How to Secure Our Wallet to Prevent Being Hacked!

[khaled0111]

4. Check Balance
It is not necessary to check our balance everytime by entering our private key.

For bitcoin, you don't have to provide your private key to check your balance. You can set up a watching-only wallet by using your public address. This way, you don't expose your private keys to the Internet.

7. Enable 2FA
It is important to enable 2fa if our wallet serve this feature.

You only need your seed/private key to access your wallet. Any wallet software that has 2FA feature is a custodial wallet which are not safe and you should not use them if you care about the security of your funds. A better alternative for 2FA is to set up a 2of2 multisig wallet and keep each co-signing private key/seed on a different device.

8. Free Wifi
We shouldn't use free wifi at all and by using free wifi

If you have no other option but to connect to a public WIFI, then at least connect to it with a reliable and secure VPN.

[mersal]

For a normal user who is not going to have in millions can make use of the electrum wallet which is very convenient for long term storage as well as day to day transactions but keeping the private key in a secure place is the key no matter what kind of wallet you are using.

I moved to electrum for bitcoin storage for years now where I am not having any issues yet but I am not having any mod apps in my smartphone and also I am always aware of malicious links and trojans.

2FA is literally not going to save you from hacks as long as the scammer managed to get your private keys, it just a useful feature on exchanges but not really useful on a wallet.

[Stanlo]

Many blame wallets hacks on the wallet but honestly most times this happens because of mistakes and carelessness on the users, the only crypto wallets that aren't safe are the centralised wallets but others that gives seed or private keys and still got hacked is due to users fault

[Daodex]

Be 💯 serious with your crypto wallet like your life depends on it or treat them like you would treat your bank accounts, believe me crypto wallets are banks on a whole new level, no one will have a clue about what your worth is, isn't that cool?

[posi]

Metamask does support Bitcoin but it require some technical elaboration and it done through BEP2.0 (BSC) integration.
About myerherwallet have once seen a buying Bitcoin option on it but I never try it out so I don't if support it or not.

BEP2:- Binance Chain
BEP20:- Binance Smart Chain (BSC)

I believe you meant BSC (BEP20)

But the normal bitcoin we meant is the one that its addresses starts from 1, 3 or bc1 which makes use of bitcoin blockchain for its storage and ledger, not a smart contract.

Yes, was talking aboug BEP20  (BSC)
I know you guys are talking about normal Bitcoin but you aaid " Metamask and myetherwallet wallet do not support bitcoin (correct me if wrong)" which is the reason why I point out the features of introduced by the Binance Smart Chain.

[Welsh]

If you have no other option but to connect to a public WIFI, then at least connect to it with a reliable and secure VPN.

Even then, there's a small chance that you could be compromised since you have to connect to the internet before you connect to the wifi. If you can, its better to use a cellular data connection, connect to the VPN, and then connect to the free wifi. Cellular data connections are secured differently, and generally are more secure than wifi connections, which see a lot of traffic throughout the day. 

[Crypto Eng.]

It is very important to protect our wallets from hacking, by choosing strong passwords, activating more than one protection method to enter the wallet, such as a PIN code and fingerprint, and to avoid sending our private keys to any unknown person or website.

[taufik123]

Many blame wallets hacks on the wallet but honestly most times this happens because of mistakes and carelessness on the users, the only crypto wallets that aren't safe are the centralised wallets but others that gives seed or private keys and still got hacked is due to users fault

Sometimes the storage of the seed or private key is ignored and has no security. this is what will become a gap to be stolen and hacked. Hacking of personal wallets is indeed due to the recklessness of the wallet choosers.

Being exposed to phishing is also the reason why personal wallets are hacked. Because the phishing page will ask to enter a private key. this needs to be paid attention to, make sure the page used is a genuine page and not phishing.

Like the metamask extension wallet, from the past until now there are fake extensions created by scammers. Make sure everything is original and you should pay attention to it.

[Zotak337]

1. If your wallet is a add-on like metamask make sure you don't use the browser to browse online at all, dedicate the browser for metamask only, in fact I prefer using the mobile app instead

2. Avoid clicking on links either online or through emails

3. Safeguide your recovery seed and private keys, they should never be shared with anyone and make sure you don't store them in places where it's easier to people to reach

[Rana590]

You only need your seed/private key to access your wallet. Any wallet software that has 2FA feature is a custodial wallet which are not safe and you should not use them if you care about the security of your funds. A better alternative for 2FA is to set up a 2of2 multisig wallet and keep each co-signing private key/seed on a different device.

