Enterprise Blockchains are Hackable

I have heard it in presentations that blockchains provide a hack proof environment since they are walled-off.  This article suggests its not the case, especially depending ow you define the 'hack', for example  if it is  Denial of service (DOS) or related hack.    The idea is explored.

Enterprise Blockchains: Walled Off Yet Vulnerable
May 3, 2020 at 14:10 UTC
How do you hack an enterprise blockchain? We may find out soon enough.

Enterprise blockchain products have been designed mostly as private networks, limited to authorized parties. This is supposed to make them more efficient than public chains like Bitcoin and Ethereum because fewer computers have to reach agreement on who owns what, and in a sense safer because the participants know each other.

These products apply technology originally developed for the Wild West of cryptocurrency to a range of unglamorous corporate activities, including cross-border transactions, storing records, and tracking goods and information. Their promise has attracted some of the world’s largest corporations and software vendors.

But like any software, they can in theory be hacked, although how to prevent that hacking isn’t as well documented.

“I can’t recall a single major company announcing a loss of any kind from a hack on a private blockchain,” says Paul Brody, global blockchain lead at consulting giant EY.

Read more: Meet Red Date, the Little-Known Tech Firm Behind China’s Big Blockchain Vision

That may change in the near future as companies start bringing these gated systems out of the lab and into real-world use.

“Big companies have been working on blockchain apps for a couple years now,” said Pavel Pokrovsky, the blockchain lead at Kaspersky, the Moscow-based anti-virus software vendor. “Soon, they will start pushing those apps into production and might face new challenges in managing their risks. As more such solutions get deployed, attacks on them might become more frequent.”