Eliminating Security Vulnerabilities in Virtual Markets and Decentralized Exchanges

Eliminating Security Vulnerabilities in Virtual Markets and Decentralized Exchanges

Following the release of the New York Attorney General’s report on Virtual Markets, iCompy and Hosho will co-present a blockchain security and auditing MasterClass for exchanges, protocols, and ICOs on October 4 as an online teaser leading up to HoshoCon

Las Vegas, Nevada – October 1, 2018 – iComply Investor Services (“iComply”), a leading global RegTech platform for digital finance and cryptocurrencies is announcing that it has partnered with Hosho Group LLC. (“Hosho”). Hosho provides smart contract auditing, penetration testing, and cybersecurity maintenance services focused on the blockchain industry.

This month, the New York State Office of the Attorney General launched the Virtual Markets Integrity Initiative, which issued a report that analyzed how virtual currencies (cryptocurrencies) are traded.

According to the report: “Few issues are of greater importance to customers of virtual asset trading platforms than the security of the funds … sophisticated criminals attempt to infiltrate these platforms constantly, and have reportedly stolen billions of dollars’ worth of virtual currency. Once an unauthorized third-party gains access to a customer account, those funds can be quickly transferred beyond the reach of law enforcement.”

An average of $23 Million USD of cryptocurrency hacked or stolen each day because of security vulnerabilities.

“Most virtual asset exchanges currently use an inefficient patchwork of products and services in an attempt to enable effective multi-jurisdictional compliance. These disjointed systems create hacker vulnerabilities that risk investor funds, data, and the platform’s reputation,” said Matthew Unger, CEO of iComply. “When we met with the product and engineering teams of these same exchanges we were shocked by the vulnerabilities we saw – specifically from their KYC, facial recognition, and AML providers. Investors’ personal data is being stored on local drives, in email inboxes, and often is neither transmitted nor stored with encryption.”

iComply offers end-to-end compliance solutions for digital finance. Through a single REST API companies – and specifically digital finance platforms – are able to achieve 100% coverage of every issue outlined in the Attorney General’s report in addition to the standards required by FINRA proof of ownership and source of funds reporting.

Hosho reported that on average, 82% of the smart contracts that the team has audited have some sort of vulnerability, 27% of which are critical and contract breaking, which means that funds could have been lost or stolen.

“It is Hosho’s goal to push the blockchain industry towards maturation by improving the overall security awareness and standards across the board. Partnering with iComply is a no-brainer given their ethos and philosophy align perfectly with our own. We are both putting in place the infrastructure, services, and technologies necessary to the long-term development of a strong and secure ecosystem,” said Hartej Sawhney, President of Hosho.

The companies have partnered on a MasterClass taking place virtually on October 4, 2018, that will aim to educate participants on cybersecurity for blockchain and smart contracts.

Both companies will also present at HoshoCon which takes place October 9 -11 in Las Vegas. The conference is dedicated to cybersecurity and technology standards for blockchain and the decentralized financial market.

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About Hosho
Hosho is the global leader in blockchain security, specializing in enterprise-grade security services for Fortune 500 and early-stage companies alike. Entirely focused on the blockchain industry, Hosho is setting the standard for blockchain security, providing state-of-the-art smart contract auditing and penetration testing services. With blockchain, the repercussions of a security hack are much greater than in traditional technology, making cybersecurity-related services of the utmost importance. Hosho plays an important role in the nascent blockchain industry by resolving issues that often lead to funds being lost or stolen. For more information on Hosho and our comprehensive suite of services, please visit Hosho.io

Beneficial Ownership 101: Navigating Complex Corporate Structures
Beneficial Ownership 101: Navigating Complex Corporate Structures

Mastering Beneficial Ownership Reviews: A Compliance Analyst’s Guide

Simplify complex beneficial ownership reviews with automated data collection, verification, and reporting. Enhance compliance, reduce risk, and streamline due diligence with iComply.

iComply MasterClass: Smart Contract Auditing Expert Panel

iComply MasterClass: Smart Contract Auditing Expert Panel

In this upcoming MasterClass, iComply hosts Hosho’s CTO Alex Blair as he joins iComply’s CTO Matt Masiar, to speak on the importance of smart contract auditing, especially for financial applications of smart contracts.

In 2017, a total of $400 million that was raised through initial coin offerings (ICOs) was lost or stolen. This year $23 million was lost to crypto scams every day, with 10% of all funds invested into ICOs also having been reported lost or stolen. The status quo of token fundraising is not sustainable, nor ready for institutional finance.

