Hacking Threats Targeting Crypto Persist as Losses Hit USD 1.18 Billion in Q3
TECHWORLD ·
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Hacken said in its "2026 Q3 Security and Compliance Report" that there were 107 virtual asset security incidents in July and August, with losses totaling USD 1.18 billion.
Global virtual asset hacking losses in the third quarter of this year reached USD 1.18 billion, up 55% from the previous quarter and marking the worst quarter on record.
During the quarter, exploitation of smart contract and protocol code vulnerabilities was widespread, and the importance of strengthening security management systems is growing in Korea as the market expands.
As the global virtual asset market grows, related attacks are also increasing. The domestic virtual asset market is also showing a trend of expansion, making it increasingly important to strengthen security management systems.
Hacken released its "2026 Q3 Security and Compliance Report." According to the report, 107 virtual asset security incidents were recorded in July and August, with losses during that period amounting to USD 1.18 billion. Global virtual asset hacking losses in the third quarter of this year came to USD 1.18 billion, up 55% from the previous quarter. The quarter was recorded as the worst on record in terms of losses.
In many of the attacks this quarter, hackers exploited vulnerabilities in smart contract and protocol code. Supply chain attacks, theft of cryptographic keys, and security flaws in signing and withdrawal infrastructure were analyzed as the causes of large-scale losses. As the domestic virtual asset market is also expanding, the importance of strengthening security management systems is likewise increasing.
Losses were most heavily concentrated in attacks exploiting smart contract vulnerabilities. The largest loss category was smart contract vulnerability exploitation, and such attacks accounted for 48% of total losses.
By contrast, the share of losses from access control and operational flaws fell from 88% to 40% during the same period. The company said smart contract attacks and access-control-related incidents accounted for most of the losses.
The company said similar types of vulnerabilities are being repeatedly exploited across different codebases and programming languages. It also said major attacks exploiting the vulnerability occurred even after the patch was released, and the report noted that cases in which responses to already known vulnerabilities fail to translate into actual prevention of security incidents are recurring.
The situation was no exception in Korea. The industry believes the recent hacking cases in the global market are not unrelated to Korea, and as threats tied to the growth of the domestic virtual asset market expand, awareness of the need to strengthen security technologies and systems is also rising.
The industry said that while hacking cases have occurred due to smart contract vulnerabilities and access control issues, awareness of the need to strengthen security technologies and systems is spreading in South Korea's digital asset industry. It added that virtual asset security cannot be secured with a single solution or technology alone, and that losses need to be prevented by organically linking vulnerability management during development, access control, asset management, real-time monitoring, and incident response.
Source: TECHWORLD · Kim Hye-jin
Original: https://www.epnc.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=408392
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Source: TECHWORLD
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