A recent report examining the number of successful hacks on blockchain networks, exchanges, and even wallets concluded that attackers had stolen more than $13 billion in the past eight years.
The paper noted that the EOS network had experienced the most breaches, while the malicious actors have taken the most funds from wallets.
The document compiled by the VPN provider Atlas VPN reads that the total amount of attacks on various blockchain networks is 330.
The first two hacks were registered in 2012. Interestingly, the company outlined that blockchain attacks didn’t increase in popularity among hackers until 2018.
As the graph above illustrates, the first half (H1) of 2018 saw the first year with double-digit hacks with 22. Then, the attacks exploded to a record-setting 94 during H1 in 2019, and the number rose to 133 throughout the entire year.
Although 2020 is not over yet, the attacks’ number is significantly lower. The report concluded that “based on this historical data, it seems that 2020 will not reach the record heights of last year, and blockchain hacks will remain on the decline.”
The document highlighted that over 35% of all examined attacks have occurred on decentralized applications (dApps) running on the EOS blockchain. Next in line are cryptocurrency exchanges, which have been compromised 87 times.
Although the number of attacks against the EOS network is substantially higher than hacks on exchanges, the story with the stolen funds is radically different.
Perpetrators have made approximately $28 million from the 117 attacks against dApps running on EOS, making it about $242,000 per breach. In contrast, the 87 attacks on exchanges have resulted in $4.82 billion nicked – or about $55.41 million per hack.
This outcome is not surprising, as cryptocurrency exchanges store arguably the most amounts of funds in the cryptocurrency space.
Interestingly, malicious actors have made the most per hack while compromising blockchain wallets. The research indicates that “over the past eight years, blockchain wallet providers have faced 36 hacks, which together amounted to $7.19 billion in losses or around $199,932,146.7 per breach.”
