How should we retail investors respond to hacker attacks?

[caryoscar]

In May, Colonial Pipeline, the largest refined oil pipeline operator in the United States, suffered a hack. The company was forced to pay a $4.4 million bitcoin ransom to the hacker organization "Dark Side" before the pipeline resumed operations. The FBI directly confiscated Bitcoin from the hacker's "wallet", but the hacker not only didn't mean to stop, but also turned the target of the attack to Saudi Aramco, the world's largest oil producer.

What do you think of this problem? I have a few suggestions:

• When transferring money to others, you must pay attention to confirm whether the transfer operation is the expected operation, and confirm the authenticity of the project when receiving the airdrop.
• Don't answer calls from strangers, hang up in time when you are not sure of your identity, and be optimistic about your wallet. It is much better to trust a stranger.
• Don't scan and transfer money with untrusted QR codes, don't authorize wallets for unaudited projects, and don't import private keys into unknown third-party websites. Doing this can avoid most currency thefts caused by hacker attacks.

The best way is not to operate frequently, to identify Bitcoin, hold it for a long time, and not to fall into the abyss of huge temptation.

[Obito]

I also would like to add that we shouldn't store our coins in exchanges as these exchanges are prone to attacks that you don't have any way of getting back at. Remember the phrase, "Not your keys, not your coins" they are going to help you a lot. Also, buy yourself some hardware wallets so you can be extra safe.

[Ararbermas]

Tagged the exchange or what site it's here in forum so that everyone knows that its totally not secured for storing money. Indeed its so easy to give feedback nowadays when it comes such things, Wherein it's up to you if you have free time to do it. Because hackers always exist when they found hole to attack any sites. So it's up to us how to avoid it.. What i mean if you don't have time to speculate or make research before buying bitcoin or any currency then it's your fault. These is based on your question actually..

[dzonikg28]

I also would like to add that we shouldn't store our coins in exchanges as these exchanges are prone to attacks that you don't have any way of getting back at. Remember the phrase, "Not your keys, not your coins" they are going to help you a lot. Also, buy yourself some hardware wallets so you can be extra safe.

It depends on the amount you are storing on an exchange, which exchange it is and where the exchange is located. If they are located in a highly regulated country, you don't have a considerable risk storing a moderate amount of crypto on your exchange wallets. If you take Binance as an example, I would say it is very safe to store your cryptos with them if we are not talking fortunes. If they get hacked, rest assured they do have security measures in place and they also will ultimately reimburse you.

[vv181]

~snip

Exchanges should solely be used only when if you want to trade. Using it for the purpose of storing is a big no. Binance was hacked, even though they were still able to repay it, there is no certainty those occurrences will happen again. Say it the hacked amount is bigger or people lost trust to them. AFAIK, they recovered it from other people fee trade, well, that only possible if people still trusting them.

Anyway, Instead of trusting a third party to have securities measure for your coin, why didn't you achieve the security by yourself and for yourself. Having a self-custodian wallet also give you a financial sovereignty

[roosbit]

These Dark side hackers did do there research and knew that the company would opt to pay than losing production hours which would make them more money than the paid Ransome.

The best they should do now is train their stuff in cyber security to prevent this from happening again and also to be on the lookout for anything that could compromise the system and use computer systems for work related stuff only.

[Westingcote]

Any organization or company should be keeping as many Bitcoin of theirs offline in secure storage that is the best possible defense against hackers of their platforms. The rest of the man power should focus on making their platform secure and prevent the hack in the first place but if it does happen at least their coins will be safe.

[tippytoes]

I also would like to add that we shouldn't store our coins in exchanges as these exchanges are prone to attacks that you don't have any way of getting back at. Remember the phrase, "Not your keys, not your coins" they are going to help you a lot. Also, buy yourself some hardware wallets so you can be extra safe.

But still a lot of people are storing their funds in exchanges. If you want to at least make sure you can still have your funds despite of the attack, better store it in binance as they have SAFU over there. But much better if you will store it in your own wallet, where you have the full control of your funds. Even top exchanges are vulnerable to attacks because softwares are getting sophisticated and hackers will try and try to penetrate their security system.

[osasshem]

Hackers takes time to carry out their evil assignment. This could be taking a very long time for them to trace, track and strike, just that when they strike, they barely miss. At the point of storing assets on the exchange is not really the best, but when these coins stored in the exchange are for trading, then it's not a bad idea, cause you have you major holdings/assets on a mobile wallet with you in full control of your Phrase, password, your transaction password etc depending on the wallet in use.
Because of the high volatility and increase in the price of crypto assets, hackers are working tooth and nail to break through the security system of any exchange out there and big companies, making ransom to be in Bitcoin because it appreciates in price over time.

[Yaunfitda]

If I may add, separate your hardware, i.e pc/laptop for crypto uses on a machine that you used frequently. In that sense, you won't get viruses or malwares. I know it's not going to be cheap as you need to have 2 separates machine. But it is for our security so it's better to practice safe hygiene that to fall for this cyber criminals. Also, if you find emails from unknown sources, don't click specially those attachments, delete it right away.

[buwaytress]

Same as we always should have. By taking responsibility for our own security. More than ever now, with all kinds of interconnected apps. If your password is weak, change it. If you're sharing a device and connection, closewall it. Especially with Bitcoin/crypto, if you're not the only one with access, sweep funds to a clean device, clean wallet, where you're the sole person able to control it.

Hacks shouldn't serve as a validator for these practices. Merely reminders of how vulnerable we are if we trust our security to someone else.