A single vulnerability once exploited can destroy an entire project. Code, if not audited may not function as intended but will work fine for a short period of time. Companies soft-launching on a blockchain network have a lot to lose from code vulnerabilities and it could end up being a costly decision to not have an audit prior to launch.

Save Your Spot: Registration Limited to the First 100 People Date: Thursday, October 4 Time: 11:00 AM – 11:45 AM (Pacific) Who is this MasterClass for? Developers, Token Issuers, Exchanges, Cyber Security Consultants

Key Learnings:
In this MasterClass, the panel will break down what smart contract audits are, why they are essential and how they can protect you and your investors. 

About Alexander Blair
As CTO of Hosho, the global leader in blockchain technology, Alexander leads its technology teams. Every audit bearing the Hosho name or GPG signature is viewed by him. He participates in the audit of ERC-20 contracts, intensive gambling contracts, website penetration testing, and consulting work. With each project, Alexander works to help companies achieve proper security for their funds and the blockchain ecosystem. Alexander Blair possesses a depth of knowledge and experience in low-level system administration, high-level development in multiple languages, cybersecurity, and cryptocurrency mining. Within the healthcare and cybersecurity industries, Alexander has refined his extensive skills in software security protocols. His projects include the sole development of updated mining pool software for cryptocurrencies based on the Cryptonote protocol; co-running SupportXMR.com – a cryptocurrency pool that focused on providing high-quality, high-speed mining pool access worldwide; and the intensive growth of the largest Monero pool in the world to a peak position. Prior to serving as the Chief Technology Officer at Hosho, Alexander enhanced his knowledge of security at Yo Sub Kwon’s LaunchKey. Later acquired by Iovation, Kwon tapped Alexander to join his new venture, Hosho – a cybersecurity company focused on the specific needs of the blockchain industry.

About Matt Masiar
A pioneer of Web technology for almost two decades, Natt’s work has won numerous local and international web development awards. He has acted as a CTO, Tech Team Lead, and technical adviser on a number of projects. He has demonstrated experience with designing and implementing secure, high-performance, scalable applications; large-scale integration projects; native mobile and responsive web applications; and legacy client-server based applications. Skilled in software design patterns, agile methodology, architecture, ASP.net, C#, Mobile Applications, Web Design, Management, and relational database design. 

About iComply Investor Services Inc.
iComply Investor Services Inc. (iComply) is an award-winning software company focused on reducing regulatory friction in the capital markets. With powerful data, verification, tokenization solutions, iComply helps companies overcome the cost and complexity of multi-jurisdictional compliance to effectively access new markets. Learn more: iComplyIS.com

Virtual Verification for Law Firms: From Chaos to Clarity
Virtual Verification for Law Firms: From Chaos to Clarity

Financial regulators such as FinCEN and FINTRAC, have been increasing the requirements for law firms to screen, monitor, and report on their clients for money laundering, human trafficking, and the financing of terrorism.

iComply MasterClass: Compliance in the Decentralized Financial Markets

iComply MasterClass: Compliance in the Decentralized Financial Markets

In this upcoming MasterClass, Greg Pinn, Head of Product Strategy for iComply and Former Head of World-Check for Thomson-Reuters, speaks on the role of compliance in the decentralized financial markets. He’ll walk through its best practices and the different approaches related to jurisdiction-based compliance.

Save Your Spot: Registration Limited to the First 500 Registrants
August 7: 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM PDT / 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM EDT
August 9: 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM PDT / 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM EDT

Key Learnings:
In this MasterClass, Greg breaks down why compliance matters and how the global market is in need of jurisdiction-based compliance for cryptocurrencies and tokenized assets in both centralized and decentralized models. Compliance is not a new need but a pressing one – events such as the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and the more recent, Russian Laundromat scheme are prime examples of why the need for compliance and anti-money laundering (AML) procedures exist.

Who is this MasterClass for?

  • ICO Issuers
  • Decentralized Exchanges
  • Compliance Leaders
  • ICO Consultants
While many argue that regulation stifles innovation, Greg explains that compliance actually enables innovation by protecting individuals that choose to participate in emerging industries. This is not only good from a moral and ethical standpoint but also from a material one. The emerging crypto market has faced an abundance of scrutiny under the public eye due to the emergence of a handful of bad actors; however, this does not paint a complete picture. There must be a balance between the free movement of value and protection of all individuals.

