Account security, 2FA questions and advice...

[lecomputer]

I am new to all this, and obsessively researching to make sure I am secure. So for my various accounts, email, coinbase, binance, any exchanges etc. I will enable 2fa and use the google authenticator app.

My fear is that if my phone dies or I lose it it could be a nightmare to get access to any of my accounts. I have read in a couple of threads that people take a screenshot of the QR code and key you get when first enabling 2fa. Some people said they print it and then scan the print out to make sure it works and then backup the print out somewhere safe. This seems like a very good idea

My question is...does saving a screenshot of something like this put you at risk? Obviously its not text so I dont see any easy way someone could find it. Some people talked about encrypting the screenshot, but how?

Obviously printing it and putting it somewhere seems like the safest option, but surely toprint it you need to save it first? Should you just take the screenshot, print it and then delete the image?

Any advice really appreciated, and also encouraging others to do this in some form to avoid problems in the future

Thanks

[kiindje]

You could try Authy - it's 2FA, compatible with Google authenticator and it's having enhanced features like backup. Create a backup device and put it in safe or other secure location.

[lecomputer]

Thanks I did look into that.

But I am really interested in the process of printing or taking screenshots and whether its safe to store these on your computer? How do people do this safely

Thanks

[lecomputer]

Does anyone know the answer to my original question? Is it safe to store a screenshot of your 2fa QR code on your computer, or even to take a screenshot in the first place?

[Insanerman]

Does anyone know the answer to my original question? Is it safe to store a screenshot of your 2fa QR code on your computer, or even to take a screenshot in the first place?

It is safer to write it on a piece of paper or print it at first to ensure that you will not accidentally delete the screenshot in your computer. You can also download Google Authenticator Application at Playstore to have backup of your 2FA Code.

[lecomputer]

Goole athenticator does not back up the code.

My question is about taking a screenshot on your computer and saving the image digitally. Is this liable to hackers?  There is nothing on the image that points towards the exchange, just teh QR code and the key.

Poloniex actually tells you to print it out or save it, so that gave me confidence it might be ok but i want to be sure?

[bizul]

Does anyone know the answer to my original question? Is it safe to store a screenshot of your 2fa QR code on your computer, or even to take a screenshot in the first place?

If you want safety, it is easy. You need to protect it. Compress it into a file and use a good password to protect the compressed file (you need to make sure it works first).

However, if you lose this encrypted file (corrupted file, disk write error, ...etc.) then you lost your key. You need backup. Backup the file by copying it into another hard drive and back it up again into external hard drives and memory drives. I also recommend to email the file to yourself as a backup.

On a side note, remember to enable the recovery record or recovery header (Winrar has it). If the compressed file became corrupted, you can rebuild its contents in hopes that you can retrieve the lost file. I recommend to use 100% recovery record or more (which will double the file size) but it's okay because the original file size is small.