Bitcoin Wallet Vulnerability

[Wapinter]

If you have lots of coins in your online bitcoin wallet,will posting that address in public like forums,facebook etc make it more vulnerable to hacking?
1.Should such addresses be kept secret as much as possible to keep them away from hackers eye?
2.If kept secret,is there a way for others to know how many wallet addresses holds big amount if bitcoins?

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[NyeFe]

If you have lots of coins in your online bitcoin wallet,will posting that address in public like forums,facebook etc make it more vulnerable to hacking?
1.Should such addresses be kept secret as much as possible to keep them away from hackers eye?
2.If kept secret,is there a way for others to know how many wallet addresses holds big amount if bitcoins?

If you have lots of coins in your online bitcoin wallet,will posting that address in public like forums,facebook etc make it more vulnerable to hacking?: Yes, just as posting pictures of a stack of gold or a box of diamonds will increase your odds of getting robbed. You are essentially making yourself a target. Someone could want to hack you now who previously wouldn't have known.

1.It depends on your privacy and storage techniques but usually YES

2.They will still be on the blockchain so technically yes.

Nice,  okay. Could you please explain how posting a public key would increase its vulnerability? -  have you got an unknown method of spawning a private key from a public key?

Why bother...

No it want increase its risk of getting stolen. You need to worry more about the trust between you and your wallet provider. No online wallet is hack proof, but levels of mitigating attacks do vary depending on your provider. Right now, blockchain.info is the only 99% provider that I've seen. They if I remember correctly,  they give you the KEKey (key encryption key)

[NyeFe]

If you have lots of coins in your online bitcoin wallet,will posting that address in public like forums,facebook etc make it more vulnerable to hacking?
1.Should such addresses be kept secret as much as possible to keep them away from hackers eye?
2.If kept secret,is there a way for others to know how many wallet addresses holds big amount if bitcoins?

If you have lots of coins in your online bitcoin wallet,will posting that address in public like forums,facebook etc make it more vulnerable to hacking?: Yes, just as posting pictures of a stack of gold or a box of diamonds will increase your odds of getting robbed. You are essentially making yourself a target. Someone could want to hack you now who previously wouldn't have known.

1.It depends on your privacy and storage techniques but usually YES

2.They will still be on the blockchain so technically yes.

Nice,  okay. Could you please explain how posting a public key would increase its vulnerability? -  have you got an unknown method of spawning a private key from a public key?

It depends on your definition of vulnerable, will his machine be more likely to have hacking attempts ? It is definitely a possibility or even the chances of it physically being taken.

Does the public address give any information of the private key? Nope

I see it like this, X user decides to flaunt his public address and show off 100 btc, 2 months go by he forgets a friend of his chats him on FB tells him to download a game or chat program, X does it because he knows this guy he went to highschool with him a 10 years back. The file is infected with some tools and X user gets hacked and loses his btc.

Such an improbable way to make a point. The answer is no. I'm sure the OP said online wallet so your point is moot, even if it was a local wallet,  what's to say it's not encrypted with sha256 and AES,  are you going to tell me that both of those standards are also vulnerable?

[deepceleron]

The address can be posted anywhere and be known throughout the world safely. There are many public addresses of organizations that have large amounts of bitcoin in them. There is no crypto vulnerability that will let you be "hacked" by merely publishing your address.

When you publish your ownership of an address, along with that comes a loss of privacy, though. Without special steps being taken, it is possible to discover people who sent money to the address, and we can see the address's balance and where you sent the money after you got it. You may put yourself in personal jeopardy or may invite more hackers to try to crack into your system if you are identified as being "bit-rich"

More importantly, though, wallets do not take special care to separate your public address funds from funds you wish to remain private. You may unwittingly reveal that you are the owner of other addresses. When you spend money, the transaction may be funded using both coins sent to the public address and coins sent to other addresses, indisputably disclosing your ownership of other addresses also.

It is discouraged to reuse an address, because to spend the money, the transaction (included in the blockchain) includes the full public key. This removes one security layer from the address. Other procedural faults, such as a bad random number generator used in the transaction signature generation, are then exposed to exploitation.