Yes, this is the second step but we're not fully safe on the internet and for this reason this method can help us to secure our wallet.

If you have no other option but to connect to a public WIFI, then at least connect to it with a reliable and secure VPN.

I think most of the people don't use any secure VPN and I'm trying to conscious them to avoid public WiFi.

Wack, fully disagree with that. Even  inoffensive chrome extension means your private keys are inside browser cashe for some time. This is  the additional hole to their security that can be used for  sophisticated methods to steal them. Apart of that there are malicious extensions  that disguise themselves as true wallets. They are able to  inject malicious code and steal sensitive data like passwords. priv keys etc.

Actually it can help us to find real website on the internet. Obviously we should avoid malicious extensions but sometimes, chrome extension is worthy enough. For high security in this respect, anyone can clear browser cashe, cookies and history.

[moderator's note: consecutive posts merged]

[Charles-Tim]

Many blame wallets hacks on the wallet but honestly most times this happens because of mistakes and carelessness on the users, the only crypto wallets that aren't safe are the centralised wallets but others that gives seed or private keys and still got hacked is due to users fault

You are not wrong, many wallet hack is as a result of people themselves which are careless, carelessness is one of the reasons for some of the hack. But having offline wallets still reduced the chances of the carelessness, using mobile or desktop wallet is also still better but yet vulnerable as they are both online wallets. Web wallets are just the most vulnerable, and they are not recommendable in case of safety, it makes people to be more vulnerable to their carelessness. But, yet, people need to be very careful and protect their wallet perfectly.

[jerry0]

We can prevent being hacked if we download and install chrome extension. Mew chrome extension and MetaMask chrome extension are available to install.

No. Chrome extensions are why people are getting hacked.

It is not necessary to check our balance everytime by entering our private key. We can easily be able to check our balance and transaction from:

(a) https://etherscan.io/
(b) https://bscscan.com/
(c) https://tronscan.org/
(d) https://www.blockchain.com/explorer

At the time of transaction, we can use our private key. If possible, store private key offline.

5. Don't Trust SSL Only
Just because a website uses an SSL certificate does not mean that the website is completely secure. Buying an SSL certificate is not a complicated matter. We should double check the website before entering private key.

Please DO NOT key your private key into any website.

Storing your private keys offline doesn't make anything more secure. You'll probably be looking at making an air-gapped wallet in this case.

7. Enable 2FA
It is important to enable 2fa if our wallet serve this feature. We can use google authenticator, mobile number and gmail as 2fa method.

2FA is not perfectly bulletproof against malware attacks. There are many variants of malwares which seeks to exploit the user differently and the most common one is a clipboard malware which your 2FA won't protect unless you double check your transactions.

Im confused what that person means here.  They say you could enter your btc address to check balance right?  The way this person phrased it was like you could enter your wallet seed into it and check it.

[Oshosondy]

Im confused what that person means here.  They say you could enter your btc address to check balance right?  The way this person phrased it was like you could enter your wallet seed into it and check it.

Only addresses can be used to check balance, electrum can be used for this ourpose in a way you will import the addreses on electrum, this will sychronize with the blockchain that will result to the balance that will show up. This is more secure because nobody can spend from such wallet which are called watch only wallet but only used to track transactions. But seed phrase can be used to check balance too if it is imported into a bitcoin supported wallet, in this case, someone will be able to spend from the wallet. But this should not make someone confused and input the seed phrase on a site that requested for it, any site that requested for your seed phrase only want to scam you.

[bakasabo]

2. Install/ Download Chrome Extension
We can prevent being hacked if we download and install chrome extension. Mew chrome extension and MetaMask chrome extension are available to install.

I totally disagree with this. Dont install any browser extension. It is not always clear what kind of information it collects. Even if you use browser extensions, go through them and check for old/rarely used and delete them.

When you export your browsers settings, these extensions like to migrate with you. Sometimes old extensions are being sold or bought on purpose by hackers and their code is being modded. Next time when your old "neat old browser theme" asks for update, think twice before you update it. Because behind it you might get a bot, keylogger and other crap.

[lovesmayfamilis]

I totally disagree with this. Dont install any browser extension. It is not always clear what kind of information it collects. Even if you use browser extensions, go through them and check for old/rarely used and delete them.

When you export your browsers settings, these extensions like to migrate with you. Sometimes old extensions are being sold or bought on purpose by hackers and their code is being modded. Next time when your old "neat old browser theme" asks for update, think twice before you update it. Because behind it you might get a bot, keylogger and other crap.

