that most digital wallets are usually at the risk of being hacked. Given that very few companies offer security solutions in the space, the company stands a better chance of enjoying a fast-mover advantage given its proven security solutions in other sectors .
March 8, 2018
Mr. Kay reiterates large deals and information on BlockSafe Technologies
SecuritySolutionsWatch.com: Thank you for joining us again today Mark at this very exciting time in the growth of StrikeForce. The blockchain tsunami is undeniably now upon us.
We read with great interest in your recent Press Release that StrikeForce has, “…been closely following the extraordinary growth of blockchain, Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies for some time now. When we saw that they were becoming mainstream disruptive technologies, we knew that hackers would quickly follow. In recent months, crypto-criminals have successfully hacked companies like Youbit, BitFinex, Nicehash, Coindesk, Enigma and Tether. Attacking blockchain, digital wallets and crypto-exchanges are becoming a daily occurrence and the current landscape of security solutions on the market just wasn’t designed to protect them.”
Please tell us more about your new subsidiary, BlockSafe, and the security solutions it will deliver to protect blockchain and cryptocurrencies.
Mark Kay: That is a great question and of course, what BlockSafe is all about. BlockSafe is a NEW blockchain company with a BSAFE™ token. This seems to be the only security software company that provides security solutions for a blockchain company that prevents hacking a wallet one uses to process their blockchain transaction through the use of our Crypto Defender product that stops keyloggers from stealing your keystrokes and also from the camera, Clipboard and audio copy prevention and anti-ransomware and eventually self-healing . We also will provide our Blockchain Defender™ Agent that acts like a blockchain firewall that authenticates users, enforces corporate policies, acts as a load balance and protects from DDoS attacks. These products will be available in a short time for some features and within a year for some others. A very unique opportunity.
SecuritySolutionsWatch.com: What are the latest developments regarding your core product line: ProtectID®, GuardedID®, and MobileTrust® ?
Mark Kay: Thanks for asking, and this year really is the year for StrikeForce , even though I did say it last year. Unfortunately, the companies implementing our products in our channel did a lot more testing than planned, but fortunately they are about ready for large implementations to over millions of clients during this year . We are getting ready and we should have some real soon. We will let you know at least a few months after they go live and we can then PR them. Also our retail deals and company is about to sell through Canada through another Home Shopping website that could go internationally, as well as continuing selling through HSN and other stores and websites in the US.
SecuritySolutionsWatch.com: Thank you again for joining us today Mark. Any other subjects you would like to talk about?
Mark Kay: Martin, I believe this is becoming a great year for us with the starting of our blockchain subsidiary, BlockSafe, and the continuation and finally implementation of our channel partners and our own enterprise clients . Stay tuned for more great reports and thanks for the opportunity to let everyone know about our great products, as we continue to grow them.
March 4, 2018
Wall Street Journal interviews Blocksafe Technologies advisor and current EVP from Strikeforce Technologies George Waller
Wall Street Journal ARTICLE
Cryptocurrency traders are learning that where they buy and sell digital tokens can be just as risky as choosing a coin or picking a price.
Investors have lost more than $700 million this year in hacks of two major cryptocurrency exchanges. The thefts at Florence, Italy-based BitGrail and Japan’s Coincheck bring total investor hacking losses since 2014 to around $1.4 billion, according to a Wall Street Journal review of recent hacks.
The hacks reflect an oft-overlooked risk of trading in bitcoin and related digital currencies: While scores of online exchanges have sprung up in the past two years as crypto prices surged, they typically bear little resemblance to the well-financed, better-regulated venues that enable investors to buy and sell stocks, bonds and commodities.
Given the peer-to-peer nature of cryptocurrencies, investors don’t have to deal directly with exchanges when they buy these assets. But many have done so because exchanges seem safer and more convenient, a judgment some have come to regret.
Jeff Furman, a 22-year old student at Northern Virginia Community College, said he lost about $60,000 worth of nano tokens on the BitGrail exchange in a hack disclosed in February.
