During the pandemic, as the global economy crashed and struggled to survive, there was one market that not only survived the entire ordeal but thrived in it despite all circumstances and it is none other than the cryptocurrency market. The cryptocurrency market is one of the biggest markets in the world and has had the most dramatic growth out of all markets.
According to www.cryptopolitan.com, there are several benefits to investing in cryptocurrency that more than make up, or “reimburse”, the flaws. The website goes on to say that if you invest correctly and wisely, you will end up with amazing profits from cryptocurrency like the hundreds of investors who invested early in bitcoin and are now crypto billionaires.
These crypto billionaires have inspired thousands of new investors to try out cryptocurrency for themselves and invest in it for large profits. However, many of these investors lack the basic knowledge of protecting cryptocurrency accounts as they have never used the platform before. If these people invest, they stand a chance of losing all their assets and investments to hackers.
To prevent that from happening, in this article we will list several security measures that ensure your account and your cryptocurrency investment stay safe no matter what happens. We recommend reading the article till the end so that you don’t miss out on crucial details.
Have complex passwords for your system
When you open a cryptocurrency account, it is necessary that you secure it with a unique and complex password. Using simple passwords such as your name and your date of birth can easily result in the account being compromised. This sense of security gets even more heightened when you have substantial investments in your account and want to ensure that it doesn’t get attacked by hackers.
It is a good idea to use a random series of letters, characters, numbers, and symbols to generate a password that is completely random and something you have never seen before. When you do this, ensure that you write the password down somewhere and keep it safe with you in a safe or a locker. Never store your account passwords on your laptop or computer.
Don’t bother memorizing it either because if you end up forgetting it, you will have to go through a very complicated verification process to change your password again, not to mention that your exchange may think you are a hacker and may choose to block your own account to yourself.
Using random passwords for your cryptocurrency account is necessary. Even if you think you should use your email password that hasn’t been cracked yet, we wouldn’t recommend doing so because if your hacker already has knowledge of your email password then it means that they automatically have access to your cryptocurrency account as well.
Utilize 2FA
2FA, or two-factor authentication, is a new and unique way of authentication that you can apply to your cryptocurrency account to make it more secure. There are several 2FA applications for smartphones that can generate a one-time password for a certain amount of time before changing it again.
This is a great way of authentication and will keep your account protected every time a suspicious person tries to log in with your credentials. All you need to do is to ensure that you enable 2FA in your crypto account settings and you will be good to go.
If you want to make your account more secure, you can try using a security key from a security key generator app that binds all your login details with the key. That being said, keeping the key safe from prying eyes and cheating hands can be quite a rigorous task. Unless you are up to the task, we wouldn’t really recommend a security key app to you.
Ensure security measures on your SIM card
One of the most common ways hackers get access to your account is by routing your SIM card to their SIM and using it as a means to get into your account. Hackers do this by using several methods such as pretending to be innocent service providers and telling you to click on links that in reality are actually rerouting links.
Clicking on these links sends a routing request to your actual service providers and if you confirm the request, usually at the bequest of hackers, then you permanently lose all access to your sim card and potentially our crypto account if your account is attached with your sim card.
This is why it is necessary that you contact your service providers beforehand and enable a security lock pin for your sim card. This should deter hackers from accessing your sim card unless they know what your pin is. As an additional layer of security, we would recommend that you use separate sim cards for separate crypto accounts, if possible. This will give you the maximum security you can get with sim cards.
Use cold wallets over hot wallets
Your wallets are the storage units for your cryptocurrency. This is where all your cryptocurrency goes when you withdraw it from trades. Wallets come in primarily two types – cold wallets and hot wallets. Hot wallets are wallets that are connected to the internet and require an active internet connection if you wish to withdraw or deposit cryptocurrency from it.
These wallets are generally considered unsafe because they are connected to the internet and can thus be easily hacked. On the other hand, you have cold wallets that require absolutely no internet connection to store your cryptocurrency inside them safely.
They come in a number of forms such as hardware wallets, paper wallets, and card wallets. Cold wallets are considered to be the safest form of crypto storage because they cannot be accessed by hackers and keep all your cryptocurrency assets safe.
The only way they can access it is by having the wallets in physical form and knowing the keys to your wallet and even then some hardware wallets come with an option of auto-locking themselves if they are connected to a new computer. Nonetheless, you should always keep your cold wallets safe with you in a secure place.
Conclusion
There are several security measures you can take to ensure your account and investments stay safe from the hands of hackers and thieves. We hope this article helped you out in making your account more secure and if it did, please consider following our website for regular updates as it will help us out immensely.