Bitcoin Forum

I have seen several cases where someone has their bitcointalk.org account hacked and has to prove that they were the original owner.  What is the best thing I can do to protect my account so that if it is hacked, I can prove it is mine?

The biggest thing is don't use online wallets get one on your computer or phone then password protect it.  Even better get a cold storage device, put them on and keep it disconnected from the internet.

OP is talking about bitcoin talk forum account,not wallet.

OP you should first have a strong password,then you need to know not to fall to phishing or scams that can trick you into giving someone else access to your account,such as random suspicious PM's prompting you to click a link.

What about staking the account or doing some kind of signed message?

Carelessness often results in these kinds of issues. Mindfulness is its antonym; thus, it is the solution!

Best thing is go to meta and stake an address you can sign with.  With this if your account is ever hacked you can retrieve it via signing a message with staked address.  

I would make a paper wallet that is cold address with the staked address.  Treat it like you would with any other paper wallet.

I would really love to do that as well, but I do not know how to go about it. Please can you explain how to open a personal wallet on your phone or PC?

Things to do to protect your account from being hacked:-

[1] Stake a bitcoin address here (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=996318.0)

Why?=>Most of trades goes through with process of signed message from bitcoin address that was staked in 3 months or more.So if hacker tries to trade he will be asked for signed message from bitcoin address that you had staked in.

[2] Change password daily and maintain a thread in meta stating reason for password change as security measure

Changing passwords daily will also help and be sure to maintain a thread in meta stating reason for password changes as "Security Measure" with a signed message from bitcoin address staked in.

[3] Open account daily once and keep a check on accounts activities

[4] Always maintain a tight password and not the ones that hacker can easily guess

Along with this also maintain the [1] point.

the best solution is stake your address here, through this link
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=996318.0
make sure your signed massage corectly, it's absulutelly effective when someone has stolen your account then you can prove that you're the owner of the account by signed massage from the address that you've stacked on that thread
good luck

:O
there is not need for changing the password daily! you should be out of your mind to do this. besides you should remember these passwords for the next time and then come up with another secure password the next day.

you should just add a strong password (long+char+number+symbol) and remember it. there is no need to change. maybe once in 1 or 2 months.

also don't sign in if the site is not bitcointalk.org because there are a lot of copies similar to this.

The only way your account could be compromised and stolen as result is probably the sloppiness of the user himself.
You don't have to be paranoid and change password everyday if your password is good, strong, unique and your machine is not infected with malware/keylogger.

Don't install programs your not to sure about if you do you could risk your entire computer being compromised and you may not even know it. Even after that don't send sensitive information regarding your account to anyone you don't trust.

Using google authenticator for your online bitcoin wallet. and don't download any suspicious file, and before you download it, you can try scan the virus first.

Well it depends what you think about it(I mean security stuff) .Well it is nothing that is out of mind as most of users do that.Talking about remembering those passwords , install softwares that manages and saves passwords.

Yeah i think by mentioning it daily i think i get into the extreme position but yeah you can set up password changes according whatever period suits you(daily,monthly,yearly).There is no compulsion

Use strong password (Like numeric or symbol) and Don't install software from untrusted publisher

sign your address and post it in the thread for account recovering, here https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=996318.0

there is no other way, and btw don't use the question and answer thing it actually make your account less secure

no, it doesn't if used properly.
correct me if i am wrong; the problem has happened only once when bitcointalk was hacked. the secret questions (for recovery option) was not encrypted but the "answers" were encrypted.
so the hacker could technically keep guessing the answers to recover the account. in which case the account will be locked to prevent possible hack if you recover through this method.

Everything that needed to be said was said by the guys before me... Exept one thing:

It's (very) wise to use a new password for every single site, application, tool, account you have... A very common technique of hacking accounts is obtaining the database dump of one website, bruteforcing the passwords (in case they're encrypted, a lot of times websites don't even encrypt their password database).
Afterwards, the hacker trys  the user:password list he got from the stolen database with other websites.

If you re-use your password, the hacker only has to hack 1 vulnerable website to gain access to every account you own.

I personally use keepass, i generate a new pw for every website. Keepass keeps track of the passwords, so i only need to remember 1 very strong password: the one to unlock keepass ;)

its hard to give suggestion,we all know hacker have good skill to hack account,but maybe we all need to have good atitude and continue open our account to prevent someone hack our account,and one more tips from me,dont try to showing how much bitcoin you have,it may danger and make your account being target.