[NyeFe]

If you have lots of coins in your online bitcoin wallet,will posting that address in public like forums,facebook etc make it more vulnerable to hacking?
1.Should such addresses be kept secret as much as possible to keep them away from hackers eye?
2.If kept secret,is there a way for others to know how many wallet addresses holds big amount if bitcoins?

If you have lots of coins in your online bitcoin wallet,will posting that address in public like forums,facebook etc make it more vulnerable to hacking?: Yes, just as posting pictures of a stack of gold or a box of diamonds will increase your odds of getting robbed. You are essentially making yourself a target. Someone could want to hack you now who previously wouldn't have known.

1.It depends on your privacy and storage techniques but usually YES

2.They will still be on the blockchain so technically yes.

Nice,  okay. Could you please explain how posting a public key would increase its vulnerability? -  have you got an unknown method of spawning a private key from a public key?

It depends on your definition of vulnerable, will his machine be more likely to have hacking attempts ? It is definitely a possibility or even the chances of it physically being taken.

Does the public address give any information of the private key? Nope

I see it like this, X user decides to flaunt his public address and show off 100 btc, 2 months go by he forgets a friend of his chats him on FB tells him to download a game or chat program, X does it because he knows this guy he went to highschool with him a 10 years back. The file is infected with some tools and X user gets hacked and loses his btc.

Such an improbable way to make a point. The answer is no. I'm sure the OP said online wallet, even if it was a local wallet,  what's to say it's not encrypted with sha256 and AES,  are you going to tell me that both of those standards are also vulnerable?

Keylogger watches the pc and time before btc address or amounts entered, gets the password and uses other hacking tools pretty standard thing.

Yes keyloggers of course you would mention them, I'm sure your next scenario is that the OP in that situation wouldn't have an anti-virus/malware installed...  You don't even need them,  a simple firewalling utility tool like Zone Alarm to block outbound traffics is all you would need.

[quintiilieo]

If you have lots of coins in your online bitcoin wallet,will posting that address in public like forums,facebook etc make it more vulnerable to hacking?
1.Should such addresses be kept secret as much as possible to keep them away from hackers eye?
2.If kept secret,is there a way for others to know how many wallet addresses holds big amount if bitcoins?

If your online wallet have many bitcoin there, dont post your bitcoin wallet because if you have many bitcoin they want to target you or they trying to hack you. Like in facebook if your facebook email and password are the same they try to hack and then they will find clue on your facebook profile, forums profile so that they can hack you bitcoin wallet.

[Wapinter]

The address can be posted anywhere and be known throughout the world safely. There are many public addresses of organizations that have large amounts of bitcoin in them. There is no crypto vulnerability that will let you be "hacked" by merely publishing your address.

When you publish your ownership of an address, along with that comes a loss of privacy, though. Without special steps being taken, it is possible to discover people who sent money to the address, and we can see the address's balance and where you sent the money after you got it. You may put yourself in personal jeopardy or may invite more hackers to try to crack into your system if you are identified as being "bit-rich"

More importantly, though, wallets do not take special care to separate your public address funds from funds you wish to remain private. You may unwittingly reveal that you are the owner of other addresses. When you spend money, the transaction may be funded using both coins sent to the public address and coins sent to other addresses, indisputably disclosing your ownership of other addresses also.

It is discouraged to reuse an address, because to spend the money, the transaction (included in the blockchain) includes the full public key. This removes one security layer from the address. Other procedural faults, such as a bad random number generator used in the transaction signature generation, are then exposed to exploitation.

I guess these large public organizations that have large bitcoins do not keep them online.
To sum up you agree that it makes such wallet more prone to hacking

[NyeFe]

If you go to blockchain.info I'm sure you will find wallets with $4,000,000 - $50,000,00+ inside them, where varying large quantities would have been spent over time.

Feel free to post your wallet address online,  it's called a public key for a reason,   please read this It is mathematically improbable, intellectually ignorant, and economically unviable, to even attempt to compute a private key from any give public key in this century, and hopefully the next.

