Losses from cryptocurrency hacks in December decreased by 60% to around $76 million compared to $194.2 million in November, reported the blockchain security company PeckShield.
Despite a significant reduction in total losses, users continued to lose tens of millions of dollars due to widespread cyberattacks. In December, 26 major incidents related to the security of cryptocurrency assets were recorded.
The largest losses of December
The most serious damage was suffered by a user who lost $50 million as a result of an address substitution attack. This type of fraud works as follows: the attacker sends small amounts of cryptocurrency from an address that looks similar to the victim's legitimate wallet. The scammers expect that the user will not notice the trick.
Typically, the first and last four characters of addresses match, and attackers hope that the victim will accidentally send funds to a fake address, choosing it from transaction history without thoroughly checking the entire address.
Another user lost about $27.3 million due to a private key leak during a multi-signature wallet hack, noted PeckShield.
Notable attacks of the month
Among the most significant incidents of December, experts highlighted the hack of the Trust Wallet browser extension, which cost users $7 million. Hackers also attacked the Flow protocol and stole $3.9 million.
The Trust Wallet exploit specifically affected the browser version of the wallet. Such solutions are constantly connected to the internet, making them more vulnerable to certain types of cyberattacks.
How to protect against attacks
PeckShield specialists recommend using hardware wallets — offline devices similar to USB drives — for storing private keys for cryptocurrencies. This method is considered one of the safest ways to protect digital assets.
The threat of fraud through address substitution can be completely neutralized by checking each character of the recipient's address several times instead of giving it a quick glance or choosing from the transaction history list.
Although the decrease in the total amount of stolen funds is a positive trend, users must remain vigilant and implement security measures to protect against common fraud schemes and cyberattacks.
Hardware wallets provide an additional layer of protection because private keys are stored in a device that is disconnected from the internet. This significantly reduces the risk of remote access by attackers to users' funds.
AI Opinion
From the perspective of machine data analysis, the December reduction in losses may reflect seasonal patterns of cyber activity. Historical data shows that hacker groups often reduce activity during holiday periods, preferring to attack during periods of increased trading activity in the markets.
Interestingly, despite the overall decrease in the volume of stolen funds, the number of incidents remains high — 26 cases in a month. This may indicate a shift in focus by attackers from large DeFi protocols to individual users, where the average size of the haul is smaller, but the likelihood of success is higher. This trend may suggest that the protection of large platforms is strengthening, while security gaps are shifting to the end-user level.
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