$1.8 Billion Cryptos Lost Across 751 Security Breaches in 2023: CertiK report
2023 saw a 51% decline in the digital assets lost to hacks, scams and exploits than that of 2022. However, a staggering $1.84 billion in cryptocurrencies were lost across 751 security breaches in 2023, blockchain security firm CertiK reveals.
The 2023 “Hack3d” report published Wednesday, highlighted major exploits and incidents that led to this ten-digit number. Per the data, 2023 losses were down 51% from 2022’s total of $3.7 billion.
“Although $1.8 billion is a significant decline from 2022, it’s still too much,” CertiK analysts noted.
Furthermore, data revealed that the Q3 of 2023 saw the most losses at $686,558,472 from 183 hacks and scams. “November was the most costly month of the year,” it added.
The study attributed the cause of several digital asset breaches to private key compromises.
“Six of the ten most costly security incidents over the course of 2023 were due to private key compromises.”
Private key compromises were the costliest attack vectors with $880,892,924 worth of crypto assets lost in just 47 incidents. The figures represent nearly half of all financial losses, though these compromises represented just 6.3% of all security breaches this year.
CertiK suggested some of the private key management best practices to avoid future breaches. These include multi-signature wallets, hardware wallets, access control policies, encrypted storage and regular monitoring of the use of private keys.
The report highlighted the emerging trend of “retroactive bug bounties” in 2023, with $219 million returned across 36 events. This represents 12% of the $1.84 billion lost in total, it added.
Several protocols have successfully negotiated “grey hat” bounties, leading to hackers returning significant portions of stolen funds. For
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