Crypto audits give investors false sense of security as Q3 hacks cost $1.18 billion, Hacken says
A report by Hacken reveals that crypto hacks resulted in $1.18 billion in losses during Q3, a 55% increase from the previous quarter. The findings highlight that many security audits are too narrow in scope, leaving critical infrastructure like developer tools and third-party software vulnerable.
Why it matters
It exposes a systemic flaw in the crypto industry where 'audit badges' provide a false sense of security, potentially leading to significant financial losses for retail investors.
In a report released on Thursday , Hacken found that hackers stole $1.18 billion across 107 incidents during the third quarter, 55% more than in the previous quarter. Of that amount, $906.8 million was lost due to compromised suppliers or developer tools, publicly available security fixes that were not installed or components excluded from the most recent security review.
"The problem is always scope." Andrii Matiukhin, co-founder and board director at the company, said in an interview with CoinDesk. "It's expensive to have enormous scopes of all components that interact with funds or influence economics, and teams cut corners, auditing only critical parts of the service.”
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