Two words: Identity Theft. Just because the internet is heavily censored right now doesn’t mean we must put on a blindfold to the economic side effects emerging of late. The economy, no matter how small lovely and pink we are told these coming recessions are, we have to accept that soon we will experiencing some bumpy roads ahead. The fact of the matter is, many countries normally reliant on tourism, hospitality or service jobs are struggling. Cybersecurity companies are popping up everywhere in response to the requirements of the emerging crypto market. The crypto space is a tempting place to make a quick buck off of cheating naive investors out of their money. Digital currencies are a tool that encourages decentralisation rather than over regulation. So of course, the very nature and principals behind decentralised exchanges are mainly where the value is, this highlights the need to come a little prepared.
If you think you are not that interesting and have ‘nothing to hide’, perhaps your ID, saved passwords, deleted files, crypto keys, web history, sexy photos, confidential work documents could be to someone else (Even tech tycoon “The Zuck” puts tape over his laptop camera). While externally accessing these things is possible, the reality is, it takes a lot of experience and some simple solutions such as maintaining regular security updates or buying new machine hardware can be a pretty decent deterrent. In a future article I’ll share some good tips that may help you here.
Most of the time thieves are typically only looking for access to bank accounts or crypto wallets, therefore it pays to be careful. Never ever EVER send your crypto wallet keys, passwords or secret words to ANYONE asking you for these. Make sure you know the difference between public and private wallet address (I will make another more detailed post about this soon). But you should only EVER send your public address or complete transactions with the official website or app. Please remember you don’t HAVE to sign up to anything even if they seem very convincing, it’s your money and if something doesn’t look right, sleep on it.
A couple of take home points:
- Get a new encrypted email account and a second throw away spam account for non committal exploring. (Protonmail is free and doesn’t require mobile sign up) you can also use Runbox or Kolab Mail for quick throw away sign up emails, if you don’t want to use your regular email to sign up for added security (however don’t use throw away accounts officially as the the free versions only last a week or so and you may not be able to get back in.
- Make some free to join throw away wallet or exchange accounts using your junk email (many sites don’t require ID to join or trade) however its very important to research the companies reputation before jumping into anything. If you find some wallets and exchanges that stand out to you and you want to make a real account to buy crypto, research the most secure avenue for your country to start and use your new encrypted email account for this. I’ll be talking about some examples and some pros and cons of exchanges in my next few posts).
The best thing you can do is start simple, just do one thing at a time. You’ll need a little patience if you want security and a little bit of work up front can go a long way.
