ChainCatcher news, according to Bitcoin.com, based on a report summarizing key security trends for 2024 by Cyvers, Web3 network threats have surged sharply in 2024, with losses exceeding $2.3 billion and a total of 165 security incidents. Although the loss amount is 40% higher than in 2023 ($1.69 billion), it is still $1.42 billion lower than in 2022 ($3.78 billion). Notably, $1.3 billion of stolen funds were recovered this year.Cyvers stated that access control-related incidents (67 incidents) accounted for 81% of the $2.3 billion loss, while approximately 98 incidents of smart contract vulnerabilities resulted in a total loss of $456.3 million, and a single address poisoning incident caused losses exceeding $68 million.When breaking down losses by attack vector over the past three years, data shows that losses related to access control violations have gradually increased from $769 million in 2022 to $1.9 billion by the end of 2024. In contrast, losses related to code exploitation in 2023 and 2024 are significantly lower than the approximately $3 billion loss in 2022.

ChainCatcher message, the L1 blockchain Initia built on Cosmos SDK, tweeted that its mainnet release code has been officially frozen and is currently undergoing a security audit.

ChainCatcher news, the hybrid Layer2 platform BOB announced a partnership with the Bitcoin staking protocol Babylon to bring Bitcoin's finality into its hybrid L2 network. BOB combines the security of Bitcoin with the flexibility of Ethereum smart contracts, focusing on expanding Bitcoin's functionality and liquidity. Its innovative products include one-click staking services and liquid staking tokens (LSTs), which have contributed over $200 million in TVL. As part of a strategic upgrade, BOB will introduce the largest Bitcoin LST asset LBTC and become the fourth largest native LBTC deployment network.In addition, BOB announced that it will allocate additional Babylon points to users within the next 45 days, incentivizing more users to participate in the Bitcoin staking ecosystem and building a bridge for trustless cross-chain liquidity.

ChainCatcher news, according to Cryptonews, analysis company Chainalysis announced its acquisition of Web3 security company Hexagate, which specializes in detecting and mitigating real-time threats on blockchain networks. Hexagate focuses on detecting threats, including network vulnerabilities, hacking attacks, and governance risks. The security company's machine learning models monitor blockchain networks in real-time, identifying suspicious patterns and anomalous transactions. Hexagate's clients include Coinbase and Consensys.Chainalysis stated that by acquiring Hexagate, the company will be able to provide clients with comprehensive risk management covering prevention, compliance, and remediation.

ChainCatcher message, SOON Network introduces Merkle trees into the SVM execution layer, enabling clients to provide inclusion proofs. SOON integrates the state root directly into the SVM-based blockchain using unique entries, along with historical proof sets.With this innovation, the SOON stack can support new SVM-based Rollups, featuring enhanced security, scalability, and practicality. By integrating merklization, SOON addresses the lack of a global state root in Solana, achieving essential functionalities such as inclusion proofs for fault proofs, secure withdrawals, and stateless execution.Additionally, the merklization design in SVM by SOON can enable light clients on SVM-based chains, and certain designs may even assist in bringing light clients to the main chain.

ChainCatcher news, according to the disclosure from lawyer Wu Enxiang's public account, in August this year, a public security agency in a certain area of the country determined that the behavior of using VPNs to trade cryptocurrencies was illegal, and the involved individuals were administratively punished, with their profits from trading cryptocurrencies confiscated.A public security agency in a certain area discovered that a man was using a VPN to illegally connect to the internet through non-statutory channels. He contacted overseas clients who needed to purchase a certain virtual currency through a foreign website, then bought the virtual currency at a low price using a certain currency on an overseas trading app, and finally sold it at a high price, engaging in the sale of the virtual currency. After being summoned by the public security agency, the man came to accept the investigation. During the operation of the studio, he illegally profited 90,000 yuan.The administrative penalty decision stated that the man's actions constituted unauthorized use of non-statutory channels for international internet access. According to Article 6 and Article 14 of the "Interim Regulations on the Administration of International Networking of Computer Information Networks of the People's Republic of China" and Article 11, Paragraph 1 of the "Public Security Administration Punishment Law of the People's Republic of China," it has been decided to order the violator Zhang San to cease networking, issue a warning, impose a fine of 15,000 yuan, confiscate the illegal gains of 90,000 yuan, and seize eight mobile phones and eight computers used in the crime.

ChainCatcher message, on-chain detective ZachXBT posted: "Recently, there have been many account leak incidents on platform X. I suspect that these accounts did not use security keys or authentication apps for 2FA."

ChainCatcher news, CESS Network participated in the Policy Summit 2024 hosted by the U.S. Blockchain Association in Washington, D.C. on December 16, U.S. time. As a representative project of DePIN, CESS formed a DePIN working group with leading projects such as GEODNET, Helium, IoTeX, and Filecoin to engage in in-depth discussions on the future development of decentralized physical infrastructure networks.Former U.S. President Trump called the summit to congratulate all participants, affirming the important role of the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry in the future economy and national strategy, and expressing optimism about future cryptocurrency policies.At the summit, CESS was invited to participate in a special discussion on how blockchain technology can enhance national security and protect data privacy. In the future, CESS will work with industry partners to promote the improvement of blockchain industry policies, assist in the global implementation of DePIN technology, and continuously build decentralized data infrastructure to provide innovative solutions for data security and user privacy protection.