The “fundamentals” of compliance and how they are impacted by jurisdiction: This portion of the webinar will introduce new investors to compliance. This consists of concepts such as anti-money laundering (AML), Know Your Customer (KYC), Countering the Financing of Terrorism (CFT), Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD), Ultimate Beneficial Ownership (UBO) and Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs). These concepts are of major importance in both the traditional and decentralized financial markets and their implications can vary widely by jurisdiction.

The future of compliance: The final portion of the webinar will touch on the future of compliance, Greg considers the industry to be in a “renaissance” period. Costs associated with compliance for financial institutions are high and run parallel to the cost of employee turnover. Constant training and retraining are costly and inefficient. Thus, Greg predicts that the future of compliance is shifting to focus on decreasing the human costs associated with processes by enhancing these processes with technology such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and automation.

About Greg Pinn
Greg Pinn has a decade of experience leading global best practices in anti-money laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) industry. Greg currently serves as head of product strategy for iComply and previously ran strategy for World-Check, the world leader in risk-based intelligence data.

Looking for financial grade KYC and AML in an enterprise ready API?

iComply offers global screening for humans, corporations, and blockchain transactions in a single REST API.

Book a demo with one of our specialists to learn more.

About iComply Investor Services Inc.
iComply Investor Services Inc. (iComply) is an award-winning software company focused on reducing regulatory friction in the capital markets. With powerful data, verification, tokenization solutions, iComply helps companies overcome the cost and complexity of multi-jurisdictional compliance to effectively access new markets. Learn more: iComplyIS.com

Virtual Verification for Law Firms: From Chaos to Clarity
Virtual Verification for Law Firms: From Chaos to Clarity

Financial regulators such as FinCEN and FINTRAC, have been increasing the requirements for law firms to screen, monitor, and report on their clients for money laundering, human trafficking, and the financing of terrorism.

Benzinga – iComply A Top RegTech Solution

Benzinga – iComply A Top RegTech Solution

Benzinga – iComply A Top RegTech Solution

iComply was named a top RegTech solution by Benzinga Global FinTech Awards. The award was announced on May 16 in New York City during the peak of the “NYC Blockchain Week”.

The Benzinga FinTech Awards celebrates leading innovations in Fintech and RegTech across the world. It recognizes winners in a variety of categories including “Best Alternative Investments Platform,” “Best Customer Engagement Tool,” “Best Insuretech Solution” and more.

“We are excited to receive this recognition from Benzinga as an industry leading RegTech company, beating much more established KYC providers such as Jumio, BigID, and Trulioo. While these companies have been in the market much longer, our iComplyKYC product is focused directly on the specific risks associated with cryptocurrency transactions. In only a few short months since our product release, iComplyKYC is recognized as the industry best practice for cryptocurrency exchanges, token launch platforms, and leading securities law firms and risk advisors around the world.” said Matthew Unger, CEO of iComply Investor Services.

At present, iComplyKYC is available as a private white label solution and is currently being used by a number of FinTech platforms, initial coin offerings, licensed Canadian and U.S.broker-dealer and portfolio management firms, cryptocurrency exchanges, and capital markets advisory firms. The company is continuously enhancing the solution with additional layers of verification being released, including:

  • Accredited Investor Verification
  • Global Business Verification
  • Legal Entity Identification
  • Anti-Money Laundering
  • Sanctions & Watchlist Screening
  • Machine Vision Liveness Detection
  • Cryptocurrency Wallet Risk Monitoring
  • Blockchain Forensics
  • Credit Bureau Verification
  • Wallet Ownership Verification.

We see the iComplyKYC product as critical infrastructure to enable institutional investment to access digital finance.

“When we entered the market with our first product – a regulatory service for blockchains that uses Prefacto technology to apply real-time compliance and governance procedures for the offering and secondary trading of tokenized assets – we discovered that many of the KYC and digital identity providers were too expensive and most are barely more than a camera phone app with a dashboard on the back end. Right now, if an token issuer or cryptocurrency exchange were to be audited by Fintrac, Fincen, European Commission or OFSE they would have a harsh awakening when they realize that the term “KYC” is not standardized across the industry – many of the largest providers do no OFAC screening, most only call a single national PEP list for the USA, and none offer comprehensive risk reporting on cryptocurrency wallets or source of funds. We saw this gap as an opportunity to apply the best practices of traditional sanction screening, anti money laundering and anti-terrorist financing to the decentralized financial markets,” added Unger.

