Newsletter #49

This week in Forta! Forta’s 2024 Agenda: New year, new challenges. Forta alert could have saved the hack that destroyed Wise Finance. The Sybil Defender, Forta’s latest Premium API offering. Implement Forta-powered automated incident response in three easy steps!

Forta’s 2024 Agenda: New year, new challenges. In 2024, the space needs to transition from a focus on pure detection to detection, prevention, and other automated mechanisms designed to stop hacks. The Forta Network has demonstrated the ability to detect malicious activity, but exploits and scams remain far too frequent, and this frequency is impeding the industry’s ability to grow. It is time to stop the problem at the root. Check out Forta’s 2023 retrospective to get a high-level recap of what the leading decentralized monitoring network was up to in 2023.

Forta alert could have saved the hack that destroyed Wise Finance. On January 12th, a hacker drained Wise Finance’s entire TVL, amounting to 170 ETH ($430k). Forta’s Attack Detector flagged the hack 30 seconds before exploitation. Although that might not seem like a lot of time, if Wise Finance had set up automated incident response powered by Forta monitoring, their protocol could have been saved.

The Sybil Defender, Forta’s latest Premium API offering. Sybil attacks are a huge problem in web3, and everyone knows it. The often criticized and unpopular solution is to link real world identities to on chain addresses to prevent this behavior. A more amicable option is now available via Forta’s latest Premium API Feed, the Sybil Defender, to use the transparency of the blockchain to actually label behavior. Built and maintained by Frwd Labs, the Sybil Defender is available now in the Forta App.

Implement Forta-powered automated incident response in three easy steps! Thanks to predictive monitoring powered by machine learning you can now prevent hacks on your protocol before they happen. Here’s how to do it in four easy steps:

1. Set up the Attack Detector in Defender
2. Filter addresses FROM your protocol
3. Set up automated actions in Defender (e.g. a tx pause) based on the Attack Detector alerts

It's that simple! For the full guide, check out Forta’s blog on automated incident response.

Forta Around the Web

- Learn how to effectively filter critical Forta alerts
- Forta explorer now supports labels in the UI, check it out!
- Put your FORT to work securing the Network with Forta’s delegated staking!