Hackers and scammers managed to steal more than €2 billion from Web3 projects in the first half of 2022, already more than the amount lost during all of 2021.
A CertiK report revealed that while virus attacks (opens in a new tab), hacks, scams, phishing, identity theft (opens in a new tab), and others, engineering attacks social are very popular among threat actors, there is a new threat growth. has become quite a monster: quick loan attacks.
A quick loan is what it sounds like: a loan that people can get and pay back in the blink of an eye. But since people can get large sums of money in quick loans, these can be abused to attack certain protocols and drain funds.
millions lost
Something similar happened with the Beanstalk protocol in April 2022. Entities with large amounts of BEAN tokens gain voting rights, allowing them to vote on important events such as fund withdrawals. With the help of a quick loan, an attacker managed to obtain large amounts of BEAN and then used his newfound voting power to vote and withdraw nearly €200 million from the protocol.
According to CertiK, the second quarter of 2022 saw 27 flash loan attacks, resulting in €308 million in losses, but a few months earlier “only” €14 million was lost this way.
Analysts also say that phishing attacks increased between the two quarters, from 106 in the first quarter to 290 in the second quarter.
Most of the time, attackers would try to compromise endpoints (opens in a new tab) via Discord, as it is one of the most popular social media platforms for crypto and Web3 developers and enthusiasts.
“Rug pulling,” a practice in which “developers” pull the rug out from under investors and disappear with their money, appears to be losing popularity. One of the reasons that rug giveaways are not as popular anymore is the deep bear market that is developing right now.
Despite the good news, more than €37 million was still lost in this way in the second quarter of this year (down 16% quarter over quarter).
Via: The Verge (Opens in a new tab)