That they violate the security of our wallets and make us lose all our cryptocurrencies, is one of the most horrible fears that all of us who are within the cryptographic environment have, especially because we are sure that there is no insurance, authority, or some system of support that guarantees us the return of what was lost, since only we are responsible for said funds.
Lately, I have read a lot about different variants of scams within the blockchain, all carried out with the same objective: to steal our valuable crypto assets. From tokens used as "decoys", phishing or hacking equipment to steal passwords or seed phrases, every day they seem to reproduce as if it were weeds, the different forms of a scam aimed at stealing our cryptocurrencies.
In this publication I want us to review a series of security tips that will allow us to attend to what in my opinion are the two fundamental security elements to avoid or prevent future scams: knowledge and caution. Because if we analyze carefully, these are the two great weaknesses that scammers exploit to take advantage of us, our ignorance of some elements of the cryptographic environment and our "confidence" in the handling of our access codes.
Nobody needs your seed key, only you.
Yes, it may sound trite or repetitive, but for no reason in the world is it necessary for anything or anyone to ask you for the seed phrase of your wallet. No exchange or De Fi needs you to provide your seed key to be able to connect with your wallet, if a website requests it, run away as fast as you can! It is most likely a scam. That phrase is used solely and exclusively when you want to import your wallet from one device to another, no more.
If it's on paper better
Any digital file on your computer is susceptible to being stolen, yes, as you read it! It does not matter how good your firewall is or how much care you have taken to configure your mail, the truth is that there is a certain possibility that, through Trojans, phishing, or any other resource, one can access the files on your computer, so saving your access codes or your seed phrases on the computer is not a good idea, it would be best to print them (on paper, yes, like the old school!) and keep them in a safe place, without there being one digital copy of them, at least not on your computer.
Two-factor authentication
One of the mechanisms most used today is two-factor authentication, although it may be annoying for some, the truth is that the need to enter, from two different sources, a security code helps greatly reduce the possibility of If your wallet, exchange, mail, or any mechanism you use to manage your tokens allows it, activate two-factor authentication to feel much more secure when safeguarding your cryptocurrencies.
This is not a fantasy world
It seems that many confuse the concepts of airdrops and special launch offers with a magical world in which crypto assets are produced alone and therefore are given as if they were candy. No one is going to give us cryptocurrencies for no reason! So, if cryptocurrencies that you have not managed in any way appear in your wallet, doubt them, avoid interacting with their contracts, lest your greed ends, like many, making you lose all your money for relying on "poisoned gifts." Those millions of unknown tokens that "magically" appeared in your wallet are the same ones that can make your crypto assets "magically" disappear.
Sometimes it's not what it seems
With the appearance of De Fi, NFT games, and other crypto-asset investment platforms, it is increasingly necessary to have wallets that allow a more fluid interaction with these platforms, this implies accepting connections or the execution of smart contracts that will allow us to automatically deduct crypto assets from our wallets, that is why it is necessary that we always, but always, verify the authenticity of the sites we visit and that we verify, before signing, the type of smart contract that we are using. One of the main sources of scams comes precisely from pages that make us believe that they are authentic when in fact they are phishing designed, in an exact way to the original pages, to scam us.
Use the wallet that suits you best
As you know, we have two types of wallets: the hot wallet and the cold wallet. Depending on our needs and the number of our resources, at some point, we will need one or the other. If you want to hold large amounts of cryptocurrencies, it is best to use a cold wallet, on the contrary, if your trading strategy is much more dynamic and you participate in exchanges, NFT, and De Fi games, you may require a hot wallet that allows you a fluid interaction with these types of platforms. But why not use both? You shouldn't have all your cryptocurrencies in one place. You can, for example, place a group of them in one or more hot wallets, which you will use only to interact with the investment platform you have chosen, and when you withdraw profits or wish to hold, transfer your crypto assets to a much more secure site and where you don't need daily access. There is a great universe of wallets with different degrees of security, learn which one suits you, according to what you want to do, and diversify your storage mechanisms, so if you are a victim of a scam at least you can guarantee that you do not lose everything.
A browser that can help us a lot
For the vast majority of us, Google Chrome is the web browser par excellence, not only because of its powerful search engine but also because of the ease it offers us to install extensions and web applications, especially wallets. However, it is not the best option to handle ourselves within the cryptographic environment, that privilege is held by the Brave browser, our best option when it comes to web security. This browser has many features that will allow us to add elements of security in terms of the administration of crypto assets. It has powerful tools for blocking pop-ups, detecting pishing, recognizing malicious web pages and it even has its wallet designed for web 3.0 environments that will allow us to be a little calmer when safeguarding our valuable cryptocurrencies.
Bonus: check the token's reliability first
Another of the most widely used forms of scam is currently the token scam, there are thousands, even millions, users who have lost a lot of money with this type of scam that generally takes advantage of our greed to make us fall into the trap of "juicy” dividends through tokens that end up being a big scam. That is why here I leave you three websites that will allow you to review several of the elements that allow us to trust the authenticity of the token such as liquidity, characteristics of your smart contract if it can be sold or exchanged, who are its main holders or if it is a honeypot or a scam token:
- Bscheck.eu (you must copy the token contract)
- Honeypot.is (you must copy the token contract)
- Tokennsniffer.com (you can copy the contract or the name of the token)
I hope you do not settle for these few security tips that I provide in this publication, it is vital to take care of the cryptographic resources that have been so difficult for us to obtain, for this it is essential to investigate and learn daily about different elements of web security, as well as hackers and scammers, are preparing to look for ways to rob us, in the same way, we must also continue to train ourselves in the best measures to protect ourselves from them. I would like to know your opinion about these safety tips, I hope to read you in the comment box.
We keep reading!