hi thanks for the response. well i could send the bitcoin to blockchain. i have logged into my blockchain account before but i do not believe i ever sent any bitcoin to blockchain even once. so would that be fine or not
If you do choose to keep your bitcoin in a blockchain.info wallet, then you should do this the following way:
- Use a computer/phone/device that you are not going to bring to get serviced to create a new blockchain.info wallet
- Backup your newly created blockchain.info wallet -- ideally you will have at least 3 copies of your wallet, across two mediums of storage, and one copy of which is offsite.
- Move all your bitcoin off of the computer that you are getting serviced onto your blockchain.info wallet
If blockchain.info works the way they claim it does -- I have no reason to suspect otherwise, however I have never personally audited their code, nor do I have the technical ability to do so -- then when you access your blockchain.info wallet, your private keys will (temporarily) be stored locally, and at least in theory, your private keys could remain in RAM for some amount of time.
here is my other issue. i play online poker and bet sports and also some sites i use bitcoin to deposit/withdraw to these sites. so i should make sure i erase my username from the login etc or would that not be enough
You probably want to, at the minimum, erase any autofill settings that pre-fill your
username from these sites. If you have your password saved on your computer in any way, then you will probably want to change your password via another device prior to getting your computer serviced. If you are using 2fa on these sites then your security will be increased. Continuing to use this computer after it gets serviced will subject you to the same kind of risks that that the technician could install some kind of malware onto your computer. As I mentioned previously, I think the risk of this is fairly low.
has there been cases where someone went to computer repair place to fix computer and had bitcoin in their wallet then bitcoin no longer there...
I am not sure, however allowing someone to service your computer, especially when you are not present, will make it trivial for them to copy everything on your hard drive. I think it is even possible that it is a common practice for technicians to at least create a temporary copy of data on your hard drive while repairing your computer -- several years ago, I was having hardware issues on my macbook while it was still under AppleCare protection, and when I took it to the apple store to get it repaired, they needed me to agree that I may not get the exact same computer back, but instead a similar computer with the data transferred onto the new computer. If the technician does make a copy of your hard drive, then they might not even look at the contents for a very long time, so it would probably be very difficult to detect that it was the technician that stole your bitcoin -- your bitcoin would simply be gone.
such that i have to get computer looked at since it has tons of problems. i mean... i have lot of poker programs installed and its on my desktop. so you want me to delete all those thing is i dont want to reinstall it again... i mean maybe just delete the shortcuts on the desktop... but you could find it on start etc though
I don't think the issue is so much that you have particular programs installed on your computer, the issue is more that your passwords, and private keys are stored on your computer when it is given to the repaid shop.
Removing shortcuts from your desktop will do pretty much zero to prevent the repair shop from finding your data stored elsewhere.
i like to know have there been cases where someone could install malware into someones laptop and then later on take their bitcoin... do you know of any specific cases
I do not know of any specific cases, no. I think the risk of malware via a repair shop is fairly low unless it is clear that you are storing very large amounts of money on your computer. It is certainly possible though.
i mean i log into my online banking with this laptop. I mean surely i could login to it after getting computer looked at right? but bitcoin feels much different.
The risks of logging into your online banking are much lower from your perspective. Primarily because your bank is responsible for keeping your account safe, and preventing any transactions that you did not authorize from going through. Someone hacking your bank account might cause you some headaches, but probably will not cause you very much financial damage.
With Bitcoin on the other hand, you are solely responsible for the security of your private keys, and if your private keys get stolen/compromised then you will be the one who bears the losses.
