Cybersecurity is ‘more important during a period of growth,’ founder says
Forta founder Andy Beal breaks down how cybersecurity is evolving in the Web3 era
Artwork by Crystal Le
This is a segment from the Empire newsletter. To read full editions, subscribe.
As we ramp into the next cycle, one of the biggest challenges will remain the same as the last go-around: cybersecurity.
I spoke with Forta’s founder, Andy Beal, about the next era of cybersecurity.
“I think security always becomes more important during a period of growth,” he told me. “The bag available to attackers is bigger.”
Add to that the fact that we may very well see retail — and with that, newer participants — enter crypto in a bull market phase and those who aren’t as aware about security could be easy targets for bad actors. Statistically, Beal added, you’ll see more End User attacks because of it.
Beal wouldn’t be surprised if the crypto cybersecurity space starts to reflect some of the basics that we’ve seen in general cybersecurity. Though to be fair, part of his belief may be centered on the fact that Forta unveiled Forta Firewall — basically the Web3 version of a classic firewall that uses custom AI to secure transactions and block potential malicious actions before they occur.
“And I think we’re going to see a lot more sort of traditional kind of cyber tools and services, like firewalls, that are applied to Web3 because, at the end of the day, the industry as a whole is actually really good at detecting these things now, the one gap has just been stopping it. So that’s what we’re trying to enable,” he explained.
Admittedly, as someone who’s not extremely well-versed in cybersecurity, I was curious about the re-emergence of older cybersecurity methods and how that works in a Web3 environment. And, honestly, if Beal was surprised by the evolution.
“I think it’s not surprising at all that all of the things that have been proven to work in Web2 security … a lot of those are going to be adopted in Web3 [because] we’re still building on the internet. We’re just sort of introducing a financial layer to it … A lot of the same concepts apply, especially with respect to security, right? And so, firewalls have been around since the [1990s], they’ve gone through a lot of different evolutions over the last 30-plus years,” Beal explained.
“They’re just now being introduced in Web3. But like we have 30 years of designs and learnings and innovation that we just get to copy and sort of use and adopt the best practices of so … I think we’ll see a lot more of it.”
Looks kind of like another use case for AI and crypto, no?
Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:
- The Breakdown: Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily.
- Empire: Crypto news and analysis to start your day.
- Forward Guidance: The intersection of crypto, macro and policy.
- 0xResearch: Alpha directly in your inbox.
- Lightspeed: All things Solana.
- The Drop: Apps, games, memes and more.
- Supply Shock: Bitcoin, bitcoin, bitcoin.