[randegibran]

we already feel confident.about an account.that we currently.have with a super tight security.system, but hackers always have a way to steal.something personal information that we have, we think it is necessary to separate it.from the hardware so that our account.is not easy hacked.by irresponsible.people, and we also don't easily.trust scammers.for something related to personal information

[SquirrelJulietGarden]

Retail investors are weakest participants in the market and they are main targets of fud.

Bitcoin Obituaries is a good source to see how Bitcoin is attacked with FUD. If you have a few years in the market, you will see when the market need to be corrected, many news about hack will be announced and spread around social media.

Not your keys, not your coins. If retail investors store their Bitcoin in a non custodial wallet, back up private key, and encrypt the wallet with strong password, how hackers can touch their Bitcoin?

Wallet Basics:

Do not use wallets that don't give you recovery data; these wallets are likely controlling your keys.
Do not use paper wallets unless you're an advanced user who understands all the risks.
Do not store large amounts of value in single signature wallets.
Make sure your heirs know how to recover your wallets without you!
Note that it is NOT recommended that novices use the Bitcoin Core wallet. If you want to use a wallet backed by a fully validating node you run, read Securing Your Financial Sovereignty.

https://notyourkeys.org/
https://www.lopp.net/bitcoin-information/recommended-wallets.html
[GUIDE] How to Create a Strong/Secure Password

[taufik123]

But still a lot of people are storing their funds in exchanges. If you want to at least make sure you can still have your funds despite of the attack, better store it in binance as they have SAFU over there. But much better if you will store it in your own wallet, where you have the full control of your funds. Even top exchanges are vulnerable to attacks because softwares are getting sophisticated and hackers will try and try to penetrate their security system.

Storing in a personal wallet is indeed more secure. Can use mobile applications such as truswallet or the safest use hardware wallet which has better security.
Saving on the Binance exchange is safe, but it won't be safe forever, because Binance has also been hacked by hackers and took some assets. But Binance replaced the lost assets. Today Binance's security is constantly being updated and Binance is becoming a large Exchange with many users today.

Hacker attacks will never stop. We as asset owners must also be vigilant and do not fall into the trap created by hackers. they will spread many traps to be able to access your wallet.

[dzonikg28]

~snip

Exchanges should solely be used only when if you want to trade. Using it for the purpose of storing is a big no. Binance was hacked, even though they were still able to repay it, there is no certainty those occurrences will happen again. Say it the hacked amount is bigger or people lost trust to them. AFAIK, they recovered it from other people fee trade, well, that only possible if people still trusting them.

Anyway, Instead of trusting a third party to have securities measure for your coin, why didn't you achieve the security by yourself and for yourself. Having a self-custodian wallet also give you a financial sovereignty

I was talking about rather small amounts and if your aim is to keep trading every now and then, leaving your crypto on a very reputable, licensed exchange can be an option because otherwise the fees alone for transferring crypto back and forth will most likely destroy any profits you make from trading. I would say it is close to impossible to hack Binance such that they go broke. They will have tons of security measures in place and if you hack them successfully, their system is probably set up in a way such that the hack is not financially fatal.

[vv181]

~snip
I would say it is close to impossible to hack Binance such that they go broke. They will have tons of security measures in place and if you hack them successfully, their system is probably set up in a way such that the hack is not financially fatal.

So their security mitigation risk is to set up that in the case of a breached system scenario it will not lose an enormous amount?

Store your coin wherever you want. I am personally fed up with the Cryptopia shitstorms. After all, a system got hacked/bug is inevitable. And god knows how much the funds on the custodian wallet being at risk.

[Lucius]

I don’t see a direct link between the questions posed by the OP and what happened to the companies that fell victim to ransomware. Every serious company knows that it is exposed to such an attack, and the best prevention is to backup the entire system regularly, and keep sensitive data offline. Also, employees should be educated not to open any suspicious e-mails and not to click on links. If that were the case, ransomware attacks would become quite unsuccessful and might even disappear altogether.

For ordinary users, such an attack should not jeopardize their crypto assets if they have a backup stored in a safe place. Imagine a situation where someone doesn't have a backup or they are on a computer that has been hacked with ransomware, and they are asked to pay a ransom in crypto - some may only then realize their stupidity.

[Wexnident]

I personally think there was an insider, or the hackers themselves manage to get inside the facility where they could enter the system and not really pure hacking skills tbh. I hardly doubt people from that industry would just let their system or whatnot be connected to gadgets that people use, or let them open websites or applications that weren't strictly in use for whatever purpose they need.

For ordinary users though, whatever you said works. Tbh it's just careful usage of the internet. Stop accessing sites you don't really need to, and if you do, make sure it's the legitimate one. Getting Phished comes from you being careless, heck getting scammed most of the time is.

[lablab03]

Hackers is everywhere and if you're really aware in such issue then it's your consideration how to prevent it every time and as the matter of fact it veey common when it comes crypto investment , especially if you used to invest money in different projects because there's no way you can't encounter such issues, and you will have that experience only because of some projects that lack of security and of course because of some are frauds from new projects that pretending that they got hacked and will run away. Lmao.
So be advised that always assure everything before making investment, because once you got caught and fell to those hackers and frauds trap, there's no way you can regain your money from it.

[zanezane]

For me, the only way we can protect ourselves with these attacks is if we were to make sure that we are secure individually, what I mean by that is that we should be able to have our own measures to prevent ourselves from becoming victims plus not storing your crypto on online wallet is going to reduce the chances of being a victim drastically, remember the phrase "not your keys, not your coins".