2022年8月23日

投資者注意到對保護的需求日益增長。圖片來源:路透社更新https://str.sg/wDgK俄勒岡州波特蘭市(彭博社)——當許多加密公司的財富直線下降時，該行業的一個角落卻在蓬勃發展。隨著包括朝鮮黑客在內的犯罪分子越來越多地將目標對準支撐加密領域的龐大軟件基礎設施，那些篩選代碼尋找漏洞並運行漏洞搜索網站的公司發現自己的業務越來越多，超出了自己的能力範圍。隨著大規模裁員在其他加密貨幣領域成為常態，它們正在增加招聘，提高價格，並獲得新的資金。研究機構Chainalysis的數據顯示，這些公司的財富不斷增長，凸顯出該行業正在意識到老練黑客的威脅。今年，這些黑客從數字資產協議中竊取了大約20億美元(合27.9億新元)的資金。該機構說，此類攻擊幾乎沒有放緩的跡象。由於存在如此多的風險，加密安全服務正在從“有就好”的支出類別轉向“必須有”的類別，即使是對自助創業公司和社區驅動的項目也是如此。加密技術初創公司Morpho Labs的首席執行官保羅·弗拉姆伯特(Paul Frambot)通過短信表示:“我們在審計上花了太多錢。”他補充說:“在我看來，DeFi沒有充分重視安全問題。”他指的是去中心化金融，人們在沒有中央中介的情況下交易、借貸加密貨幣。Frambot表示，過去一年，Morpho進行了10多次代碼審核。投資者注意到對保護的需求日益增長。 Venture capital firms have poured US$257 million into crypto auditing and security companies so far this year, up from US$185 million for all of 2021, according to CB Insights. Rising threat Crypto thieves have stalked the industry for most of its roughly decade-long existence, from the Bitfinex exchange hack in 2016 to last year's exploit of the PolyNetwork protocol. But the problem has worsened recently, in part because of a relatively novel part of the ecosystem that's become a juicy target: so-called crypto bridges, software platforms that allow coins designed for one blockchain to be used on another. Hacks on crypto bridges accounted for more than two-thirds of the total value stolen in the first seven months of 2022, Chainalysis estimates. In March, hackers struck the Ronin Bridge connected to the popular Axie Infinity online game and made off with cryptocurrencies worth about US$600 million at the time, one of the biggest hauls to date. The attack has been tied to the North Korean hacker group Lazarus. Sky Mavis, the developer of Axie Infinity, was forced to compensate players who lost money. The incident was also a publicity nightmare for Sky Mavis, as many of those whose coins were taken in the hack were gamers in low-income countries like the Philippines who played the game to bolster their modest paycheques. The threat isn't limited to bridges. Hundreds of millions of dollars have vanished in exploits of other projects, like DeFi apps. Many of these efforts rely on so-called smart contracts - code that automatically executes transactions in a way that can't be reversed - so design flaws can be especially costly. A hack, or even a major coding error, can spell the end of an app developers spent months or years building. "These protocols are not simply another service that may be disrupted for a while - for example, like not being able to watch TV for a few hours or longer," said Stefano Schiavi, an investor at bitscale.vc, a backer of crypto security firm Immunefi. When crypto protocols fail, "many people lose significant portions of their savings, and often they even lose everything." The evolution of Web3, a version of today's internet built largely on crypto technology where ownership and control should be more widely distributed, means applications will increasingly be interconnected and span many blockchains, said Lex Sokolin, head economist at ConsenSys, which audits smart-contract code. "I think the more complicated Web3 becomes, the larger the surface area for these exploits," Sokolin said. More On This Topic