For fucks sake, stop leaving your money on internet accounts

[Lethn]

While having a huge amount of cash stolen from someone is a bad thing and something I wouldn't which on anyone ( Except maybe central bankers ) I can't believe the computer illiterate people that are coming into these boards and the first thing they say is "I had money in an MTGOX or Blockchain wallet". Let me be perfectly clear, your money is never safe on an internet based account, anyone who claims it is is lying, putting your money on an internet account is the equivalent of leaving a pile of the stuff in your country's worst area in a back alley, it's going to go missing.

The only time your Bitcoins is at least safe from hackers is when you store it offline on a computer, me? If I had that much money lying around I'd only feel comfortable putting it on an entirely laptop entirely separate from my local network so that means disable your wireless while your at it too. I can understand people using a USB but I'd find that too easy to lose really but that's just me. Honestly as someone who at least has some knowledge about what not to do in order to stop people from getting you it seriously infuriates me that people are spamming away about hackers, it reminds me of stupid news articles that rant on about 'internet bullying' show some sense and do your research before you invest in Bitcoin.

. Exchange accounts are NOT bank accounts, only transfer small amounts through them and use it purely to sell or buy, not to store

. Don't let your chosen Bitcoin storage device ever connect to the internet except to do updates periodically

. Don't click suspicious links no matter how friendly they might seem, if you look up the website, chances are someone has already caught them

. Don't be stupid and angry at the same time, you don't have to learn hacking yourself but at least have the decency to ask how this sort of thing happens and do a google search before complaining here, most of the time someone is hacked because they forgot some very simple countermeasures or outright ignored them

. Don't be a computer illiterate moron, if you are someone who has hardly used a computer and hopped on the "Zomfg Bitcoin must get rich" train, learn how your computer works before you buy a large amount of Bitcoin and figure out how software like armoury works, again you don't need to be a programmer or hacker to know this stuff but I'm seeing people completely ignore the basics of understanding a computer.... Or a firewall..... Or common sense

[flipper]

Good advice. Some brief help on how to create a secure local Wallet would be nice to someone new.

[kodo]

This is good advice, it will help out the newbies around here.

[krusin]

Do you have a preferred storage method? I have a small amount on an exchange, but that's really for the pump and dump nights...

[kodo]

Do you have a preferred storage method? I have a small amount on an exchange, but that's really for the pump and dump nights...

never keep money on exchanges they can go mysteriously missing sometimes.

[krusin]

I don't suppose there's any recourse if it does grow legs and walk away either...

[Larry666]

Good advice. Some brief help on how to create a secure local Wallet would be nice to someone new.

+10

[orymh]

I haven't covered security in any depth yet, but in case they're useful for anyone who needs a hand with local wallet setup, I have a wallet setup overview article (http://www.bit-buddy.com/bitcoin-wallet-setup.html) and a detailed walk-through for setting up Electrum (http://www.bit-buddy.com/electrum-setup.html), which is my local client of choice.

[Cyberclones]

I believe and strongly agree with everything you just said. One little thing that I just want to add is that having it on a non networked laptop isn't the final step it is great start but if that hard drive ever went you would still be out of all your coins so make sure you are also backing it up someplace(s).

[bitbybit2]

You can sense a newbie once they reveal that they are using an online wallet. Learn to put most of your holdings in cold storage.

[B. Tazed]

Never invest too much in anything digital, period.

[Cyberdyne]

You can sense a newbie once they reveal that they are using an online wallet. Learn to put most of your holdings in cold storage.

A few anonymous people even appear to be using kamikaze as a wallet! If you don't intend to gamble it in the near future, you probably should just request a withdrawal and deposit later if needed.

[flipper]

I haven't covered security in any depth yet, but in case they're useful for anyone who needs a hand with local wallet setup, I have a wallet setup overview article (http://www.bit-buddy.com/bitcoin-wallet-setup.html) and a detailed walk-through for setting up Electrum (http://www.bit-buddy.com/electrum-setup.html), which is my local client of choice.

Useful sites. Thx for posting.