Near Protocol deploys Shield to monitor cross-chain security threats

Near Protocol has deployed Shield, a system that actively monitors blockchains for abnormalities to prevent illicit funds from entering the Near Intense ecosystem. Operating off-chain, Shield uses artificial intelligence to index other chains and detect outliers. The system has already intervened in several high-profile incidents, including the Litecoin '13-hour block' event and the BitGet hack, where attackers attempted to move $50 million through Near Intense. Shield successfully stopped most of these flows. In October, a bug in the Omnibridge connector enabled a $3.8 million exploit; Shield helped identify the culprit and facilitated the return of the funds. The system also blocked attempts by Binance hackers to launder funds via ThorChain, a route used to move over $300 million from Tron. Ilya, who described the current state as 'security Armageddon,' argued that passive security rules are insufficient in a multi-chain environment. He cited AI models finding vulnerabilities in codebases, such as a 10-year-old Linux kernel flaw that granted admin access via an open socket, as evidence that active, AI-driven monitoring is required to protect users from cross-chain exploits and dark liquidity. Shield began as a system to monitor different blockchains and find abnormalities, but it has evolved into a critical defensive layer for the protocol.