The new investors are the ones that become the prey for cyber thieves and hackers. Investors need to be highly cautious while storing and securing their digital wallets and crypto exchange accounts. One of the most common cybercrimes that most cyber criminals opt for is a phone-porting attack. Today, everyone uses social media, and hackers are always in search of social media users that have cryptocurrency conversations with others. Hackers try to make investors the victims by sending emails and texts or posting on their mobile devices.
Hackers try to fool the customers and then transfer their phone numbers and personal details to control devices. Once they get access to the user’s phone number, they hack the crypto exchange account, reset the password, and steal the crypto-coins from the investor’s account. In the history of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, there have been thousands of cases where investors lost their crypto investments by becoming victims of phone-porting attacks.
Investors are always in search of the best ways or methods to protect their crypto assets from hackers. We have gathered the answers or tips from three investors that have lost their cryptocurrencies due to scams and hacks. A crypto expert, Amir Bandeali, is a trader who lost around 18% of his investments while trading crypto coins through the exchange Bitfinex. The hack inspired Amir to develop decentralized exchanges, and he believes that decentralized exchanges are the future of traders for digital trading currencies.
Let’s discuss the views and advice of crypto investors like the famous Elon Musk who is also well known in the bitcoin world.
Table of Contents
VP of operation at Coinbase, Dan Romero
Dan Romero suggests, at Coinbase, he says turning off account recovery and SMS-based two-factor authentication. Even if you choose to use Google Authenticator, turn off the SMS account recovery option as hackers are always trying to attack. It will compromise your account, and your digital currencies can get hacked. Instead, it is better to set up Coinbase Vault to store your digital coins and use two-factor authentication as a security measure to protect your vault.
Co-Founder of Chainalysis, Jonathan Levin
Before opening an account with any crypto exchange like Coinbase, set up a different email id from other emails and use that dedicated email for a crypto exchange account. Ensure to use a long, random, and complex password that is difficult to guess. Then, use a paper wallet to access your wallet from a piece of paper that only you control.
VP of Product Management at Coinbase, Sean Everett
Avoid discussing cryptocurrency publicly or on social media as hackers always have prying eyes. Hackers wait for social media users to talk about cryptocurrencies to hack their accounts. Instead, contact your phone provider and make sure they provide you with a high level of security that is possible and use a passcode for it. Another significant step towards a high level of protection is to use a “do not port” SIM card for your crypto exchange account.
Coinbase ensures their user’s security, provides wallets to their customers and makes sure they take all security measures, and it is better not to trust anyone in these cases.
Digital Consultant at Coinbase, Adam Dachis
Adam suggested never keeping all your crypto investments in a single wallet or crypto exchange. Make sure to diversify your investments at first and then store them at different exchanges and wallets. Diversifying your investments and storage places decreases the risk for all of them of getting hacked at a similar time. Ensure to use different passwords and emails for crypto exchange accounts and never write down or tell anyone details of your accounts.
Founder and CTO of 0x project, Amir Bandeali
Amir Bandeali suggests buying or selling digital assets from the centralized exchange, making withdrawals often, and choosing to store your digital currencies in a hardware wallet. A hardware wallet is the best wallet in a hardware device that creates transactions without an internet connection. It is better to use decentralized exchanges as these exchanges don’t control or hold users’ funds. Along with it, they make sure no unauthorized user has access to your funds and never compromise your private keys.