What if the owner themselves forget the password???
I have seen a thread some time before where possibility is shown that you need x amount of characters (including numbers and special characters) and no one is able to hack your account...
I don't remember the thread, nor do I have any reference, but all I know is, the thread was from theymos...

Stake your bitcoin address , so in the case if your bitcointalk.org account get hacked you can prove the ownership . Use a strong,complicated password ,accounts with password containing @!# and upper case lower case and as well as numeric values dont get hacked easily.

I think admin should add 2-steps verification like Google Authentication,it helps us can protect own acoounts.

i wouldn't trust anyone that strange and offer something in PM that unbelieveable even they said i can get high rewards

PHISHING sites seem to be a BIG problem lately also, so I recommend using a password manager.

The lifehacker website has a pretty good list here http://lifehacker.com/5529133/five-best-password-managers

My pw manager has saved me from 3 phishing sites just this past week alone.

Simple, just don't be a fool .... and improve your security (study , study and study).

This is probably a bad idea. Frequently changing your password is a good way to end up with a password that you will forget, and/or will encourage you to use a more simple password that is easier to guess.

It would be a better idea to use a more complex password that a) you will remember and b) will be difficult to crack in the event that password hashes leak again.

Also it is probably unnecessary to create a thread for every-time you change your password, however if you do create such thread, changing your password has nothing to do with the forum, so it would not belong in meta. It would however belong in reputation.

Just make sure that you're replied your address on somewhere and once you got hacked , you can prove your ownership by signing message.

In order to prevent being hack, just do not trust anyone too early ( someone may give you suspicious link ) !

Best response. I do the same. As PW changes are located in the sec log i post a signed message after a change here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1361412.msg13853622#msg13853622
So far i only changed it once but this thread reminds me to change it.

I use a tool called KeePass to keep track of my pws.

http://keepass.info/download.html

What the hell. OP is asking about bitcointalk accounts, no Bitcoin wallets. The best way is post your address on the meta thread and if your account does get hacked, give an admin a signed message from that account and you might get the account back.

Sign message the only best way to make your account protected by hacker. But you must stake your address in staking address thread, it must be staked 3 months.

Always change your password.
You can never be sure, if someone hacked you, and you changed it fast enough, you can still be fine.

Stake your address at https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=996318.0 with a signed message, check the url to see if you are't in a phishing site, or just stay logged in. If you know you are still logged in and a phishing site tells you that aren't, it's pretty obvious that it is a phishing site.

Thanks for mentioning the software name.I started using the same.
Well I didn't added a point regarding use of software that saves and manages your password.Above software mentioned by whywefight is the best currently to do that.Also i feel that making a complex password is OK .Well the reason I mentioned that point [2] is because I was too keeping the same password with mix of symbols and uppercase and lowercase characters and tight one but since last 2-3 weeks I am getting emails regarding suspicious logins from exchange and pools sites.Reason=> I continued using the same password everywhere . So it is better to keep different passwords for different sites and keep a pasword manager for the same.Most of you guys don't like my second point and I am now also feeling the same so you can do the step that I have marked(in bold) in previous line.
hashes leak again.

Also it is probably unnecessary to create a thread for every-time you change your password, however if you do create such thread, changing your password has nothing to do with the forum, so it would not belong in meta. It would however belong in reputation.
[/quote]

Well you got this other away around.I meant to create a thread just like whywefight did and mentioning regarding password change for whatever period (say daily,monthly,yearly). I think Meta is fine to announce it and may I know why reputation instead of meta? I would glad to know the reason. :)

Don't ever give your password to anyone, use alphanumeric password. Also always clean your browser, there's a chance for your browser of being hijacked.

Use a good password manager is honestly a great idea.  I combine it with 2nd factor to.  I use Yubikey's with my password manager you cannot access it without me physically pressing the Yubikey. 

But use different password for each crypto site it is big deal anymore.  Also using different emails for certain things is not a bad idea.

Don't tell someone your password and other security features as well. And if another member is offering you something and he is giving a link. Don't click it try to research first because there is a possibility that link would be malware or viruses that can hack your account.

And this is the good thing about some password managers is unique and hard passwords to crack.  Random letters/number/symbols tend to be better then dictionary words when someone is trying to crack passwords.

So say if a database is taken if your using one of these random passwords it should give you more time to change password, compared to a dictionary word.