Recent data has revealed that incidents of hacking in the Web3 sector have significantly reduced, reaching their lowest point in three years. According to the Hacken report, a leading blockchain security firm, in conjunction with Extractor, has disclosed that only 28 hacking incidents were reported in Q3 2024, down from 41, which occurred in the previous quarter. The decrease suggests that Web3 projects are becoming better at protecting themselves.
The total amount of money stolen by hackers has also decreased. In Q3 2024, hackers took about $464 million, a 10% decline from the last quarter. These declines in the number of hacks and in the amount lost reveal that Web3 projects are getting stronger in terms of security, thanks to better security measures and practices in the industry.
Even with these improvements, several serious threats continue to put Web3 projects and their security at significant risk. Some of the most common attacks include smart contract vulnerabilities, access control breaches, and reentrancy attacks. Smart contract issues caused nine incidents, leading to losses of around $42.3 million. Meanwhile, three recent attacks resulted in over $33 million lost. Access control attacks were particularly alarming; in Q3 2024, there were eight incidents that resulted in $316 million in losses, making up nearly 70% of all stolen assets for that period.
Some notable attacks included the WazirX exchange hack in July, which resulted in a loss of around $230 million due to weaknesses in a multi-signature wallet. Other major attacks include the Terra Luna hack, resulting in a $6.5 million loss.
Unfortunately, recovery of the stolen funds hasn’t been easy. In fact, only 5% of the total losses in Q3 2024 were recovered or frozen, amounting to $23.5 million. That recovery rate is the worst in a while, especially compared to Q2 2024 when $347 million was recovered.
So where did these losses occur? Most occurred in Asia, with three incidents causing a loss of $264 million, representing 57% of the total losses. The biggest targets were the centralized exchanges, with hackers stealing $295 million through just three attacks.
Even though there has been a significant reduction in the incidences of hacks, hacking activities in the larger crypto industry are still a big problem. By the end of July 2024, total thefts reached $1.58 billion, an 84.4% increase from the previous year. As the situation continues to evolve, Web3 projects must stay alert and keep improving their security to fend off potential threats.
For companies like Horizon Fintex that have embraced Web3 technology, the statistics of cybersecurity attacks provide impetus to be vigilant about the security of their systems.
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