Recently, there has been serious erratic movements of cryptocurrencies in the financial market. This has attracted both investors, and criminals who are looking to breach CEX, and DEX platforms to gain access to investors’ assets. There have been serious complains, and reports lately in regards numerous hacks, and heists. Meanwhile, it is important to understand the different types of wallets in use.
- Non-custodial wallets means users are in absolute control of their private keys as well their Cryptocurrency stash. In no case should you lose your private keys as you are solely responsible for maintaining the security measure in a bid to protect your asset. ‘The responsibility is yours to not lose your keys by any means”. It is better that you employ other back up mechanisms such as cold wallets and physical devices to store your keys properly.
- Custodial wallets don not operate like this. Third part exchanges such as Coinbase. Interestingly, most traders love custodial platforms because they are necessarily the ones in charge of securing the private keys rather, the exchange. You can employ the use of 2FA authentication to secure your wallet regardless.
Cybercriminals have stolen more than $100 million in Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other digital Cryptocurrency since 2019. Interestingly, cyber criminals use sophisticated techniques to access wallets thus, the threat against your assets is primarily through your wallet.
Hence, you may be wondering ‘’ how do I secure my crypto wallet?’’. It is quite simple. Abiding to certain rules that would be highlighted below would help you sustain a handle on how to avoid being robbed of your assets.
Shut your mouth
This may be hilarious but, this is as important as your stash of crypto. Do not boast to people especially publicly, about the amount of your holdings. Nobody knows anything until a body of knowledge is made available. You will be target practice for hackers who are looking for cheap victims. There is no need to put a target behind on your back. It is alright to talk about crypto, its cons and, give investment advice about crypto but, don’t publicize your holding.
Guard your 12 word private/secret recovery phrase
In all situations, regardless the inconvenience, ensure that you secure your 12 word secret phrase. When you attempt to deposit, and HODL you assets in Cryptocurrency wallets, the back-up 12 word seed phrase helps keep your account safe from eternal access. This information literally is the barrier between an intruder gaining access to your wallet and your assets. Because this piece of information is vital to the security of your wallet, it is paramount that you do all that you can to keep it from public access, and prying eyes. For instance, Trust Wallet _ www.trustwallet.com divulges a 12 word seed phrase to users who attempt to use the wallet for transactions. There are a few things you need to be aware of to successfully use this security model:
- Ensure that you copy the seed phrase on a physical item such as a piece of paper or diary.
- Ensure that you copy the seed phrases in the order that they are displayed on your computer screen.
- Ensure that you copy exactly how the seed are presented to you bearing in mind the case of the letters, and the spellings.
- Do not expose your written down phrase to the public. It is advisable to use a personal printer if you opt to use your computer to write and print the seed phrases better still, it is advisable to write the backup phrase by hand.
Be wary of malicious sites
The improvement of technology overtime has brought with it certain shortcomings that are shortchanging our use of innovative solutions to satisfy our needs. The number of hacks, and crypto heist that have occurred recently depicts the increased interest that malicious hackers have developed towards digital assets. Be careful on inputting your personal details into pop-up windows as they be phishing channel aimed at compromising the integrity of your account. Hackers leverage on their ability to clone the web pages, web links and emails to launch attacks targeted at crypto users, chief financial officers, even CEOs. Regardless that phished sites are designed to procure the personal information of the victims, cybercriminals have tweaked their traditional pattern to wipe out the entirety of you assets by just simply linking your crypto wallets via a compromised site.
- Avoid clicking on random sites sent your email or inbox.
- Do not ignore warning signals signified by your browser as recent operating systems and browsers. Most times, our browsers give out red flags regarding suspicious but, we simply ignore and proceed to click on webpages untrusted certificates.
- If you use Google chrome to browse watch out for certain signals that display the authenticity of a site.
- Google chrome usually displays a warning triangle with the tag ‘Not Secure’ in the address bar especially if the site lacks the HTTP security protocol.
- Report all sources that send you phishing emails to the APW ( Anti Phishing Working Group).
Use A Strong Password To Secure Your Account
It has become more like a cliché ‘Always use a strong password’. But what exactly is a strong, and unique password? A unique password is one that is not similar to any other. The password you use to secure your crypto account should not be the same variant of the password to use to secure other accounts you use. A strong password should contain at least 15 characters with a combination of several random alphabets, characters and numbers.
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