Bitcoin Forum

Assume nothing is safe!

I see alot of posts on using Armory however what good is Armory if you haven't verified whether the file has been tampered with?

I highly recommend installing a Linux Distro.

1) Download Linux Distro
2) Checksum .iso file with ALL relevant hashes (sha1,md5,sha256,etc..)
3) PGP your .iso file as well comparing to the public key the developers produce.
4) Set aside a machine for purely storing your BC.
5) Install Linux (do not install third party drivers)
6) Remove any tracking features if enabled (Newer versions of Ubuntu sends your data to amazon..... general command is "sudo apt-get remove unity-lens-shopping").
7) Install UFW and reject all incoming connections whenever you start up your machine. (You can get more technical for allowing/denying/rejecting connections via terminal or the preferences section of UFW)
8) Add various trusted Firefox addons (I'll compile a list later on in this thread).
9) Download your preferred wallet
10) Check sum your preferred wallet with ALL relevant hashes.
11) PGP your file once again and compare it against the developer's key.
12) You now have a very secure system.... If you'd like to go more in-depth you can always check out Hardened Linux.
 

Good steps to know. I have several wallets I downloaded and realized that keeping it all stored on my main laptop was not going to be a wise idea. I actually think purchasing a laptop, wiping it, loading it up similar to the way you said, and backing it up remotely is the way to go.

This is definitely a method. I use something a little different. I have a BTC virtual machine I spin up in esx only when I need to do wallet stuff. Snapshot it with veeam for backups. My attack surface is a few minutes at best and I'm ok with that.