The recent findings unveiled by Beosin EagleEye platform, an offspring of Beosin, a blockchain security audit powerhouse, mirror a rather grim quarter for Web3. Prossessing the brunt of roughly $890 million in losses due to security breaches, rug pulls, and phishing issues, these digital realms proved to be a rough terrain for users between July and September 2023.
Breaking down this compelling digit further, we discern that 43 distinct cyber attacks caused a collective financial hemorrhage of around $540 million. When compared to the phishing scam fallout, a substantially lesser $66.15 million loss, one might hastily brand hacker attacks the predominant concern. Equally worrisome however, were the 81 rug pull incidents within projects, squeezing out approximately $280 million from user pockets.
Unsurprisingly, the most beleaguered sector continued to be Decentralized Finance (DeFi), being at the epicenter of 67.4% of all incidents. Among the plethora of project types, public chains were the hardest hit, with Ethereum shouldering losses of $227 million. It’s no wonder then, that Ethereum also topped the explosive list of security incidents as it amassed an alarming total of 16 during the quarter.
From a closer look into the modus operandi of attacks, private key leaks appeared to be the costliest inflicting losses amounting to $223 million. Even more troubling is the fact that almost 67% of the pinched digital assets, roughly $360 million, still remain at the mercy of the hackers.
Yet, all hope was not lost in this labyrinth of digital theft and deception. A respectable effort to recapture stolen assets did bear fruit, albeit limited, recovering just about 10% of the illicitly acquired virtual funds.
The audit trajectory further revealed a relatively equal battering of both audited and unaudited projects, with audited ones constituting 48.8% and unaudited ones making up 46.5% of those shook by these security mishaps.
While blockchain technology gains traction across many a digital frontier, the nefarious specter of cyberattacks and scams looms large and unignorable. Persistent as ever, this threat requires our undivided attention as we continue to navigate and construct our burgeoning virtual plane.
Source: Cryptonews
