In the first five months of 2025, over $ 2.1 billion digital assets have been lost To cyber criminals, says blockchain security audit companies Certic.
The New York-based company revealed the figure two weeks ago, and in a recent appearance of podcast, founder Ronghui Gu Added that the majority of the funds had been lost to wallet Compromets, private key management and operational failures.
“This is a change in attack patterns. It also shows the development of the current infrastructure as attackers are always aimed at the weakest points. Previously, the weakest points were smart contracts and the Blockchain code itself. Now the attackers know as the weakest points come from human behavior rather than infrastructure,” pronounced gu.
The Bybit hack Earlier this year remains the largest. Attacks probably opened the cold wallet of the exchange and got rid of $ 1.5 billion in ETH, in what security researchers from elliptical described as “almost certainly the single largest known theft of some kind on all the time.”
Coinbase (Nasdaq: Coins), The US’s largest exchange, also before an attack where criminals gained access to personal data for some of its users. Exchange told Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that the attack can cost it up to $ 400 million.
At $ 2.1 billion in five months, this year’s stolen assets are on the way to dwarf last year’s total $ 2.2 billion. Chain analysis mentioned The figure would have been much higher, but North Korean -linked hacking groups slowed down the activity after July. These groups reportedly accounted for $ 1.3 billion in stolen “crypto” last year, more than half of the total figure.
The record was set in 2022 when cyber criminals stole $ 3.7 billion of digital assets in 231 attacks. However, the record number was 303 2024.
According to GU, the attackers rely more and more on social technology, a tactic where they manipulate the victims to reveal confidential wallet information or give them access to their accounts. This is mainly done through Phishing, where they send fraudulent links that, when clicked, redirect the victims to illegal websites controlled by the attackers.
This is what happened to a recent victim who lost an astonishing $ 330 million to cyber criminals in an attack that is now ranked as the largest on an individual and the fifth largest overall.
Blockchain Sleut revealed A month ago that the victim was an older American citizen who was tricked into giving the attackers access to her 3,520 BTC, which the victim had had since 2017.
The funds were quickly washed through several accounts on almost two dozen centralized exchanges, including binance. A large part was first converted to Monero, a privacy -focused digital asset that makes it almost impossible to track the stash.
Cisco: 96% of companies not prepared for cyber security threats
While “crypto” attacks are on course for their greatest year, a report from Cisco says that only 4% of global companies have achieved the maturity required to resist today’s cyber attacks.
The technical giant’s cybersecurity emergency index revealed That maturation had increased slightly from last year’s 3% but still worryingly low as Artificial intelligence (AI) and hyperconninivity increase the complexity of security personnel.
In particular, AI has aggravated the threat that companies are facing. Last year, 86% of global organizations met AI-related security incidents, but only 49% were confident in their employees’ ability to deal with these threats.
“When AI transforms the company, we are dealing with a whole new class of risks on a unique scale – which puts even more pressure on our infrastructure and those who defend it,” commented Jeetu Patel, Cisco’s Chief Product Officer.
“This year’s report continues to reveal worrying gaps in security preparedness and the lack of urgent to deal with them. Organizations must rethink their strategies now or risk becoming irrelevant in the AI.”
But while AI reinforces the threatIt has also become a critical tool for security personnel. Cisco found that 89% of organizations use AI to detect and understand the threats they face, while 7 out of 10 use it for answers and recovery.
The speech deficiency has also become a massive challenge. According to the report, 86% identified the lack of skilled professionals as a major challenge; More than half of the respondents have over 10 positions in cyber security to fill.
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