Yep, like I said in in a previous post. The one factor in all of these cases is the use of windows. Let me make this clear for all those who can't hear:
WINDOWS IS NOT, HAS NEVER AND NEVER WILL BE SAFE FOR ANY CRYPTOCURRENCY. JUST DON'T USE WINDOWS. PERIOD.
Anyone who is still windows and has any substantial amount of bitcoin stored on there should move them to a TRUE cold-wallet address asap. Be warned.
I have to agree with this having been involved with Bitcoin since 2011. By the way in these years I have not lost any cryptocurrency to malware not even one satoshi's worth.
Microsoft Windows is by design extremely friendly to malware since it goes out of its way to prevent end users from controlling what installed software does on their computers. This goes back all the way to the design of the Windows registry in the early 1990's. The main motivation for this is DRM (or attempting to prevent software piracy). Take something as simple as attempting to enforce a software trail, against the simple re installation of the software after trail has ended. In GNU/Linux this information would be stored in a configuration file. Deleting the file would defeat the software trail. In Windows on the other hand the same information is scattered over endless keys in the Windows registry. The software publisher knows where they are but the end used does not. The end user is treated as the adversary in Windows, with the operating system protecting the software publisher against the end user.
Now one has to place oneself in the position of the malware writer in an adversarial relationship with the end user. What would you prefer:
1) An operating system, Microsoft Windows, that treats the end user as the adversary and goes out of its way to protect you the malware writer,
2) An operating system, GNU / Linux, that treats you, the malware writer, as the adversary, and goes out of its way to protect the end user.
Here is my rule. Any operating system that supports
DRM at the operating system level, including Microsoft Windows,
IS NOT, HAS NEVER AND NEVER WILL BE SAFE FOR ANY CRYPTOCURRENCY. Note: Andorid in order to be made safe must first be rooted, this breaks the DRM and turns control back to the end user where it belongs. After Andorid is rooted it can then be properly secured by the end user who has now become the master of the device.
A computer or device, just like an individual, cannot have two masters. It can either protect your cryptocurrency or attempt to protect the claims of big copyright,
but not both. Edit: Replaced "preventing" with "attempting to prevent", since DRM does not prevent piracy of copyrighted content. In many cases DRM actually encourages piracy.
