According to the most recent data, there will be a notable drop in bitcoin security issues in 2023. A 51% drop from 2022 was seen in total losses, which came to $1.84 billion over 751 events. With the top 10 incidents totaling $1.11 billion, the average loss per occurrence was $2.45 million. There was a $101,132 median loss per occurrence. The most money was lost in November, $363,367,327 from 45 occurrences; yet, Q3 was the most profitable, with $686,558,472 from 183 hacks, scams, and vulnerabilities.
Compromised private keys were responsible for about half of the total losses, or $880 million. According to CertiK’s analysis, these figures came from just 47 events, or 6.3% of all security incidents that occurred in the entire year, but they accounted for more than half of the damages. A total of six of the ten most expensive security incidents in 2023 resulted from compromised private keys. $125 million was lost in July as a result of Multichain’s hack. It was revealed that Multichain’s CEO had complete control over its multi-party computing servers and private keys, even though the company claimed to be decentralised. Following the CEO’s arrest, the vulnerability was discovered, making users unable to access $1.5 billion in Total Value Locked (TVL) on the Multichain bridge.
Users have been advised by CertiK to follow specific private key management procedures. These procedures include using hardware wallets instead of software wallets, storing backup private keys offline, establishing stringent access controls, encrypting private keys, conducting frequent audits and monitoring key usage, utilizing cold wallets, training personnel on key management best practices, taking into account Multi-Party Computation (MPC) for secure key sharing, and utilizing expert key management services. With losses of $686 million over 224 events, or almost $3 million each incident, Ethereum emerged as the most losing cryptocurrency. On the other hand, BNB Chain reported far smaller losses at $134 million even with 387 security incidents.