A white hat hacker pseudonymously known as Samczsun, who is also Head of Security at the crypto venture firm Paradigm, has created a new crypto security operation.
The Security Alliance, also known as SEAL Org, allows crypto users affected by a hack or other security incident access to a 24/7 emergency hotline. The platform also gives white hat hackers legal protection when rescuing funds under active exploit and provides web3 developers free red team exercises, which simulate an adversarial cyber attack against an organization’s systems to ascertain vulnerabilities and prepare efficient responses.
“It all started from the Nomad hack,” Samczsun explained in a Wednesday social media thread. Nomad is a crypto bridge that experienced a $190 million exploit, comprised of hundreds of bad actors, in August 2022.
War room
“The war room was stressful, and the security community collectively looked back and wondered, ‘how did we get to a point where random people felt comfortable stealing money from the bridge, but white hats felt it was too risky to intervene?'” Samczsun continued.
Donors and partners for Security Alliance include the Ethereum Foundation, a16z crypto, Paradigm, Vitalik Buterin, Filecoin Foundation, Coinbase, Dragonfly, Framework, Electric Capital and others, according to its website.
Disclaimer: The Block is an independent media outlet that delivers news, research, and data. As of November 2023, Foresight Ventures is a majority investor of The Block. Foresight Ventures invests in other companies in the crypto space. Crypto exchange Bitget is an anchor LP for Foresight Ventures. The Block continues to operate independently to deliver objective, impactful, and timely information about the crypto industry. Here are our current financial disclosures.
© 2023 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
About Author
MK Manoylov has been a reporter for The Block since 2020 — joining just before bitcoin surpassed $20,000 for the first time. Since then, MK has written nearly 1,000 articles for the publication, covering any and all crypto news but with a penchant toward NFT, metaverse, web3 gaming, funding, crime, hack and crypto ecosystem stories. MK holds a graduate degree from New York University’s Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program (SHERP) and has also covered health topics for WebMD and Insider. You can follow MK on X @MManoylov and on LinkedIn.
