BlocksInform
The New Year is a new beginning for malicious actors in the crypto space and 2023 will probably not see a slowing down in scams, exploits and hacks, according to certik.
The blockchain security firm said Cointelegraph's expectations for the coming year concerning bad actors in space, saying:
"We've seen a lot of incidents in the past year despite the downward crypto market, so we don't expect a respite in exploits, flash loans or exit scams."
Regarding other ill-natured incidents the crypto community might face, the company pointed to the “devastating” exploits that took place on cross-chain bridges in 2022. Of the 10 largest exploits during the year, six were bridge exploits, which stole a total of around $1.4 billion.
Because of these historically high yields, CertiK noted the probability of "new pirate attempts at bridges in 2023."
Keep your keys secure.
On a different side, CertiK indicated that there will probably be "less brute force attacks" on crypto portfolios, as the vulnerability of the blasphemy tool that has been used to attack a number of crypto portfolios in the past is now widely known.
The blasphemy tool lets users generate custom crypto addresses "vanity". A vulnerability in the tool was used to exploit $160 million worth of crypto in the September hack of algorithmic crypto market maker Wintermute, according to CertiK.
Instead, purse deals this year will likely come due to poor security of users, CertiK said:
"It is possible that the money lost as a result of private key trade-offs in 2023 is due to poor private key management, excluding any future vulnerabilities found in the portfolio generators."
The firm has indicated that it will also monitor phishing techniques that may proliferate over the course of the New Year. It noted the slew of Discord group hacks in mid-2022 that tricked participants into clicking phishing links such as the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) Discord hack in June, which resulted in 145 Ether ( being stolen.
Related: Revoke your smart contract approvals ASAP, warns crypto investor
Last year, $2.1 billion worth of crypto was stolen through just the 10 biggest incidents alone, while 2021 saw $10.2 billion total stolen from Decentralized Finance (DeFi) protocols, according to peer security firm Immunefi.
The biggest incident of all time in 2022 was the Ronin Bridge, which allowed the assailants to flee with about $612 million. The largest flash loan attack was the $76 million Beanstalk Farms exploit and the largest DeFi protocol exploit was the $79.3 million stolen from Rari Capital.