Some people did mention keyloggers, which I would say,  is a good point if you did manage to get infected by anything that would be interested in Bitcoins,  so yes, I'm sure you're wise enough to have any of these free Antivirus tools installed (if you're a Windows user).

[DataSecurityNode]

If you have lots of coins in your online bitcoin wallet,will posting that address in public like forums,facebook etc make it more vulnerable to hacking?
1.Should such addresses be kept secret as much as possible to keep them away from hackers eye?
2.If kept secret,is there a way for others to know how many wallet addresses holds big amount if bitcoins?

Your best practice is to always generate a new address for every transaction. Then you don't have to worry about this stuff.

[bitbaby]

As long as the machine which has the private key(s) to your address(es) is secured then no, there is no way for anyone to steal your coins from your wallet, the safest key is which has never been online(cold storage).

Although, some people prefer only using an address only once and the reasons for that are listed here: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Address_reuse , read the part with "#Known_attacks", though I am sure this vulnerability was addressed in all modern wallet clients.

[franky1]

If you have lots of coins in your online bitcoin wallet,will posting that address in public like forums,facebook etc make it more vulnerable to hacking?
1.Should such addresses be kept secret as much as possible to keep them away from hackers eye?
2.If kept secret,is there a way for others to know how many wallet addresses holds big amount if bitcoins?

posting a public key wont generate a private key.. but..
think about social hacking.

if someone knows u are hoarding X amount. they will want to become your friends. worse case they earn your trust so that you click on urls they send you without you checking them which leads to your computer being hacked from the virus you downloaded naively.

imagine ur going through a divorce and u are hiding the FIAT in bitcoin, but your EX knows your username. she see's you posting a address with X btc.. now she owns 50% of it

you will get random private messages and emails from people trying to sell you fake promises, bad investments, scams. etc

if your doing something illicit. your username is linked to an address if you publicly reveal your address on a post. now authorities are one step closer to finding your real life name and home address(with some snooping of forum data and getting IP addresses)

so dont worry about someone hacking the public key.. worry about human greed and deceptive people socializing once they realize you have more then they have

[prix]

If you go to blockchain.info I'm sure you will find wallets with $4,000,000 - $50,000,00+ inside them, where varying large quantities would have been spent over time.

Feel free to post your wallet address online,  it's called a public key for a reason,   please read this It is mathematically improbable, intellectually ignorant, and economically unviable, to even attempt to compute a private key from any give public key in this century, and hopefully the next.

Some people did mention keyloggers, which I would say,  is a good point if you did manage to get infected by anything that would be interested in Bitcoins,  so yes, I'm sure you're wise enough to have any of these free Antivirus tools installed (if you're a Windows user).

It's a bad advise. Don't connect your wallet address with big amount and your person (avatar). If you need a public addreess, you should create new one (empty or with an small amount).
You don't know all the possible vulnerabilities in your OS, programs, routers, methods of social attacks, and so on.
Do not rely on antiviruses and other security software. As example, some scam altcoin wallets can steal your data and no one antiviruses on virustotal not alarm it.
And I met the other cases, when a very famous antivirus can't protect from viruses/malware cause is very fresh viruses and he had not got to the base yet, and a behavioral analyzer doesn't recognize it.

You shouldn't to attract an extra attention to your person.

[waltercoin2016]

Users like us should be very cautious to choose which bitcoin platform we are gonna have. Reputable bitcoin startups such as BitPay, ANX, and OKcoin are suggested to have.

[GKE]

Users like us should be very cautious to choose which bitcoin platform we are gonna have. Reputable bitcoin startups such as BitPay, ANX, and OKcoin are suggested to have.

I have never heard OKcoin, but I was told a little about BitPay and ANX, they are nice~

[Herbert2020]

Users like us should be very cautious to choose which bitcoin platform we are gonna have. Reputable bitcoin startups such as BitPay, ANX, and OKcoin are suggested to have.

I have never heard OKcoin, but I was told a little about BitPay and ANX, they are nice~

OKCoin is a Chinese company mostly working as an exchanger but also as a "a mobile consumer payment and lending app" whatever that means i am just quoting the last part!
ANX if i am not mistaken is a Hong-Cong based company which does debit cards, don't have any info about their legit or not.
Bitpay is a payment processor which is big and legit.

but none of these are any good option for a bitcoin wallet (what this topic is about) so i have no idea what he is posting these here.

