Value Stolen in Exploits Down By 70% Since Last Year, More Funds Returned (Report)

A slew of high-level attacks have taken place on the crypto ecosystem in the past year, targeting everything and everyone from Phantom wallets to the smart contracts themselves.

A popular choice of target was crossbridges, which allowed hackers to steal with serious rewards, most notably in the case of Harmony.

Sharp decrease in attacks

However, times seem to be changing, according to a new report from cybersecurity researchers at TRMLabs.

According to the paperTotal value stolen through exploits and hacks is down 70% year over year since Q1 2022. Although this may sound biased, given that Q1 2022 was when the $600 million Ronin Bridge attack took place. However, the data holds even when the rest of 2022 is taken into account. In total, nearly $3.7 billion in funds was stolen by bad actors last year.

In fact, less value was stolen during the first quarter of 2023 than in any quarter of 2022. In the previous quarter of 2023, the total value stolen was only added to about $400 million across nearly 40 separate attacks — about two-thirds of which were from a bridge. Ronin hack alone.

Moreover, victims of attacks are often able to recover a portion of the stolen reward, which is already, on average, a third of what it was a year ago.

The average breach size also took a hit in the first quarter of 2023 – to $10.5m from about $30m in the same quarter of 2022, although the number of incidents was similar (about 40). So far Hacking victims recovered more than half of the stolen funds in the first quarter of 2023.

Increased scrutiny prevents losses

Although it’s impossible to know the exact reason for the decrease in the scope of attacks — which could be anything between better cybersecurity measures, sheer boredom, or feelings of guilt — the researchers at TRMLabs believe that increased attention by law enforcement officials may be the main reason. behind it. Main contributor here.

Even in cases where the exploit that occurred does not violate piracy laws, regulators still take action for other reasons. For example, Avraham Eisenberg’s “profitable trading strategy” got him into trouble with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which accused him of stock manipulation.

Illegal exploits have also declined. Since the United States sanctioned Tornado Cash, the most notorious tool for laundering dirty cryptocurrency, all addresses related to the mixer have been blacklisted, making it difficult for cybercriminals to cash out the proceeds of their attacks.

However, the researchers warned that this lull in attacks could be temporary and urged crypto developers to remain alert.