Hackers stole $1.4 billion in 2022 with crypto bridges: how they do it

The world of cryptocurrencies has been extremely lucrative for hackers in 2022. despite the current crisis in the industry. Their profits were not tied to the price of the digital currencies themselves, but to major thefts that were reported throughout 2022.

Hackers have found cryptographic bridges to be a particularly useful mechanism for carrying out their attacks and quickly gaining millions of dollars.. These “digital bridges” are the mechanisms that connect the networks of each token and allow transactions to be exchanged between them.

In this manner those who use them avoid having to use a centralized system to conduct transactions, something that the most enthusiastic cryptocurrencies want to avoid at all costs. However, this also comes with the risk of using a system that is not secure against cyberattacks.

Data released by blockchain analytics company Chainalysis shows that hackers have managed to steal more than $1.4 billion this year. through this path. This cipher was made possible by numerous attacks on various cryptographic bridges.

The largest of these involves the theft of $615 million and took place on the Ronin platform, the crypto bridge that powers Axie Infinity’s digital money.. Added to this is a $320 million theft committed against Wormhole, a crypto bridge backed by Wall Street high-frequency trading firm Jump Trading.

The last two attacks took place in June and August of this year, with over $300 million in security breaches.

Cryptobridge thefts account for 69% of the total funds stolen internationally with cryptocurrencies this year, according to Chainalysis.

The problem is that crypto bridges are essential for the industry, because without them it would be impossible to send tokens from a particular network and receive them in a separate one.

“Without them, assets are locked into native chains,” says Oston Bunsen, QuikNode co-founder and cryptocurrency expert.

The experts explain that in many ways these thefts have a common element, namely that the number of accounts they need to compromise in order to carry out their attacks is relatively small. So we are talking about robberies with a lot of loot for relatively little effort.

Author: Julian Castillo
Source: La Opinion

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