In 2021, the amount of funds stolen by hackers from DeFi applications more than doubled, reaching $1.3 billion. Problems linked to the centralisation of projects became the most common attack vector, according to a report by CertiK, the smart-contracts auditor.
According to the annual ForkLog, in 2021 the volume of assets locked in the DeFi sector rose 13-fold, reaching $245 billion. In relation to total TVL, losses also amounted to 0.5%; in 2020 the figure stood at 2.78%.
Over the year the startup audited 1,737 projects. During the work, the specialists uncovered 286 “red flags” indicating discrete risks of centralisation.
“Centralisation runs counter to DeFi ethics and poses a serious security risk. Single points of failure can be exploited by both targeted hackers and malicious insiders,” the document says.
The second most common attack vector is insufficient “event emissions.” The term refers to smart-contract functions that notify changes to “sensitive variables” or “important processes.”
As reported in the number of cyberattacks doubled, according to Check Point Research. Regionally, the main victims were located in Africa and the Asia-Pacific region, the latter traditionally including Russia.
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