Crypto OpSec Self-Guard

Officer's Notes
Coinmonks
6 min readJan 18, 2024

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Take a close look at this picture (imgur link). Then think up: the world is full of bad people, scammers, hackers, competitors, extortionists, and your personal enemies. Read this research.

This guide tries to account for all models, but focuses more on protecting against hackers, scammers, annoying fans and paparazzi, competitive espionage specialists (which can include police or other law enforcement officers who in theory can abuse their power), and so on.

Your OpSec depends directly on those against whom you are up against. In other words, you must build your own OpSec wall on your own, as follows, you must navigate it flawlessly well. And it doesn’t matter where it happens: on the Internet, in real life, and so on. Be one step ahead! May the power be with you!

Why does this guide focus primarily on advice for EVM-based blockchains and cryptocurrencies based on them?

No, this guide is appropriate for owners of all of the possible coins, developers, shadowy super-coders and digital nomads: you may own Bitcoin, DOGE, Sol, XMR, ETH, NFT — anything. I tried to cover all the bases, and if you follow the links, you’ll see that there are already a ton of fantastic answers to all of your queries!

What do I need for a perfect OpSec?

Try not to enable such a psychological phenomenon as the tunnel effect, which refers us to the aviation psychology and flight psychology, to emerge and expand. When experienced pilots get overly focused on one item while disregarding or ignoring all other warnings, they have an accident.

I hope you understood my guide correctly and did not allow this to happen. Be cautious, don’t rush, and stay calm. When you are hungry, unwell, or defenseless, do not act on emotion. Do not confuse with a tunnel syndrome! Nonetheless, it is critical that you have no distractions and that you are healthy and well-fed.

This is all correct, but nothing stops you from doing a fork or ordering an independent audit of the tools you are going to use, does it? With all said, it all depends on what you are going to get in result and against whom you are acting.

Study Kerckhoffs’s principle — The principle which holds that a cryptosystem should be secure, even if everything about the system, except the key, is public knowledge. This concept is widely embraced by cryptographers, in contrast to security through obscurity, which is not.

Let’s say we deal with a Duress or Wasted tools. As such, it can be used wrong (e.g. weak password), or used to do bad things (e.g., exfiltrate intellectual property). On the opposite, we can just use Steganography and a small paper, without even touching the computer. Both attitudes have the right to exist, in my honest opinion! All of the above refers to the criticism of tools as such and their role in OpSec.

I highly recommend to purchase a hardware wallet directly from the manufacturer’s website rather than online retailers like Amazon/eBay. It is also advised to use an alternative email address or a virtual office to protect your personal information in case of a data leak. I also don’t like trusting hardware. Therefore, we all should have physical ciphers! Once again, study Steganography!

Why is this guide so big?

Well, regarding big lists. Japan was the first country to invent the work that we do now in the form of SoKs or Awesome GitHub lists! If anyone is still around, browsers used to be sort of a table or database of websites, many of which were quite… uninspiring.

This manual is the culmination of years of work by security professionals. Consider this guidebook to be a compilation of advice and routes.

«Antenna-websites» were created at that time. There, their authors gathered a variety of resources that were related by a common subject to make someone’s life easier! In some ways, the creators of Awesome Lists and start.me continue this idea now. And it’s fantastically amazing!

Why does this guide have many authors?

Last but not least, everything you do is based on the outcomes you need to achieve! You should be able to select reliable and vetted sources instead of using all the tools and links. Through given routes, you ought to be able to construct your own journey!

Following that, I will tell you about the ways that I deem safe and recommend to my clients! Safety professionals have spent decades developing this manual, sharing their expertise in every word. Once again, consider this guidebook to be a compilation of advice and routes.

Remember, you must manage your OpSec wall and literally take it through “be like water”, tending not to overdo it! You construct your own security wall, which you must guard, repair, and develop, exactly like a real wall. Visit: this article!

Because OpSec is fundamentally based on fear, it effectively treats all people equally, regardless of their political or religious preferences. The following 25 rules are comparable to the rally racers’ safety regulations in that they are both “written in blood”.

The most important thing to understand here is the path of the cyber attack — its vector. Let’s take a closer look at various problems associated with OpSec and its implementation to modern life!

Keep in mind, being secure is not solely a one-time action but an ongoing effort to stay ahead of potential threats in an evolving digital landscape. Embrace the possibilities of the digital nomad life while remaining vigilant about security, and you can enjoy the benefits without compromising your cryptocurrency assets:

  • Invest in anti-theft backpacks or bags, like Pacsafe or XD Design Bobby, that have built-in security features like cut-proof materials, lockable zippers, and RFID-blocking pockets;
  • Also invest in a reputable virtual private network (VPN) to encrypt your internet traffic and protect yourself from potential Wi-Fi network vulnerabilities. This will prevent hackers from intercepting your data while working remotely or accessing cryptocurrency accounts;
  • Also, use only your own chargers and cables and, if necessary, buy them only in stores and make sure the packaging is intact! Study the following guide!

The best thing is to support me directly by donating to any address from the list below:

Much much thanks every single one of you!

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Coinmonks
Coinmonks

Published in Coinmonks

Coinmonks is a non-profit Crypto Educational Publication.

Officer's Notes
Officer's Notes

Written by Officer's Notes

Threat Researcher | Web3 / OSINT / OpSec / Privacy

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