“Crypto Security” vs “Cybersecurity”

Cybersecurity refers to the classical practices formulated from the 1970s onward to protect computer systems, networks, and programs from digital attacks – such as malware, viruses, phishing, backdoors, and other attacks. These approaches and technologies were formulated before the diffusion of new, cryptography-based emerging technologies (blockchain, cryptocurrencies and more) and solutions. They primarily rely on protecting the network perimeter around centralized computing resources. With the arrival of cloud computing and the Internet of Things (IoT), cybersecurity is slowly moving towards securing perimeter-less distributed environments, but it still relies on centralized control.

Crypto Security is a term that the industry has reclaimed (beyond its archaic uses in early military and communications technology vernacular) to describe cybersecurity practices that extend into cryptography-based decentralization technologies such as distributed ledger technologies, blockchain, cross-chain networks, and their applications for DeFi, smart contracts, crypto assets and web3 – technologies that attract crypto-specific risks that cannot be mitigated by “traditional” cybersecurity controls alone. Crypto Security prioritizes cryptography and DevSecOps over network security. And blockchain forensics over digital forensics in incident response and investigations.