How do you protect your cryptocurrency from thefts?

[electronicash]

Just having the coins in your own wallet with the password and private keys with you makes it safer than putting it on the exchange. Losing you laptop or your computer crash might just be another threat so what I do is keep my back up on my usb drive and just keep it in my safe side.  MEW wallet is safe already, you just got to take precautions to phishing and all.

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[Artemis3]

Hey!
How do you take preventive measures to avoid getting your cryptocurrency stolen or hacked? I read news about Bitpoint and Binance hack and it seems while exchanges are definitely are at risk of getting hacked, no doubt. But how do the crypto holders protect from hackers?

Do you use any special tools?

A pen and piece of paper. Yes really, its all you need for a secure offline wallet, in that paper you write the seed words, and protect this paper real good, perhaps make another copy in another piece of paper and secure it very well in a separate physical place.

Of course you have to had printed or copied addresses from this wallet so you can send funds into.

If there is any tool you need, that would be the live (linux) os you should use when making the wallet, or the very rare occasion you actually want to spend the funds stored in it. Offline wallets are meant for savings, once created nobody can steal nothing. In fact most Exchanges move the majority if their funds to offline wallets, which is why the latest "hacks" don't amount to major percentage of their funds. Online you only need a minimal amount needed for day to day transactions, and that should be done with a separate wallet.

[bitart]

...
So far I'm not using anything for now, But I am planning to buy nano ledger or hardware wallet at the amazon or Alibaba sooner or later for sure.
...

You should not buy a hardware wallet (a key to your security, to your funds, etc...) from Alibaba or Amazon...
Buy a hardware wallet directly from the manufacturer, directly on their website, usually they offer worldwide shipping, so there's no need and no use to buy them from a 3rd party...
Also, on ebay, there are some hardware wallets which are shipped with some kind of documentation, where the seller wants to scam the buyer and helps to set up the hardware wallet with pre-generated seed, and asks the buyer to set up the hardware wallet with the given seed... So if the victim sets up the hardware wallet with the given seed, and transfers some of (or all of) his/her funds to the new hardware wallet, the seller (scammer) can easily move the funds because the address (connected to the given seed) is controlled by the scammer...
So if you want to buy something security related stuff, only buy it from a trusted source...

[migws]

If you do not want to use the exchange to store Bitcoin, then use Bitcoin Core or different cold wallets. Cold storage is the most reliable; however, if you manage a small amount of coins, then you should use something easier because cold wallets are pretty expensive.

[Reid]

No worries about centralized exchange since they will pay if proven guilty.

I would go hardwallet for you. But you are a trader I think and that may be one reason why you are scared.
Hodlers type are different to think.
They will better let a fall happen and add some more bitcoin in their stash.
Keep safe

[pixie85]

If you don't want your coins to be hacked keep them on a device that doesn't have Internet connection. This is the simplest way to do it.

Hardware wallets work fine too because they are offline. When you want to make a transaction get everything ready connect your device for a minute or 2 and send. To receive just check the status of the transaction on the blockchain. You don't need your wallet to be online for that.

[BitMaxz]

If you do not want to use the exchange to store Bitcoin, then use Bitcoin Core or different cold wallets. Cold storage is the most reliable; however, if you manage a small amount of coins, then you should use something easier because cold wallets are pretty expensive.

What do you mean by pretty expensive?
You can make a cold wallet without buying anything unused PC or Laptop or use the VirtualBox with OS just turn off the internet under VirtualBox settings to make it as offline and install Electrum. We can call it cold storage just make sure to make a watch-only wallet to monitor your balance and make a raw transaction.

It's zero cost unless if you are planning to buy a hardware wallet Like Ledger Nano the price is not so expensive you can buy it around $50.

[AjithBtc]

No worries about centralized exchange since they will pay if proven guilty.

I would go hardwallet for you. But you are a trader I think and that may be one reason why you are scared.
Hodlers type are different to think.
They will better let a fall happen and add some more bitcoin in their stash.
Keep safe

Every exchange won't give us with the funds if some hack or security breach takes place. Maybe the top exchanges will give us with such a support, because these kind of incidents will damage their reputation and the same gets reflected on their trading volume.

Foe smaller funds it is good to use web wallets that has come years back and has gained good reputation among the common users who transact bitcoins quite often.

Hardware wallet is the best choice for hodlers who buy and leave it for years without making any trade moves.

[tanjiran]

Nothing is really safe on the internet. I am sad because my wallet blockchain was hacked and I lost 0.031 BTC. I have given maximum protection, email authorization and 2FA. I don't know, I don't want to think about it. The thief is very heartless, I hope you all do not experience this.

[crzy]

Hey!
How do you take preventive measures to avoid getting your cryptocurrency stolen or hacked? I read news about Bitpoint and Binance hack and it seems while exchanges are definitely are at risk of getting hacked, no doubt. But how do the crypto holders protect from hackers?

