Crypto Hack Losses Down 50% in 2023
04 Jan, 2024 ● Crypto News
751 security incidents resulted in the loss of digital assets valued at over $1.8 billion in 2023. Although the sum is still enormous, it is 51% less than the $3.7 billion in losses from hacks and other incidents that occurred in 2022.
The information is taken from the yearly report "Hack3d: The Web3 Security Report 2023" published by blockchain security company CertiK.
The security firm put together a report on January 3 that summarizes the situation of Web3 security during the previous 12 months.
The company stated in the report that the third quarter of 2023 had the highest losses, totaling more than $686 million. Furthermore, the most costly attack vector remained to be compromised private keys.
Over $880 million was lost in 47 instances in 2023 as a result of compromised private keys.
Regarding blockchains, the Ethereum network experienced the greatest losses. Ethereum experienced $686 million in losses over 224 incidents, averaging $3 million per incident, according to CertiK's report.
However, BNB Chain only recorded 387 security incidents with a total loss of $134 million, significantly less than Ethereum's figure.
Furthermore, a persistent issue in the cryptocurrency space is cross-chain interoperability. The security report stated that losses from security breaches impacting numerous blockchains totaled nearly $800 million.
According to CertiK co-founder Ronghui Gu, 2023 will be a "positive development" in blockchain security overall, he told Cointelegraph. Gu clarified:
“The growth of bug bounty platforms and other proactive security measures is a good sign. Hopefully, we will see a continued decline in losses throughout 2024.”
Gu also stated that the overall bear market, which saw falling token and Treasury valuations, could be blamed for the 51% decrease in losses. Gu thinks that the Web3 industry is "learning its security lessons," though, if losses remain low during the bull run.
Sources:
https://cointelegraph.com/news/crypto-hack-losses-51-percent-decline-2023-certik
