If you have been following the crypto scene lately, it's no secret that DeFi-related projects have been hit hard by cyber-attacks in 2022.
From the Ronin Bridge attack to the Nomad Bridge attack, the 12 cross-chain bridge incidents alone have caused US$1.8 billion in losses.
A new report from the Blockchain Security Alliance has revealed that of 167 major security incidents over the last year, DeFi-type protocols were attacked 113 times, or about 67.6% of the total attacks, making it the most frequently attacked project type.
In the report, Beosin, a leading blockchain security firm monitored more then 167 major attacks in the Web3 space, with a total loss of about US$3.6 billion from all types of attacks, an increase of 47.4% from 2021.
Of these, 10 security incidents lost more than US$100 million in a single attack and losses of 21 security incidents ranged from US$10 million to US$100 million.
Alarmingly, the report states that this trend is not likely to slow down and will continue onward into 2023.
167 major security incidents.
What caused the damage?
DeFi ranks second in terms of losses after the cross-chain bridge, with a total loss amounting to approximately US$950 million.
A total of 21 exchange and wallet security incidents throughout the year, resulting in a total loss of about $600 million.
In 2022, 12 cross-chain bridge security incidents caused a total loss of around $1.89 billion, the highest loss of any project type.
Five cross-chain bridge projects lost in excess of $100 million in a single incident: Ronin ($624 million), BSC Token Hub ($560 million), Wormhole ($326 million), Nomad ($190 million) and Harmony ($100 million).
The attack types mainly included social engineering, private key compromise and blockchain/contract vulnerabilities.
Vulnerability exploits saw the highest frequency and loss amount throughout the year. For the year 2022, $1,458 million was lost from vulnerability exploits in 87 attacks.
Not to forget the 243 rug pulls throughout 2022, involving a total amount of $425 million - excluding the FTX incident of course.