“It’s hard for me,” he said. He sold some nano at a profit but now wishes he had sold the rest. “I didn’t heed my own gut.”
Unlike traditional stock and futures exchanges, whose businesses center on matching up trades for a small fee, crypto exchanges also safeguard investors’ virtual tokens. It is a task that many aren’t up to, investors and technology experts say.
“ As cryptocurrencies grow, hackers are going to go after digital wallets” and exchanges even more , said George Waller, an adviser at security firm BlockSafe Technologies Inc . Wallet companies act as cryptocurrency brokerage firms and often work closely with exchanges.
The two recent hacks show the particular vulnerability investors can face when buying unproven, speculative tokens on startup exchanges that aren’t regulated and derive a large chunk of volume from the new, untested currencies.
The website coinmarketcap.com tracks data for about 190 cryptocurrency exchanges, but only a handful are regulated in the U.S.
There are established digital-currency exchanges such as Coinbase’s GDAX, Gemini from Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss’ Gemini Trust Co., and Japan’s BitFlyer that are regulated and employ a variety of security measures. All are regulated by New York state’s Department of Financial Services, which requires measures designed to detect, prevent and respond to fraud and market manipulation.
There is nothing to compel an exchange to submit to regulations, however, and many don’t. Moreover, it is possible to buy standardized trading-program software, meaning all the exchange operators have to do essentially is come up with a name and logo.
The result is that many new exchanges are plagued by “shoddy management and shoddy systems,” said David Fragale, co-founder of security-services firm Atonomi. A mature financial-services firm, Mr. Fragale said, would implement security controls, risk-management systems, and compliance systems. They want to know who their customers are and what kinds of high-risk activity is taking place on their platforms.
On many smaller exchanges, that isn’t happening, and retail investors are exposing their money to a kind of counterparty risk from the exchanges themselves, said Jonathan Levin, chief executive of research firm Coinanlysis. “People don’t know how to protect themselves.”
Many of the newer exchanges—BitGrail launched in 2017—hurried to capitalize on an exploding market for smaller, speculative cryptocurrencies that large exchanges wouldn’t handle, said Charles Hayter, CEO of research site CryptoCompare.
Established exchanges that host stock, options or futures trading face a variety of federal standards for fair access, cybersecurity and other areas of regulation. They also work closely with heavily regulated banks or brokerage firms, which regularly reimburse customers when a hack or technology problem leads to losses.
BitGrail, run by Italian entrepreneur Francesco Firano, was operating without any significant regulatory oversight. It focused on nano, a tiny cryptocurrency that began trading in 2015 under the name raiblocks.
For most of its history, raiblocks traded for pennies. Then, in December, it surged from around 20 cents to about $36. Mr. Firano didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Coincheck had applied with Japanese regulators for a cryptocurrency-exchange license. In recent weeks, Coincheck has said it plans to compensate its customers. A spokeswoman for the exchange said this week that “we are finalizing how we can pay back money for affected customers.”
Customers don’t have to put their money on an exchange when investing in a cryptocurrency, the spokeswoman added. Indeed, when organized cryptomarkets began appearing, it ostensibly added a layer of protection and an institutional element to the nascent market. One of the first such markets was Mt. Gox, which opened in 2010. Within a few years, it was handling around 70% of bitcoin transactions globally.
The site had extremely weak security protocols, however. In 2014, it announced that 850,000 bitcoin had been stolen, worth $450 million at the time. The site later recovered 200,000 bitcoin, which today are worth considerably more than they were in 2014. Creditors are still battling to recover their lost funds.
—Takashi Mochizuki and Alexander Osipovich contributed to this article.
Write to Paul Vigna at paul.vigna@wsj.com
February 14, 2018
Mr. Mark Kay reaffirms large deals and revenues...
Must listen to Mr. Kay's 13 minute interview from 2/14/2018 .
https://upticknewswire.com/featured-interview...nk-sfor-4/
January 28, 2018
Mr. Mark Kay announces major deals and revenues...
