The latest hack of a bridge in recent months has occurred on Thursday when Harmony's blockchain bridge, known as Horizon, was hacked for $100 million.
The security vulnerabilities ofBlockchain bridges allow users to transfer their digital assets across different platforms, and have been exploited by hackers. Axie Infinity's Ronin bridge, which saw $600 million of digital currency disappear in March, and Wormhole, which lost $320 million in a criminal heist in February, are some of the high-profile attacks on a bridge, according to Harmony's Horizon hack.
Horizon's Harmony bridge allows for transfers of token between the Binance Smart Chain and the Ethereum network. Harmony has another bridge forBitcoin, which it says was not impacted by the hack.
Harmony revealed that a single account was behind the attack. Harmony said it was working with the FBI and other forensic experts at cybersecurity companies to investigate the hack, but it didn't say how they breached their system.
A vulnerability that could have been exploited by hackers is one of the reasons why the Horizon bridge relies on a multisig wallet that allows transactions to be conducted with just two signatures.
It is common for hackers to compromise private keys in order to access a wallet.
Harmony tweeted that we have begun working with national authorities and forensic specialists to find the culprit and retrieve the stolen funds.
Harmony said that it stopped deposits and withdrawals on the bridge and informed of the hack, as well as that its funds and assets are safe in decentralized vaults at this time.
According to Jess Symington, research lead at Elliptic, the trend may accelerate due to the pivotal role that bridges play in moving large pools of assets. To allow individuals to use bridges to move their funds, assets are locked on one block chain and unlocked or minted on another. These services hold large volumes of cripto-assets. The hack sent Harmony's ONE token sliding by more than 10%.