In addition to the fact that the Chrome browser itself is not completely secure, all its extensions often collect information about users contrary to privacy rules. Recently, there was a story on reddit.com where users complained that an installed Chrome extension was accused of stealing cryptocurrencies.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Metamask/comments/mvtdbe/2_different_friends_have_been_hacked_someone_got/

I do not know how true this information is, but any browser hung with various add-ons will always pose a danger to the owner.

[Newlifebtc]

We store our valuable cryptocurrencies in various wallets. In this case, it is important to ensure the security of our wallet. I have come up with some points that can help you to secure your wallet:

1. Hardware Wallet
It is better to use hardware wallet because it is more secure than software wallet. Yes, we have to pay for this but if you think about safety of your assets, you'll be ready to buy hardware wallet like Ledger Nano S/ TREZOR.

2. Install/ Download Chrome Extension
We can prevent being hacked if we download and install chrome extension. Mew chrome extension and MetaMask chrome extension are available to install.

3. Bookmark Original Website
We can bookmark all the important/legit websites that we have to access regularly. We can use those bookmarked website safely without input manually.

4. Check Balance
It is not necessary to check our balance everytime by entering our private key. We can easily be able to check our balance and transaction from:

(a) https://etherscan.io/
(b) https://bscscan.com/
(c) https://tronscan.org/
(d) https://www.blockchain.com/explorer

At the time of transaction, we can use our private key. If possible, store private key offline.

5. Don't Trust SSL Only
Just because a website uses an SSL certificate does not mean that the website is completely secure. Buying an SSL certificate is not a complicated matter. We should double check the website before entering private key.

6. Don't Click on Attractive Offers
At the time of browsing, we see many interesting offers that we should not click on because no one will give you free money without doing anything. Sometimes we get such kind of shit offers on gmail/social media. Also, we should more conscious about downloading any app or file.

7. Enable 2FA
It is important to enable 2fa if our wallet serve this feature. We can use google authenticator, mobile number and gmail as 2fa method.

8. Free Wifi
We shouldn't use free wifi at all and by using free wifi, we can lose valuable personal data. Hackers can collect those data for entering your wallet.

Lastly, we should use our brain. Awareness can keep us safe on the internet.

"I might be wrong, please pardon my mistakes."

Thanks for the cautions especially that of not using free WiFi,most times people become too gullible that they jump into any free WiFi they see,not knowing it has some hazardous effects,by giving hackers access into personal and financial information on their phone

[Welsh]

I do not know how true this information is, but any browser hung with various add-ons will always pose a danger to the owner.

Any extension that you have installed which isn't open sourced, and hasn't been verified by either yourself or others has the potential of compromising your data. Therefore, you shouldn't just install any extension, plus personally I don't see the need to install several extensions at a time. Honestly, I could only recommend security/privacy open sourced extensions such as Ublock Origin, potentially a No Script extension if that suits your purposes.

[Welsh]

If your OS version is not updated with the latest security upgrades, it can be compromised when this is detected by the hacker.

Even if it is updated it could still be compromised, so you shouldn't assume because your up to date in the latest software that you aren't a potential target. Although, what your saying is possible, its much more likely that the hacker will look at the unencrypted information you are entering on the WIFI, and therefore look for passwords, rather than actually compromising your machine itself.

Security is important, but we tend to put emphasis on hackers like they are geniuses, when in reality most hackers are using well known exploits, or using someone else's script. There's not too many hackers which are adept enough to code their own sophisticated attacks, especially since their opponent is either Apple, Microsoft or Linux, which constantly monitor the space, and make improvements.

[Charles-Tim]

but still im a traditionalist and i perosnally prefer the paper wallet instead.Its about the trust in breaking in my personal  cash space

Why did you prefer paper wallet exactly over hardware wallet? If you know how to operate hardware wallet, it can give convenience while you can still decide to have both. Paper wallet only generate one private key, unlike the hardware wallets which are HD wallets generating several keys and addresses which can also help you in maintaining privacy if other ways to privacy are considered. It is your choice, paper wallet is also safe as the key is also offline.

[Luffygroove]

If I may add, we should also be very careful to not download a random application even if it's listed on google play, cause it may consist of malware or virus too. Second, many people save their private keys on cellular notes, cloud, or other media. It's still has a chance to be hacked. Third, always double-check some popular websites or sites that are frequently being used like mew, etherscan, other explorers cause some people to try to input phishing links, and sometimes it's difficult to differentiate it. Don't just google it and immediately click the site on the very top, cause it's not always the right one, better to bookmark the real site like you've said.