SmartState blog

February 16, 2023

NFT basics

NFTs (Non-fungible tokens) continue their triumphant global march. They begin to take part in almost all spheres of life, not only art (music, graphic samples, even books and short stories can be wrapped into a token), fashion industry (brands and logo pieces) and web (including icons in social networks, memes, etc.) but also business and casual items (such as foodstuff or tissues). It's like the world itself is transforming into a large ...

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February 14, 2023

Security Cards Threat Modeling Method

The Security cards method uses a 'deck' of 42 cards to identify unusual and complex attacks. It is based on brainstorming and creativity, unlike other threat modeling approaches, and was developed to help security teams with studying specific attacks and increasing their knowledge about threats and threat modeling. Cards help to find answers to the questions about future attacks, presumable attackers, their motivation, target systems and ...

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February 13, 2023

Tools for blockchain security checkup

Blockchains promise a great future and a wide range of opportunities, and all of the participants, users as well as developers, are looking for secure solutions to safeguard their data and assets. Apart from risk assessment testing, blockchain testing help to ensure the quality of products being tested, increasing testing coverage and zeroing risks associated with inadequate knowledge. There are a number of tools used to ensure blockchain ...

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February 8, 2023

NFT Security. How to protect?

NFT is not a completely secure technology and is vulnerable to malicious activities. Thus, users are searching for ways to protect their property. Phishing attacks and fake NFT makers appear all the time, hackers try to break in and steal improperly stored NFTs, and when the safety rules are ignored, these attempts often end up successful. What actions should be taken to reach a sufficient level of security?Ways of protectionThere is a list ...

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January 30, 2023

What is Appchain

An Appchain (application-specific blockchain) is a type of blockchain dedicated to only one certain application (or a specific set of applications). They serve as subnets in such ecosystems as Polygon or Avalanche. Initially Appchains were defined as single-use (single application) blockchains, as opposed to multi-app ones, such as Ethereum.Appchains provide developers with freedom in forming new eco-systems, control architecture and ...

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January 23, 2023

NFT Security. What to take care of

As any asset on the web, NFTs need the best possible security for the buyers to trust them, while, as is, they are not very secure. There are always ones who would try to put their hands on some else’s possessions. NFTs are stolen from time to time by shrewd hackers (like in the Nifty Gateway hack in 2021) or taken over by scammers (like the notorious situation with Coinbase). Tokens are not 100 percent secure. What threats waylay ...

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January 18, 2023

What is SQUARE?

Security Quality Requirements Engineering (SQUARE) was created by the experts from Carnegie Mellon University and the Software Engineering Institute (SEI). This process offers a means for eliciting, categorizing and prioritizing security requirements for systems and applications. It aims at integrating security considerations at the earliest stages of the development process. It helps to document and analyze all security aspects and advise ...

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January 13, 2023

Importance of decentralization in Web3. Centralization vs Decentralization. Comparison.

Centralization and decentralization are two antipodes, which are, however, both popular among the users and the developers in the web3 environment. They are not usually adopted exclusively, both have their strong and weak points and, in their way, both may be vulnerable to possible intrusion or other issues. What is the difference between centralized and decentralized systems and why users and developers make choices in favor of this or ...

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January 9, 2023

CVSS Threat Modeling Method

CVSS (Common Vulnerability Scoring system) is used to rate vulnerabilities by a numeral severity score. It was created in the beginning of the century by NIST (National Institute of Standard and Technology) and maintained by FIRST (Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams), supported by CVSS Special Interest Group. It provides a common standardized scoring system for various cyber and cyber-physical platforms. It is often used along ...

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January 5, 2023

Gray box testing method

‘Gray box’ testing (Translucent testing) is somewhat in between ‘Blackbox’ and ‘White box’, and implies deep knowledge of the tested application’s architecture, design and purpose, which is, however, not necessarily complete or up to date.. Gray box testing may be performed by either a third party or the developers themselves. The idea is to combine the best of Black and White box security testing ...

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