Protect Your Crypto
There is no doubt that cryptocurrencies have firmly made their mark in society, and there is also no doubt that they are here to stay for a very long time. They have made such an impact on the world today and have revolutionized the way we pay for goods and services, as well as changing the way we conduct business. Cryptocurrencies have become a way to give power back to the people and reclaim their freedom and privacy from large corporations and banking institutions. Because these digital currencies have garnered so much hype and attention over the past years, it is important to keep them extremely safe and protect them from things like hackers or from being lost, in fact, your cryptocurrencies should have the same level of care and respect as your other valuables.
In this article, we will go over some of the ways that you can keep your cryptocurrencies safe from any potential threats, as well as increase the level of security.
Two-Factor Authentication
In order to get your virtual hands on cryptocurrencies, you need to be able to access an exchange platform, which offers an endless stream of many different cryptocurrencies that offer different benefits to the people that use them. The best cryptocurrency exchanges will offer something known as “two-factor authentication”, which essentially is an extra layer of security for the exchange and the user. For platforms like Binance, in order to use the two-factor authentication you first need to download an app to your phone, such as Google Authenticator and when you try to login to your account on the platform, you will be asked to input a code from the authenticator. The great thing about this type of authentication is that the code on your phone will change every 30 seconds, so even if someone manages to obtain your password, they won’t get far without the authenticator app. Two-factor authentication is becoming more prominent with popular apps like Facebook offering the choice to use this sort of security.
Have A Backup
Having a backup of anything is always a smart thing to do, whether that be for legal documents or having a backup for photos, cryptocurrencies deserve to have a backup too. In fact, be smart, don’t just have one backup but have multiple backups and store them in different places such as a safety deposit box at your local bank. All it takes is for your house to catch fire or a natural disaster to sweep through your region and destroy your home, and take all of your possessions with it, including your wallet with all of your cryptocurrencies with it that could be worth millions of dollars in the future.
Hardware Wallets
Wallets are where you are going to store your cryptocurrencies and for this reason alone, you need to make sure that you select a wallet that has formidable security in order to protect your virtual coins. Now there are many different types of wallets out there that all hold different types of cryptocurrency, but some are better than others and for good reason. Hardware wallets completely outshine software wallets, or desktop wallets and many people would agree that the safest place for cryptocurrencies to be stored is in a reputable hardware wallet, such as Trezor or Ledger Nano S which are some of the most popular crypto wallets available today. The good thing about hardware wallets is that they are physical devices that you can pick up and carry around with you at all times, so it could potentially never leave your sight. They resemble USB drives and are compatible with many different web interfaces, as well as being able to support a plethora of different cryptocurrencies. However just because hardware wallets offer some of the best protection, it does not mean that they don’t have their faults because they do, you could potentially lose or damage the device which would make retrieving your stash almost impossible.
Install Anti-Virus Software
When I say install anti-virus software, I don’t mean the free versions that offer low level “protection” because these free anti-virus software packages don’t often provide the necessary protection that you require in order to keep your cryptos safe. Anti-virus programs need constant attention and always need updating to always be on top of the latest threats that come out ready to attack your systems, and unfortunately, these free anti-virus programs make money by selling your data, so free isn’t always the best way. Some of the best anti-virus programs are offered by the likes Kaspersky, Norton and Malware Bytes, all of which offer a free version but as we have established, the free version isn’t enough to be fully protected.
Malware Bytes’ free version offers a basic level of protection against some of the latest threats, but it doesn’t cut it when it comes to protecting your cryptocurrency stash, because the free version merely scans your system for potential infections only after your computer is infected, but by then it is too late. The premium version, on the other hand, has a fully functional real-time blacklist of possible sites that have the potential to infect machines. If for some reason you manage to navigate to any of these blacklisted sites, Malware Bytes will be notified and will interrupt the connection between your machine and the site, so you can’t open the page.
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