Do it the right way
It is a no-brainer to say, that protecting your recovery keys is one of the first things you need to learn and understand when entering the crypto space.
Printing and distributing them into secured locations is the way many, if not most of us, do. You can learn how to do it securely in this article https://medium.com/p/5a0324d2bdf5
Here, we highlight something that is likely overlooked by many, and it may cost a lot if not done the right way.
Thieves are smart, but you are smarter
Assuming you have printed out your mnemonic phrases, private keys, or passwords using a split method, you are ready to put them away in secured places. You will place them in the envelope, write down some notes, and voila. As much as this sounds like a good idea, let’s look at some problems that are not immediately obvious.
If one of your pieces was compromised, you might not even notice. Anyone, who wants to steal your confidential data, will likely try to conceal any traces of a crime. If you don’t find that one of your envelopes was opened early enough, you increase the chance of leaking your information completely.
If you want to learn how to protect your keys with a paper backup, please read the following story.
Printouts
The goal is to wrap the printouts in a way, that it will be very obvious that they were compromised. The package should have unique traits and shouldn’t be possible to replace with a recreated copy, shouldn’t be possible to view the content without opening it and shouldn’t be possible to open it with steam and re-seal it.
Marking
Good marking techniques need to consider protecting against the possibility of recreating the envelope. In the end, an intruder will not care how well your package was protected if he can replace it with a perfectly recreated copy. Noticing unintended interference is critically important, and probably the most effective way of marking is using self-invented techniques.
One way we would suggest, is randomly placing the envelopes on top of one another and marking them with one stroke using marker. Make sure that each envelope will contain part of the ornament. You can even take a photo to act as a reference to examine if in doubt. Of course don’t share these photos with anyone you don’t trust.
Opaque wrap
There is also a chance that wrongly protected content could be looked through the envelope. Using a very strong torch and capturing the image can potentially leak the information without leaving any traces behind. Placing a printout in the black protective sleeve before sealing in the envelope would very likely fix the problem. But, what kind of black sleeve, you probably wonder? Opaque, ideally the ones that require protection against the light i.e. photographic papers. Before distributing the envelopes, it would be strongly recommended to do a small experiment.
Place your printout in the protective sleeve, slide it into the envelope, take a torch and try to look through. You can take step further and capture the image. Using photo editing tools try to recreate the content. If you can’t, your content is likely to be well protected.
Sealing
Sealing the package, can be quite tricky. What is the point of sealing? You cannot prevent from opening it by anyone, but you can seal it the way to become obvious, that it was opened by unintended person at some point.
Choosing the correct envelopes for the job is very critical at this point. Provided standard sealing may not be enough, and you will need to apply your own solution. Using strong double side tape can do the trick — trying to open the envelopes will rip them apart.
Environment impact
Let’s not focus only on intruders in this case. There could be some other natural factors that can cause your information to be damaged. In the end, your job is to minimize the risk of losing data one way or the other.
The printouts should always be kept in conditions that are friendly for long storage. They should not be exposed to the sun. Everybody knows that the sun can make the printouts to bleak out. It should be kept in a dry environment. Moisture can completely damage your printouts and make them unreadable. Black protective sleeves mentioned earlier could help as long as they are plastic. When the paper sits in the sleeve, ensure it is vacuumed as much as possible. The air is also your enemy. The air can condensate into droplets of water and have an impact on the prints.
Locations
Your documents should be hidden in secured locations; at the same, they should be easy to access for you and anyone you need to share with but hard to access by anyone else. In the end, your protection is as good as quickly you can counter the potential loss.
One of the biggest challenges you will face is finding locations you can store your printouts. 3 locations are optimal because most likely, the average person will not be able to find more. A system that requires more places, creates the potential problem of poor security. Your hidden spots should be an optimal balance of easy to reach by yourself and hard to find by anyone else.
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