In the opening three months of 2024, approximately $824 million was taken through 67 hacking incidents as cybercriminals intensified their attacks on prominent people and initiatives.

Based on the recent Hacken report obtained by CryptoPotato, access control breaches were the most prevalent and damaging type of hacks in Q1 2024, accounting for 83% of the total funds stolen, amounting to $682 million across 26 separate occurrences.

Access Control Breaches Reign

Approximately two-thirds of the total losses were caused by just four significant incidents. These were:

During Q1, unauthorized access was the common theme for each security breach we encountered. This type of exploit, specifically related to access control, proved to be particularly effective for hackers, enabling them to penetrate essential system parts.

In terms of cyberattacks, token projects endured a total of 19 incidents. This was more than any other category, which experienced 10 such occurrences. Lending protocols encountered 9 reported hacking events. Among the various sectors, gaming platforms took the greatest financial blow, with Playdapp leading the way. Munchables followed closely behind in terms of monetary losses due to these incidents.

Notable individuals, Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs), tokens, bridges, and Centralized Finance (CeFi) platforms experienced the second-largest number of breaches resulting in significant losses. Instances of this include incidents involving Chris Larsen, Jeffrey Zirlin, and AirDAO.

Ray of Hope?

In the first quarter, Hacken faced significant setbacks with over $800 million being stolen. However, they managed to recover or freeze around $444 million from different hacks and exploits. This is nearly half of the amount lost, accounting for 54%. The industry takes note of this recovery effort as a significant step forward in responding effectively to such incidents.

The Seneca Protocol hack and Dolomite case are examples of hackers giving back stolen funds as rewards, while white hat hackers like @coffeebabe_eth intervened and returned funds in the Blueberry protocol hack. These actions aided in the eventual recovery of the funds.

Project teams and ethical hackers took initiatives that proved vital in retrieving a large portion of the stolen funds and limiting additional disruptions. Although the sum of money hacked during this timeframe was considerable, regaining over half of it is an optimistic sign for the sector’s security and robustness.

While speaking to CryptoPotato, Edgar Pavlovski, Hacken’s Senior Blockchain Researcher, explained,

In the beginning of this year, we saw a continuation of past trends – over 83% of cryptocurrency funds lost were due to individuals misplacing their private keys. However, there was some good news: more than half of all stolen funds were either returned or made inaccessible to attackers. This is a significant improvement from previous years and we anticipate this trend towards increased security measures to continue progressing.

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2024-04-17 13:04