Must watch : Mr. Kay's Fox Business News Television interview during the broadcast of "New to the Street" https://youtu.be/6zcJqecJZl4
January 09, 2018
Strikeforce announces NEW Blockchain subsidiary
EDISON, N.J., Jan. 09, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- StrikeForce Technologies, Inc. (OTC PINK:SFOR) announced today the opening of a new subsidiary, BlockSafe Technologies , Inc. BlockSafe will focus on providing security solutions to protect blockchain and cryptocurrencies .
“We have been closely following the extraordinary growth of blockchain, Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies for some time now,” says Mark L. Kay, CEO of StrikeForce. “When we saw that they were becoming mainstream disruptive technologies, we knew that hackers would quickly follow.” In recent months, crypto-criminals have successfully hacked companies like Youbit, BitFinex, Nicehash, Coindesk, Enigma and Tether. “Attacking blockchain, digital wallets and crypto-exchanges are becoming a daily occurrence,” says Kay, “and the current landscape of security solutions on the market just wasn’t designed to protect them.”
“ That’s why we are so excited about StrikeForce becoming a leader in blockchain security ,” says Kay. “ Protecting blockchain and cryptocurrencies is a huge greenfield opportunity for us . Cybersecurity has typically lagged far behind innovation, but in this instance, we know exactly what’s needed, and the best part of it is that our existing patented technologies will play a key role in protecting private/corporate blockchains as well as digital wallets and cryptocurrencies.”
BlockSafe Technologies will offer three uniquely redesigned security solutions . The first is Blockchain Defender™, which will be the industry’s most comprehensive dedicated Blockchain firewall which includes access control and policy enforcement. The other two solutions are Desktop Defender™ and Mobile Defender™; both products will protect digital wallets and cryptocurrencies on MS Windows, Apple, iOS & Android platforms .
StrikeForce will license its existing technologies to BlockSafe Technologies, and in turn, BlockSafe will customize those technologies specifically to protect blockchain(s), digital wallets and cryptocurrencies.
Additionally, BlockSafe Technologies will engage in a Seed, a Pre-ICO and an ICO funding round, as part of this process, BlockSafe will also create its own BSAFE™ cryptocurrency tokens. For more information about BlockSafe Technologies Inc., go to www.blocksafetech.com.
Strikeforce announces MAJOR technology upgrade
EDISON, N.J. (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- StrikeForce Technologies, Inc. (OTC PINK:SFOR) announced today a major software upgrade for GuardedID®, making it the best anti-keylogging software for your PC or MAC, with the most unprecedented security benefits .
“We are extremely pleased about this new release,” says, Mark L. Kay, CEO of StrikeForce. “We have added several new critical features to enhance the security for both consumers and corporations. GuardedID’s main security feature is its keystroke encryption capability. We are now extending its patented encryption capability to include Microsoft Windows 10 Operating system and Windows 10 desktop applications. Another feature that people have always loved is our Crypto-Color® visual verification capability, which shows you that GuardedID is protecting your browser inputs by highlighting what you type in green (or the color of your choice). Crypto-Color is now available as a browser extension and supports MS Edge, Chrome, Safari & Firefox and Internet Explorer browsers. Additionally, an anti-clickjack warning feature (which un-hides invisible objects embedded into infected iFrames) automatically comes as part of our Crypto-Color feature. Last, but certainly not least is our new anti-hooking capability which un-hooks unwanted malware from trying to steal your personal & confidential information.”
While cyber criminals know that keylogging malware is the de facto standard on how to steal login credentials and confidential information, they are constantly adding new attack vectors to trick and deceive. Clickjacking and hooking are examples of two new attack vectors that should not be underestimated. This new breed of spyware is also designed to avoid detection from all the popular anti-virus programs. GuardedID can now prevent this new breed of attack vectors from being successful.
“Today, practicing smarter cyber security requires a layered approach, an approach that addresses these new attack vectors like Keylogging, clickjacking and hooking. This is why this release is so significant for everyone, it addresses those attack-vectors head-on, and comes in just the nick of time,” says Kay.
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