[BitcoinSupremo]

If your online wallet has many bitcoins, it can be vulnerable mostly because of user stupidity rather than posting his address in forums ,facebook etc. If you know what you are doing, don't use shady sites, don't download all that there is on the net, and have a clean PC chances are pretty low that you get hacked, although the more you expose your address the more risk you have by doing so.
Still if you have lots of bitcoins, use just 0.20 BTC of them to buy a hardware wallet and have peace of mind, that your bitcoins will not be stolen.

[Wendigo]

I don't think it matters how many coins you have on your online wallet as long as you have a very strong password or haven't copied your mnemonic string anywhere for people to find. There are so many Bitcoin addresses with hundreds and thousands of coins and they are still inthere despite all the hackers in the world trying to snatch the Bitcoins in them. Why hasn't anyone stolen the Bitcoins of Satoshi Nakamoto already? Hardware, software, mobile, paper wallets all offer the same security and same vulnerabilities and if you maintain a proper security protocol your stash will be safe.

[Dmc123dmc]

I only keep bitcoin in online wallets when I am about to spend that amount. The rest I keep in Armory.
Would you feel safe walking down the road to buy a newspaper with £10k in your pocket?

[ABitNut]

If you go to blockchain.info I'm sure you will find wallets with $4,000,000 - $50,000,00+ inside them, where varying large quantities would have been spent over time.

Feel free to post your wallet address online,  it's called a public key for a reason,   please read this It is mathematically improbable, intellectually ignorant, and economically unviable, to even attempt to compute a private key from any give public key in this century, and hopefully the next.

Some people did mention keyloggers, which I would say,  is a good point if you did manage to get infected by anything that would be interested in Bitcoins,  so yes, I'm sure you're wise enough to have any of these free Antivirus tools installed (if you're a Windows user).

Some of the worst advice I've heard.
1) it's indeed improbable that someone can compute the private key from a public key
2) it's entirely probably that you will be targeted by criminal elements if they know you have a large stash
 2a) The cost of spamming you trying to get some malicious code on your system is minor.
 2b) The cost of social engineering you is pretty minor.
 2c) If you're entirely oblivious about privacy the cost of showing up at your place with a tire iron and beating the crap out of you until you open you stash is minor.

Depending on your environment the risk will vary. In Switzerland it may be alright to flaunt your stash. In Syria I would suggest being a bit more careful. As stated before; if you wouldn't flaunt the stack of gold bars you keep at your place then you probably shouldn't flaunt your bitcoin stash either.

As an added note; Anti-virus increases attack surface. Good luck with your free anti-virus applications.

[Amph]

If you have lots of coins in your online bitcoin wallet,will posting that address in public like forums,facebook etc make it more vulnerable to hacking?
1.Should such addresses be kept secret as much as possible to keep them away from hackers eye?
2.If kept secret,is there a way for others to know how many wallet addresses holds big amount if bitcoins?

posting a public key wont generate a private key.. but..
think about social hacking.

if someone knows u are hoarding X amount. they will want to become your friends. worse case they earn your trust so that you click on urls they send you without you checking them which leads to your computer being hacked from the virus you downloaded naively.

imagine ur going through a divorce and u are hiding the FIAT in bitcoin, but your EX knows your username. she see's you posting a address with X btc.. now she owns 50% of it

you will get random private messages and emails from people trying to sell you fake promises, bad investments, scams. etc

if your doing something illicit. your username is linked to an address if you publicly reveal your address on a post. now authorities are one step closer to finding your real life name and home address(with some snooping of forum data and getting IP addresses)

so dont worry about someone hacking the public key.. worry about human greed and deceptive people socializing once they realize you have more then they have

that has been the case for me, i keep receiving incoming request to be a friend of someone unknown, via teamviewer and other social network, also via email, obviously i ignore eveyrone of those request

even via steam lately, all people that are 100% unknown to me, i usually decline them without thinking, i don't care about friends