Digital Assets: Security Measures
Since after the inception of the digital currency in the market, the real money is slowly and slowly getting obsolete. People are relying more upon the digital currencies and welcoming this new age of digitalization; this is the reason why we sometimes hear popular digital currency; Bitcoin goes high and sometimes goes down! But, have you ever wondered, Since, these digital coins cannot be physically touched, hidden under a mattress or locked in a vault, then how would one know, how safe are these digital assets? What are the risks associated with them?
Further, another thing that hits the mind of most of the people is that, though Blockchain is believed to be 100 percent secure and impossible to hack due to its highly secure distributed system, then when it comes to digital currency, why do we talk about hacking, when we all know it’s one of the major applications of Blockchain? Well, the thing is that the points of vulnerability lie totally in the way, user access the Blockchain, which creates an attack surface for hackers.
Owning a Digital Asset
Before we move ahead with the security measures for securing a digital asset, we must be aware of what it means to own a digital asset truly. Blockchain, which works over a system based on the public/private key digital graph, was built to enforce the ability to track the ownership of digital assets in a decentralized way. This means that one will be able to assure the certainty that any digital assets held in the wallet are entirely in their control and are easily verifiable. These digital coins are accessible via a digital graphic private key, and its value is represented over the blockchain ledger. Thus, one can only spend the funds if they hold the private key, which is analogous to the access code to a vault full of gold. For example, Bitcoin, which is a decentralized asset, having no third-party authority to enforce ownership or resolve disputes. If two people have the private key to a wallet, they have an equal claim to control those funds.
How to keep Digital Assets safe?
Keep yourself away from phishing scams
These days it has been observed that hackers are using a popular scam technique, under which they create an identical and dummy version of the exchange or web wallet page. Using this, they usually mail a convincing message that convinces them to log in and take some action immediately. In revert to this, many people access these sites, enters the data, which is then fetched by the hackers, who use this data for their benefits. To prevent falling in this manner of phishing, always make sure that the link shown in the web browser is the same as that of the exchange or web wallet.
Device safety
Another important thing, a digital currency trader must make sure is that the installed antivirus over the system is 100 percent Up to date. Further, firewall over the device is enabled and is efficient enough to protect you from the download of suspicious software, that you aren’t sure about. Also, one must make sure that no downloads should be made over any suspicious attachments over the system, which has a bad reputation in the market.
Never store your digital currency over the exchanges
Well, it’s observed that one thinks that they are taking the best action to protect their digital currency but misses over checking that the digital currency exchange is protecting your funds or not. Like in the past some cases, it has been observed that the user’s deposits are sometimes, frozen or lost, due to hacking or technical error. One must withdraw funds from their digital wallet, in case they aren’t trading over them. Further, one decides to keep their funds stored over the exchange platform, and then one must make sure that the exchange platform is reputable, reliable, and trustworthy.
Enable two-factor authentication
To further enhance the security level of the digital wallet, Two-factor authentication is a perfect choice which includes an extra layer of security to the validation process by making it impossible for attackers to gain access to the wallet or exchange account. Because merely knowing the password alone isn’t enough to get control over the mind. Thus, one must rely upon only those exchanges which will continue equipping with this feature like requiring a random PIN sent via SMS or email.
Use hard to crack, use complicated passwords
While creating a wallet or digital currency exchange account, one must be very attentive while creating a passcode. It should be a perfect combination of upper and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols. In case, you find it challenging to develop a secure passcode, and then you can avail help from online password generators that create a highly secure password.
After that, this passcode must be kept in a safe and secure place, like penning it down on a piece of paper to store it offline or holding it over a trusted password keeper.
Never use public wifi
One should be very careful while opting for a network connection as choosing public Wi-Fi is capable of directing the browser that you are using to any other page, which can be a dummy version of the exchange or wallet. Further, it can also fetch data transmitted through the network which, in case, may include all your details, which can even be your wallet passcode. Thus, one should prefer VPN If there is no other option available than using public Wi-Fi.
Go for a digital currency hardware wallet
Digital currency hardware wallets are so far the safest available option to safeguard your digital assets. It is a specialized device that stores the user’s private keys secure inside an impenetrable circuit which can be accessed anytime with a single click. Further, it generally comes with a physical paper called “seed,” which allows the users to securely transfer their keys to another wallet in case the device stolen or lost.
Beware of pump and dumps
One of the highly illegal practices in traditional markets, as well as the digital currency markets, is the pump and dump tactic, under which some people create a false hype among the people all over the world, falling into which a large number of people makes the purchase of digital currency at the same time. By this practice, letting a large number of people to buy a coin at the same time, results in drastic rise in the price of the currency, thereby, people are intended to purchase coins at high cost, enabling the culprits of the pump and dump to “dump” on all the victims buying at a higher price. This is entirely unsafe because, these people will try to lure you into taking part into the purchase of these coins promising outlandish returns, but the reality is that only the Intermediaries and the organizers will be profiting from this.
Always keep your holdings private
In the past incidents, there have been numerous cases of people getting assaulted, or even killed, by bad actors pretending to take charge of their digital currency. One recent example is the one of a Norwegian man who was murdered after conducting a more substantial in-person Bitcoin transaction. These thefts associated with the digital currency are too common among the criminals, because of its anonymous nature. Since the money drawn from a bank account is identifiable and can be retrieved in most of the cases, But, when it comes to Bitcoin or other digital currencies, it is difficult to receive the amount and identify the culprit because it is uncensorable and unidentifiable. Thus, it is advised never to disclose the details on how much digital currency you hold.
Beware of the Bitcoin gambling sites
Gambling has always attracted people of all age groups, who do not love to earn more in less time? When it comes to Digital Currency format, many people enjoy its gambling due to the anonymity aspect of it. However, this anonymity can put you insignificant worries. For this, there are numerous Bitcoin gambling sites that are running all over the web, who do not disclose the identity of the participants. Hence it becomes way too challenging to check if the exchange platform has the appropriate licenses or not. Thus, it prevents yourself from falling in the vicious circles of these sites; one should take due care that the gambling sites over which they are performing gambling are reputable, have been in the market from several years and have excellent reviews online.
Always Encrypt your data
In web market, there are several core software wallets which allow you to keep a download of .dat backup file keeping your keys safe with them, like VeraCrypt, which encrypt the data and can be kept secure in a USB stick. So, if in any of the bad situation if an attacker manages to get control over your device, then they will not be able to cause you any harm if the wallet is encrypted.
Summing up to these aspects, we’ll accept the fact that thefts associated with the digital currency have become very popular. Thus, one needs to be very careful while dealing with these digital currencies and is further expected to keep above parameters under consideration to prevent any loss and keep their digital assets in safe hands.
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