In July, at least $142 million was siphoned off in 17 different attacks within the crypto space. This marks a 27% increase in monthly losses compared to June, which had recorded $111 million in losses, as reported by blockchain security company Peckshield.
Yet, this figure is still significantly lower—46% down, in fact—from the $266 million in hacks reported in July of the previous year. Back then, a substantial $230 million breach involving the Indian crypto exchange Wazirx accounted for a large chunk of that amount.
Peckshield noted that one of the attackers exploited a GMX decentralized exchange, stealing $40 million on July 11. Interestingly, the stolen funds were returned a few days later, making it the second-largest hack of the month.
CoindCX: July’s Largest Breach
On July 18, the Indian crypto exchange CoindCX was compromised, resulting in a loss of $44 million. Authorities recently arrested a CoindCX employee in connection with this incident.
A few days earlier, on July 16, Crypto Exchange Bigone also faced significant losses, totaling at least $27 million due to third-party attacks aimed at its hot wallet infrastructure.
The third major incident of July involved Woo X, a crypto trading platform that fell victim to a phishing attack on July 24.
Access Via Social Engineering
Rob Behnke, chairman of the blockchain security firm Halborn, indicated that the individual behind the Woo X hack utilized social engineering tactics to access one of the team member’s devices. He explained that the attacker managed to infiltrate the development environment by exploiting the trust within the system.
“In this case, the attacker successfully executed multiple malicious transactions just two hours before any suspicious activity was detected.” Funds were stolen across various cryptocurrency chains, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), BNB (BNB), and Arbitrum (ARB).
Fortunately, the affected accounts have managed to restore their balances, thanks to interventions from the company’s Ministry of Finance.
Focus Shifting to Off-Chain Systems
Behnke also pointed out a worrying trend where hackers are increasingly targeting off-chain systems for high-value hacks. Rather than exploiting smart contract vulnerabilities, which can often be pinpointed and resolved through security audits, attackers seem to be looking for weaknesses in backend infrastructure and processes.
“As these Defi hackers refine their methods and broaden their focus to backend systems, projects must adopt robust security measures to counteract these threats.”