The team at iComply is pleased to receive this recognition and looks forward to continued success as we continue to grow our team, product and customer base.

Looking for an end-to-end token management studio?

iComply’s token compliance platform, Prefacto enables issuers to capture the value of blockchain asset management with multi-jurisdictional compliance automation for over 150 countries.

Book a demo with one of our specialists to learn more.

About iComply Investor Services Inc.
iComply Investor Services Inc. (iComply) is an award-winning software company focused on reducing regulatory friction in the capital markets. With powerful data, verification, tokenization solutions, iComply helps companies overcome the cost and complexity of multi-jurisdictional compliance to effectively access new markets. Learn more: iComplyIS.com

Virtual Verification for Law Firms: From Chaos to Clarity
Virtual Verification for Law Firms: From Chaos to Clarity

Financial regulators such as FinCEN and FINTRAC, have been increasing the requirements for law firms to screen, monitor, and report on their clients for money laundering, human trafficking, and the financing of terrorism.

iComply Launches iComplyID, Blockchain Powered Portable Identity and KYC

iComply Launches iComplyID, Blockchain Powered Portable Identity and KYC

iComply Launches iComplyID, Blockchain Powered Portable Identity and KYC

iComplyID is a zero-knowledge proof, legal-entity identifier.

Vancouver, B.C. – iComply (iComply Investor Services Inc.) is announcing the launch of iComplyID, which acts as a portable KYC (“know your customer”) solution for digital identity management in financial services and government applications. iComplyID significantly enhances cybersecurity and privacy for individuals while reducing the costs of compliance with anti-money laundering (AML), anti-terrorist financing (ATF) regulations, and national identity programs.

iComply is a RegTech software company focused on creating enterprise solutions that reduce the burden of financial, regulatory, and compliance requirements by synchronizing country by country legislation. Last month, the company released the world’s first automated compliance protocol, “Prefacto,” for securities regulation to enable token issuers, security token platforms, licensed stock exchanges and investors to launch and trade blockchain coins or smart contract tokens in compliance with global securities, identity, and privacy regulations.

“Our focus is to demonstrate how, when used appropriately, tools like blockchain, machine learning, and biometrics can serve to enhance integrity, transparency and security in capital markets. We are empowering organizations and individuals by enabling them to utilize the internet of value safely,” said Matthew Unger, CEO and Founder of iComply.

Recently, the banking industry has seen the trend of ‘platformization,’ where financial institutions move away from proprietary legacy solutions and have started to embrace shared resources.

ATMs for example, are owned by individual banks, but rely on administrative entities like VISA to manage inter-bank processes. Conversely, blockchain enables the decentralization of data for frictionless cooperation between entities in a network without intermediaries.

Recently, the Bank of Canada and the Monetary Authority of Singapore announced a program to leverage blockchain for interbank settlement and reconciliation. This reduces the time and cost of these processes, which is one of the features driving the increasing popularity of platforms and decentralized infrastructure.

Trust in intermediary organizations has faltered in recent years, with the Equifax security breach leaving the personal data of 143 million customers vulnerable.

“2017 was the year of the ICO with over 1,200 issued from Canada and the USA alone, and nearly 260 out of Singapore. Issuers in 2018 are taking a new approach, abandoning the fast and loose SAFT offerings to set up compliant securities offerings that simply happen to use blockchain to manage their holders of record. and even working with regulators preemptively. To scale globally, financial institutions need a secure, scalable, and compliant solution to manage investor identity verification, know your client, anti-money laundering, and real time source of funds monitoring. iComplyID is the only turnkey ID/KYC solution in the world that meets these requirements while protecting the privacy and consent of the user.” added Unger.

Looking for financial grade KYC and AML in an enterprise ready API?

iComply offers global screening for humans, corporations, and blockchain transactions in a single REST API.

Book a demo with one of our specialists to learn more.

About iComply Investor Services Inc.
iComply Investor Services Inc. (iComply) is an award-winning software company focused on reducing regulatory friction in the capital markets. With powerful data, verification, tokenization solutions, iComply helps companies overcome the cost and complexity of multi-jurisdictional compliance to effectively access new markets. Learn more: iComplyIS.com

Virtual Verification for Law Firms: From Chaos to Clarity
Virtual Verification for Law Firms: From Chaos to Clarity

Financial regulators such as FinCEN and FINTRAC, have been increasing the requirements for law firms to screen, monitor, and report on their clients for money laundering, human trafficking, and the financing of terrorism.

