How to Protect Your Cryptocurrency Against Theft

Storing cryptocurrency and coins in offline hardware can protect your assets from getting stolen

How to Protect Your Cryptocurrency Against Theft
How to Protect Your Cryptocurrency Against Theft
Harsh Kumar - 06 September 2021

Hacking is the new method of robbery in the digital world. Are your digital currencies safe? Or is it also under the radar of hacking? The surge in the number of people taking interest in cryptocurrency leads to a new revolution across the world.

Can Crypto Coins Be Hacked?

Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin can be stolen from the digital wallet, otherwise, it is very tough to hack their network, which is mainly due to the blockchain technology which supports it. Blockchain methods do not store data in a single server, it has been scattered to the huge network of computers. Moreover, blockchain is regularly being reviewed by Bitcoin users so chances for hackers to steal are reduced.

Also, the point that Bitcoin itself is hard to hack does not mean that it's certainly a safe investment, there does exist the potential for security dangers at multiple stages of the trading process.

While transactions, two-factor identification is generally used as a security measure. Therefore, naturally having the security of a transaction connected to an email address or a cell phone number means that anyone with access to those elements can authenticate transactions.

Meanwhile, if hackers can determine some of your non-cryptocurrency-related personal information, they may be able to infiltrate your transactions in that space regardless. In conclusion, we cannot deny the reality of hacking in cryptocurrency.

Protection of Cryptocurrency

There are various paths to safeguard and reduce the chance of stealing. By storing your cryptocurrency and coins in offline hardware, you can protect your assets from stealing.

While not in use, you must secure your hardware or paper wallet in a locked safe. Keep your private keys far from where your wallet is stored, in places like bank safe deposit boxes or remote safe locations.

Limit cryptocurrency held at exchanges to what is required for trading and exchange only. Try to apply secure and trusted bookmarks in your web browser to access your exchanges, wallets, and other online cryptocurrency service providers. You could apply numerous passphrases on your hardware wallet to cover your primary wallet balances and decrease losses as an outcome of the 5-dollar wrench attack.

Using an offline token generator like Google Authenticator can be beneficial in multifactor authentication. Apply a more than one signature approach for funds held on wallets.

One must try to avoid discussing your crypto holdings in a public forum and curb your public exposure regarding it. Try to check your wallet address twice after pasting it, and when providing a wallet address to someone through email, chat, or other digital communication, provide an image of the address for verification.

Trusting someone without deep research can trap you in fraud. Carefully observe the name of the company on Google and their reviews and see if they have any record of scams or complaints filed against them.

The above method is not the only method to protect yourself from duplicity, but these are just the basics of it. In the contemporary time, we have the privilege of learning from yesterday’s high-profile attacks, so it only makes sense to perform this knowledge to avoid falling victim to a preventable hack.

History of Theft

Blockchain-based platform Poly Network witnessed the loss of 600 million dollars in cryptocurrencies on August 10, 2021, the company officially declared through its social media account. Poly Network noted that hackers had used a vulnerability in its system and taken thousands of digital tokens such as Ether. This is the recent incident of hacking in cryptocurrency.

In May 2021, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) informed that scammers impersonating Elon Musk had stolen over $2 million in cryptocurrency since October 2020. Also, the United States consumer protection body's data revealed that nearly 7,000 people had been defrauded of their money in digital currencies.

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