Do you use any special tools?

Just a hard wallet and place my keys on a good place. Exchanges are hackable and not safe to place big money, you have to think for other ways to protect your wallet so if you have extra money to buy hard wallet do it now. Thefts will do their best to get easy money, don’t be a victim because your coins are really important.

[Gi01]

Do you use any special tools?

You don't need any special tools to keep your cryptocurrency safe from getting hacked or stolen. All you need is to avoid storing your crypto coins in exchange platforms. Don't use a public internet connection to access your wallet or exchange account. Use as much security features such as 2FA to keep your wallet and exchange accounts more secured...

[rdluffy]

First of all, the most important is: information, and this we have in this forum, so before doing anything, check here to see if a wallet is trustable, if an exchange is good, if the websites you're using are clear etc

and the basics, do not keep your coins in only one place, don't trust in exchanges to keep coins for a long time, do not install unverified apps and you should be fine

These above are my steps to being protected

[prix]

You can make a cold wallet without buying anything unused PC or Laptop or use the VirtualBox with OS just turn off the internet under VirtualBox settings to make it as offline and install Electrum. We can call it cold storage just make sure to make a watch-only wallet to monitor your balance and make a raw transaction.

VM it's not a cold wallet. VM may be escaped, host may be infected (keyloggers, trojans, etc).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_machine_escape

[mk4]

You don't need any special tools to keep your cryptocurrency safe from getting hacked or stolen. All you need is to avoid storing your crypto coins in exchange platforms. Don't use a public internet connection to access your wallet or exchange account. Use as much security features such as 2FA to keep your wallet and exchange accounts more secured...

If your wallet actually has 2FA features, chances are, it's a custodial wallet, which you definitely shouldn't use. Reputable non-custodial software wallets mostly has just pin locks or fingerprint locks, not 2FA. Looks like you need to do a bit more reading: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1631151.0

[TarunDis]

The key is to hold the funds using a non-custodial wallet. That way, if you get hacked for some reason, it's solely your fault. If you hold bigger amounts of coins, definitely a hardware wallet. If you don't hold that much, a wallet like Electrum on your mobile wallet would suffice.

Spend a good amount of time in making sure you know the differences between different types of wallets.

• https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1631151.0
• https://cryptosec.info/cryptocurrency-wallets/

Do you think mobile wallets are safe? what if a pocket thief steals your phone?

[pealr12]

My way of storing cryptocurrency is not original: I do not keep large amounts of cryptocurrency on exchanges, preferring cold and hardware wallets.

sometimes exchages are not even safe to store your crypto,  ive beeen using MEW for 4 years and till now my altcoins  is always safe,  its up to the holders how to secure their coins.

[mk4]

Do you think mobile wallets are safe?

Non-custodial wallets are the way to go if you don't have that much bitcoin. If you have bitcoin that are worth a lot though? Definitely get a hardware wallet like the Ledger[1] or the Trezor[2].

what if a pocket thief steals your phone?

That's where your 12-24 word phrase backup comes in. You simply import the 12-24 phrase onto your new device's wallet app, then you're good to go. Most if not all wallet apps right now has pin/fingerprint locks already, so your funds should be safe unless you picked a bad pin like "0000" or "1234".

[1] https://ledger.com/
[2] https://trezor.io/

[Nandini_crypto]

Always try to use strong password for the wallet you are using.
Try to use a hardware crypto wallet to store your btc and other cryptos.
Make sure you don't find yourself on crypto hack.
Don't give chance others to store your private keys.

Source: https://thenextweb.com/cryptocurrency/2018/03/12/how-to-save-your-cryptocurrency-from-yourself-and-others-because-the-world-is-bleak-and-youre-a-sloppy-mess/

[Lucius]

- never fill up spreadsheets

Is there something I'm missing here? What's wrong with filling up spreadsheets? It should be completely fine unless you're unnecessarily filling in sensitive information.

I think this makes sense if you need to give your social media link (FB, Twitter, Telegram) or maybe e-mail. Such information is an ideal phishing attack vector, each user can also become an individual target where hacker will try to analyze how much coins is user have, which exchange or wallet is using, and how experienced he is when dealing with crypto.

Such data can be exploited for phishing user, or maybe to convince him to invest in some bad project, all the way to the physical robbery.

[SquallLeonhart]

Most of the special tools that you need to prove t your money from being stolen are already available through those wallet providers. First thing that any user should never do is to safe money in an exchange because that is highly risky as no exchange would ever guarantee the protection of anyone’s what we can see in the case of binance.

The best way for a cryptocurrency holder to safe guard his or her money is just to make use of private wallets with key which you already mentioned, and moist especially private wallet where we can have our private keys and one that has authenticated factors or ones that can be linked to our phone so that we are being asked of some security codes through our phones before logging in to the wallet.