DeFi Security Guide: How to Effectively Defend Against Hacker Attacks in the AI Era?

Title: How To Stop Losing Money To DeFi Hacks
Author: sysls, openforage
Translation: AididiaoJP, Foresight News

Author: Rhythm BlockBeats

Source:

Repost: Mars Finance

Introduction

After reviewing numerous DeFi protocol hacking incidents, I have developed a fear of “state actors.” They are highly skilled, well-resourced, and play an extremely long-term game; these supervillains focus on scrutinizing every corner of your protocol and infrastructure for vulnerabilities, while ordinary protocol teams are distracted by six or seven different business areas.

I don’t claim to be a security expert, but I have led teams in high-risk environments—including military and high-stakes finance—and have extensive experience in thinking through and planning emergency responses.

I sincerely believe that only paranoids can survive. No team starts out thinking, “I will be indifferent and negligent about security”; yet hacks still happen. We need to do better.

AI Means This Time Is Truly Different

Hacks are not rare, but their frequency is clearly increasing. The first quarter of 2026 was the record quarter for DeFi hacks, and the second quarter has just begun, already showing signs of surpassing the previous quarter’s record.

My core hypothesis is: AI has significantly lowered the cost of finding vulnerabilities and greatly expanded the attack surface. It takes humans several weeks to review configurations of a hundred protocols for misconfigurations; but the latest foundational models can do it in just a few hours.

This should fundamentally change how we think about and respond to hacking threats. Old protocols that relied on security measures before AI became powerful are increasingly at risk of being “秒杀” (instant kill).

Thinking in Surface and Hierarchies

The surface area of hacking can actually be boiled down to three: protocol teams, smart contracts and infrastructure, and user trust boundaries (DSN, social media, etc.).

Once these surfaces are identified, layered defenses can be added:

· Prevention: Strict enforcement of processes to minimize the probability of exploitation.
· Mitigation: Limiting damage when prevention fails.
· Pause: No one can make optimal decisions under extreme pressure. Once an attack is confirmed, immediately activate the kill switch. Freezing can prevent further losses and buy time for thinking…
· Reclaim: If you lose control of toxic or compromised components, abandon and replace them.
· Recovery: Regain what you lost. Plan in advance to coordinate with institutions that can freeze funds, revoke transactions, and assist investigations.

Principles

These principles guide specific actions for implementing layered defenses.

Heavy Use of Cutting-Edge AI

Use state-of-the-art AI models to scan your codebase and configurations for vulnerabilities, and conduct broad surface red-team testing: try to find front-end vulnerabilities that could reach the backend. Attackers do this. Defensive scans that you can perform are already being done by their offensive scans.

Leverage skills like pashov, nemesis, and AI platforms such as Cantina (Apex) and Zellic (V12) to quickly scan