Emerging technologies like Web3 and metaverse have culminated in the many gains we recount in this technological space. These technologies and more engenders simplified access to Internet resources, myriad of business opportunities, borderless immersive social interactions shared interactive and lots more
However, cyber-attacks are one common factor posing a threat to the growth and maximizing of these technologies.
According to Forbe’s mid-year cyber statistics released on Jun 2021, the average number of cyber-attacks and data breaches increased by 15.1% from the previous year.
As cyber attacks grow in both number and sophistication, organizations are increasingly under the gun to protect themselves from compromise. Though companies have responded by upping their security budgets and adopting more advanced defences, keeping up with the threats that will surface over the next few years will be a challenge.
In a bid to mitigate the menace of Cyberattacks, a Web3 bug bounty or cyber policing platform Immunefi was set up.
Immunefi Web3 Bug Bounty
Immunefi of the emerging bug bounty and security services platforms for DeFi. Launched in December 9, 2020, Immunefi connects web3 projects that need their code checked and secured with white hat hackers who report vulnerabilities and claim monetary rewards. Immunefi says it has paid out over $60 million to white hat hackers and claims to have saved more than $25 billion in funds from being hacked.
However, bug payouts in crypto work differently in web3 than in Web 2.0. When $100 million in funds is at stake, a $10,000 payout might be a trivial amount. Immunefi hence developed a bug bounty standard which scales, to encourage projects to pay rewards for big vulnerabilities at a rate equivalent to 10% of the funds at potential risk.
This means some enormous bug bounties — such as the $10 million paid out for a vulnerability discovered in Wormhole, a generic cross-chain messaging protocol, and $6 million for a vulnerability discovered in Aurora, a bridging and scaling solution for Ethereum. This contrasts with the largest conventional bug bounty offered by Apple for $2 million.
CEO and founder Mitchell Amador said in a statement: “Open code and directly monetizable exploits have made Web3 the most adversarial software development space in the world. By shifting incentives towards whitehats, Immunefi has already saved billions of dollars of user funds. Projects across crypto are rapidly realizing that it’s better to use Immunefi than publicly begging hackers to return funds or pay a ransom. We’re using this raise to scale our team to meet this massive challenge”.
Immunefi has now raised $24 million as part of its Series A. The round was led by Framework Ventures. Other investors include Samsung Next, Electric Capital and Polygon Ventures. That bring its total now raises to $29.5 million.
Furthermore, with the growing concern of cyber attacks, 41% of the executives don’t think their security initiatives have kept up with digital transformation. More than a quarter said that new technologies are their biggest security concern. And just under a quarter cited a shortage of skilled workers as their largest cybersecurity challenge.