Secure token sales: Kaspersky Lab conducts smart contract security assessment for NOBOBOX ITS

Building on its expertise and previous experience in cybersecurity research on blockchain and cryptocurrencies, Kaspersky Lab has conducted its first commercial smart contract security assessment. The assessment was requested by NOBOBOX, the Liechtenstein-based company behind a revolutionary way to shop with cryptocurrency.

An Initial Token Sale (ITS) – or Initial Coin Offering (ICO) – remains popular way for a startup to raise funds. In 2018, almost more than 1,200 ICOs were launched and raised $7.8 billion. Nevertheless, this market almost lacks legal requirements, which leaves investors on their own when choosing a trustworthy ITS. Another issue is the cybersecurity of a smart contract – if the platform is poorly implemented, it puts people at risk and their money could be stolen by malefactors. That’s why entrepreneurs who prefer this way of fundraising are looking for additional measures to guarantee their reliability.

On February 10, NOBOBOX started selling its coin – dubbed NOBOTOKEN – through an ITS. Before launching the campaign, NOBOBOX needed to ensure that the smart contract it had written was secure and corresponded with what it stated in its whitepaper as an additional assurance for investors. The company enlisted Kaspersky Lab to conduct the assessment.  

During the assessment, Kaspersky Lab experts reviewed the smart contract for both commonly known and more specific vulnerabilities that may affect its security, including Reentrancy,Timestamp Dependence and Transaction-Ordering Dependence. The security analysis of the code showed that the smart contract was well crafted and followed common security practices.

The research team also inspected a whitepaper describing the rules of the ITS, to ensure that it wasn’t at odds with the functionality of the smart contract. The review of the whitepaper revealed several low-critical discrepancies within the code. Kaspersky Lab provided NOBOBOX with a detailed assessment report, giving the company key recommendations before the ITS was launched, ensuring that its smart contract didn’t provide any undocumented functions that may affect investors.

"With Kaspersky Lab, we have chosen a company that attaches great importance to high security standards. We are convinced that this will create an equally good basis of trust for our investors. NOBOBOX itself took the first steps in this direction, which is why we founded a Liechtenstein stock corporation and developed a smart contract according to the ERC20 standard especially for the Initial Token Sale. But that's not all: we had the Smart Contract checked by external experts and decided on the best in terms of security.  I am grateful for the successful cooperation and can only recommend Kaspersky Lab to others. In addition, I think that we have laid the foundation for a successful ITS with the successful external audit," comments Danny Krauspenhaar, CEO, on the test of the NOBOBOX AG Smart Contract.

“At Kaspersky Lab, we’ve been accumulating experience in the cryptocurrency protection field for several years already, including the delivery of a cybersecurity assessment for Merkeleon. We’re excited to now complete our first commercial smart contract audit for NOBOBOX,” comments Vitaly Mzokov, Head of Verification, Growth Center at Kaspersky Lab. “Investors find it risky to buy tokens if they cannot trust the company that initiated an ITS, particularly if it cannot provide the appropriate level of cybersecurity and consistency in their business logic. By requesting this assessment, NOBOBOX is demonstrating that it is keen to prove itself as a fair player on the market.”

NOBOOX provides a business plug-in called PLUG'N'PAY and a NOBOCARD solution which is a debit card and cryptocurrency.

About Kaspersky Lab

Kaspersky Lab is a global cybersecurity company, which has been operating in the market for 21 years. Kaspersky Lab’s deep threat intelligence and security expertise is constantly transforming into next generation security solutions and services to protect businesses, critical infrastructure, governments and consumers around the globe. The company’s comprehensive security portfolio includes leading endpoint protection and a number of specialized security solutions and services to fight sophisticated and evolving digital threats. Over 400 million users are protected by Kaspersky Lab technologies and we help 270,000 corporate clients protect what matters most to them. Learn more at www.kaspersky.com.