Security incidents has led to a whopping loss of over $2.86 billion in blockchain industry worldwide from 2011 to April 2018, according to a recent report entitled Safety Analysis Report of Blockchain Industry released by Baimaohui.net, a high-tech security company focused on big data and threat intelligence services.

Cryptocurrency exchanges and smart contracts are the hardest-hit areas, losing $2.58 billion, accounting for 90% of the total loss, including the famous Coincheck attack (Japan’s largest cryptocurrency exchange – lost more than $500 million) and Mt.Gox collapse (lost more than $400 million worth bitcoins).

As the director in charge of the research arm of China’s Security Ministry commented, “it is the most informative report I have ever seen in terms of cyberattack defense”.

The report provides detailed statistics and analysis of various security incidents happening from 2011 to April 30, 2018. It is underscored that the worldwide loss in blockchain industry has been under an exponential growth since 2017, merely the first four months of 2018 has seen losses mounting up to $1.9 billion.

Security Incidents and Loss Greatly Increases After 2017

Every year sees billions of losses in blockchain industry for security breaches. Based on the historical attack trend, it is believed that such attacks will be more and more serious in the future.

Most hackers keep eye on the comparably vulnerable protocol layer and business layer which are more easy to attack and lucrative if they make it. The report states that almost 80% loss are caused by attacks on business layer including various scenario applications related to cryptocurrencies.

The report indicates that currently attackers mainly use DDOS attacks, Trojan hijacking, payment loopholes and other means to destroy the business layer. Blockchain is the underpinning technology for the entire system, so once there is security problems occurring in the underlying protocol, the entire system will be vulnerable at risks. In this context, security design should be placed top priority in the system design.

According to a report by 8btc earlier this year, 99% hackers are turning their eye on cryptocurrency, by the second half of this year, 99% of users will fall into insecurity. All these urge security priority in this industry.