Top 3 Blockchain Startups to Watch in 2018 – Bitcoin Market Journal

Top 3 Blockchain Startups to Watch in 2018 – Bitcoin Market Journal

Top 3 Blockchain Startups to Watch in 2018 – Bitcoin Market Journal

iComplyICO was featured today in Bitcoin Market Journal for our work in regulatory compliance, with CEO Matthew Unger stating that, unlike many ICO issuers in 2017, issuers in 2018 will be focused on prioritizing regulation, compliance and due diligence.

Top 3 ICOs for 2018 – Bitcoin Market Journal
Author: Charles Bovaird
ICOs were all the rage in 2017, generating major headlines by pulling in millions of dollars’ worth of investor funds. While this might be great for the founders, the more important matter may be… Read the full article here.

Looking for an end-to-end token management studio?

iComply’s token compliance platform, Prefacto enables issuers to capture the value of blockchain asset management with multi-jurisdictional compliance automation for over 150 countries.

Book a demo with one of our specialists to learn more.

About iComply Investor Services Inc.
iComply Investor Services Inc. (iComply) is an award-winning software company focused on reducing regulatory friction in the capital markets. With powerful data, verification, tokenization solutions, iComply helps companies overcome the cost and complexity of multi-jurisdictional compliance to effectively access new markets. Learn more: iComplyIS.com

Virtual Verification for Law Firms: From Chaos to Clarity
Virtual Verification for Law Firms: From Chaos to Clarity

Financial regulators such as FinCEN and FINTRAC, have been increasing the requirements for law firms to screen, monitor, and report on their clients for money laundering, human trafficking, and the financing of terrorism.

Vaidyanathan Chandrashekhar

Vaidyanathan Chandrashekhar

Advisors

“Chandy,” is a technology and risk expert with executive experience at Boston Consulting Group, Citi, and PwC. With over two decades in financial services, digital transformation, and enterprise risk, he advises iComply on scalable compliance infrastructure for global markets.
Thomas Linder

Thomas Linder

Advisors

Thomas is a global tax and compliance expert with deep specialization in digital assets, blockchain, and tokenization. As a partner at MME Legal | Tax | Compliance, he advises iComply on regulatory strategy, cross-border compliance, and digital finance innovation.
Thomas Hardjono

Thomas Hardjono

Advisors

Thomas is a renowned identity and cybersecurity expert, serving as CTO of Connection Science at MIT. With deep expertise in decentralized identity, zero trust, and secure data exchange, he advises iComply on cutting-edge technology and privacy-first compliance architecture.
Rodney Dobson

Rodney Dobson

Advisors

Rodney is the former President of ADP Canada and international executive with over two decades of leadership in global HR and enterprise technology. He advises iComply with deep expertise in international service delivery, M&A, and scaling high-growth operations across regulated markets.
Praveen Mandal

Praveen Mandal

Advisors

Praveen is a serial entrepreneur and technology innovator, known for leadership roles at Lucent Bell Labs, ChargePoint, and the Stanford Linear Accelerator. He advises iComply on advanced computing, scalable infrastructure, and the intersection of AI, energy, and compliance tech.
Paul Childerhose

Paul Childerhose

Advisors

Paul is a Canadian RegTech leader and founder of Maple Peak Group, with extensive experience in financial services compliance, AML, and digital transformation. He advises iComply on regulatory alignment, operational strategy, and scaling compliance programs in complex markets.
John Engle

John Engle

Advisors

John is a seasoned business executive with senior leadership experience at CIBC, UBS, and Accenture. With deep expertise in investment banking, private equity, and digital transformation, he advises iComply on strategic growth, partnerships, and global market expansion.
Jeff Bandman

Jeff Bandman

Advisors

Jeff is a former CFTC official and globally recognized expert in financial regulation, fintech, and digital assets. As founder of Bandman Advisors, he brings deep insight into regulatory policy, market infrastructure, and innovation to guide iComply’s global compliance strategy.
Greg Pearlman

Greg Pearlman

Advisors

Greg is a seasoned investment banker with over 35 years of experience, including leadership roles at BMO Capital Markets, Morgan Stanley, and Citigroup. Greg brings deep expertise in financial strategy and growth to support iComply's expansion in the RegTech sector.
Deven Sharma

Deven Sharma

Advisors

Deven is the former President of S&P and a globally respected authority in risk, data, and capital markets. With decades of leadership across financial services and tech, he advises iComply on strategic growth, governance, and the future of trusted data in AML compliance.