Many people enter the bitcoin space with one goal in mind, making profit. Although there is nothing with that goal in mind, but i believe that one of the first things newcomers should learn is not how to buy bitcoin, but how to protect it.
Can you start to consider protecting what you've not gotten? As much as protecting your asset is important, you've got to first of all be more concerned about how many asset you're able to accumulate before you consider it security or work in securing your asset while you're yet building your bitcoin stack.
To answer your question, no you can not protect an asset you have not acquired, but you can plan for it security before obtaining it. As someone who is new to the Bitcoin space before purchasing your first Bitcoin you can make security plans in advance, or is there anything wrong in making security plans before obtaining your first Bitcoin?
I know you and some others would say that it will delay someone Bitcoin investment journey and cause them to miss buying opportunities, come on bro/sis learning about how to security your Bitcoin investment won't take decades it will only take few hours or, at most a day.
And if I may ask, what is the gain or benefit of accumulating Bitcoin and end up losing it to scammers, hackers, or even humans error?