Newsletter #46

Article by Forta Network Nov. 30, 2023
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This week in Forta! The $1.27M BlackHoleToken hack was (also) preventable. Imagine losing $1.23M on a preventable scam (previously detected by Forta). How to unleash the power of Forta threat intelligence. Forta community charges ahead with bounties and development. 


The $1.27M BlackHoleToken hack was (also) preventable. In protocol attack news, BlackHoleToken suffered a $1.27M hack at the hands of a price manipulation attack. Almost two hours before the hack occurred, Forta’s Attack Detector flagged the EOA in a critical alert. Had the BlackHoleToken team been subscribed to Forta alerts, they would have had ample time to implement a manual incident response protocol to thwart the attacker and save their project.


Imagine losing $1.23M on a preventable scam (previously detected by Forta). This week one unfortunate user fell into a ‘permit’ trap, where they mistakenly signed an off-chain message granting approval to malicious EOA. The scammer then put the permission and transfer on-chain as well the transfer. Forta’s Scam Detector alerted the contract address as soon as it was deployed. Stolen funds could have been saved if the user had active transaction screening powered by Forta in their wallet. Check out Forta’s thread to see the details. Is your wallet provider using Forta to protect you? Learn more about Forta’s Scam Detector to make sure this never happens to you!


How to unleash the power of Forta threat intelligence. You probably know Forta is great for detecting hacks and scams, but what about helping you answer queries? Forta’s latest blog explores how to leverage the leading decentralized monitoring network to answer your on-chain data science questions about Web3. In the blog, two potential questions are poised:  #1 “Given the value of all swaps on the Uniswap USDC/ETH pool, what percentage are associated with scams?” and #2 “How many scam and spam contracts are created over time?”. To find the answers and see all the steps it takes to get there with Forta and ZettaBlock, check out the blog!


Forta community charges ahead with bounties and development. Since the last Forta newsletter, four major bounties have been assigned and entered development with Forta community developers. Smart contract simulation research, development on a research-based defensive strategy, and sybil ML detection are all progressing smoothly and simultaneously thanks to Forta’s unique decentralized development model powered by the FORT token. A total of $4,000 in FORT will be distributed to developers with the $1,000 hiding behind proxy bounty still open. A heartfelt thank you goes out to the Forta community, Forta would not be the leading monitoring network without you!


Forta Around the Web

OpenZeppelin moves forward with incident response powered by Forta
Forta’s Christian Seifert join’s YAY Network spaces event to discuss the future of AI and blockchain
SEAL911 saved the Dice9 team $200k, but Forta could have saved 99.99% of stolen funds