ChainCatcher news, the Solana ecosystem algorithmic stablecoin protocol Nirvana Finance has announced that it has opened the claims for compensation and will launch Nirvana V2 on December 18 at 2:00. Original ANA holders can experience the application in advance.Previously, in July 2022, hacker Shakeeb Ahmed stole approximately $3.5 million in stablecoins by manipulating the protocol's pricing mechanism. After collaborating with the U.S. Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security, and IRS, Nirvana successfully recovered the stolen funds, and Ahmed was sentenced to three years in prison, during which he was ordered to return the cryptocurrency and pay $3.4 million in restitution. (Jin Shi)

ChainCatcher news, according to Forbes, security company ESET has just released its latest threat report, which examines the threat landscape trends from June to November 2024. The number of password theft attacks targeting cryptocurrency wallets has increased, with the most significant rise occurring among macOS users.The report states: "According to ESET's telemetry data for the second half of 2024, the number of password-stealing software across multiple platforms (especially Windows, macOS, and Android) has increased," but compared to the first half of the year, the detection of password-stealing software targeting cryptocurrency wallets on macOS has more than doubled. Meanwhile, the number of password-stealing software on the Windows platform grew by 56%, while financial threats on the Android platform, including password-stealing malware, increased by 20%.ESET's analysis shows that the number of password-stealing software targeting the macOS platform (especially those related to cryptocurrency wallet credentials) surged by 127%. Security researchers noted: "Although these threats cannot be simply classified as password-stealing software just because they have broader functionalities, they do reveal a significant upward trend in password theft activities on the macOS platform." From a geographical perspective, ESET's analysis indicates that attacks on Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies targeting macOS are mostly aimed at the United States, followed by Italy, China, Spain, and Japan.

ChainCatcher news, NFT project Pudgy Penguins' security officer Beau posted that a phishing email attack regarding fake PENGU tokens has been discovered, reminding community users to remain cautious. Token release information will only be published on Pudgy Penguins' official X account and Discord channel. The community should verify all content through official channels to ensure its authenticity. As of now, Pudgy Penguins has not provided any token listing or claiming website.

ChainCatcher news, cryptocurrency exchange platform Gate.io issued a statement indicating that the Gate.io security team found no anomalies, and security agencies reported no issues. Deposits, withdrawals, and trading are operating normally, please do not believe rumors.Gate.io maintains a 100% reserve, with the latest reserve amount exceeding 10 billion dollars.

ChainCatcher message, the Base chain AI Agents ownership layer protocol Virtuals Protocol stated, "We have noticed an extreme case where developers using certain third-party locked pre-bound proxy tokens are able to access their tokens after binding without locking them. Please note that all funds are secure. Thanks to community members for their feedback, a bounty of $10,000 has been provided for them.""We are developing a permanent feature, meanwhile, we hope that builders who wish to lock their tokens before binding can achieve token locking by sending their tokens to the vault (with a standard lock of 6 months after binding)."

ChainCatcher message, regarding the recent market attention on the quantum computer chip Willow and the freezing of Satoshi Nakamoto's private key, Slow Mist founder Yu Xian quoted crypto researcher Jeffrey Scholz's tweet: "The current dozens of quantum gates are still millions of gates away from being able to crack Bitcoin private keys. Increasing this number of quantum gates is not easy, and the noise and error rates will also increase, ultimately resulting in a quickly produced waste in the real world... Let's worry about Satoshi's private key in a few decades."

ChainCatcher news, according to CoinDesk, the NFT trading platform Magic Eden launched the token ME on December 10, and its unconventional claiming process has sparked widespread controversy in the industry. Users must download the Magic Eden exclusive wallet and choose to import their existing wallet private key or create a new wallet linked to the original wallet, a practice considered to violate industry security best practices.Security expert Ogle pointed out that the Magic Eden wallet backs up users' private keys and recovery phrases within the app, and there is no clear way to delete this information, which poses serious security risks. Additionally, addresses created in the Magic Eden wallet cannot be imported into mainstream wallets like Phantom using the standard 12-word recovery phrase, requiring an extra private key import operation, which increases the risk of users' assets being stolen.

ChainCatcher message, OKX Web3 Wallet has partnered with RootData to launch the 2024 Web3 Wallet User Security Habits Survey, aimed at understanding users' security awareness and usage habits, providing insights for industry development.Participants in the survey can win OKX merchandise. The survey is expected to take 3-5 minutes to complete, and the data will be used for industry research, with personal information kept strictly confidential. The complete report will be published through RootData's official website and OKX's official channels.Click to participate in the survey and jointly promote the advancement of Web3 ecosystem security.

ChainCatcher news, according to the SlowMist hacker database, the total losses from Web3 security incidents last month amounted to approximately $86.24 million. Among them, there were 21 hacking incidents, resulting in losses of about $76.86 million, with $25.5 million recovered. The main causes of these incidents include: smart contract vulnerabilities, account leaks, and price manipulation.In addition, in November, 9,208 victims fell victim to phishing attacks, with total losses reaching $9.38 million.

ChainCatcher news, according to Cointelegraph, Sky (formerly MakerDAO) manages $756 million in USDC reserves using external accounts (EOA), raising concerns about security and transparency.Critics argue that this custodial model could expose funds to potential attacks or risks of internal abuse.