5 Steps to Securing Your Crypto-Assets

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Digital Assets such as crypto-currencies are still fairly new, meaning they are highly vulnerable to cyber-attacks and phishing scams. We have outlined five steps to securing your crypto assets and as well as some useful tips.

1. Create a strong password

Although this seems like common sense, according to a 2014 poll from Keeper, the three most common passwords are ‘password’, ‘qwerty’, and ‘12345’.

Milnsbridge recommends using a password generator to make a 16+ character password that includes a combination of letters, numbers, and symbols.

2. Set up 2 Factor Authentication (2FA).

2FA is a simple measure to secure your crypto-assets. Services such as Bittrex and Google Authenticator require a six-digit key each time you log in, these codes change every time making it extremely difficult for someone to gain access to your account.

3. Use a hardware wallet.

Whilst software wallets do exist, they are vulnerable to malware attacks and potentially being hacked. Whilst hardware wallets vastly reduce this risk. Similarly, when relying on a software wallet, you may run the risk of losing your crypto assets if the founding company goes bankrupt or you lose the device on which your software wallet was stored.

Milnsbridge recommends Ledger Hardware Wallet. You can get a Ledger Wallet using the affiliate link from Milnsbridge partners Men In Block HERE.

4. Never store crypto-assets on an exchange (long term).

Exchanges are not wallets, if an exchange is hacked, you risk losing all of your crypto-assets and reimbursements are not guaranteed.

This is not to say that you should steer clear of crypto-exchanges, CTO and Founder of 0x Project, Amir Bandeal says:

‘If you must use a centralized exchange, withdraw often, store your tokens on a hardware wallet. This is a hardware device, creates transactions without connecting through the internet’.

5. Utilise trustworthy Antivirus/ Malware protection.

By choosing to download free antivirus software or not using it all, you risk being hacked or having your crypto-assets compromised. An example of this is CryptoShuffler which quietly stole around 23BTC (182,809 AUD at the time of writing). CryptoShuffler disguised itself as an ICO when it was actually trojan software which would reside in a computer’s memory waiting for a wallet address to be copied onto the clipboard. This consequently compromised all crypto payments by sending the coins to the author of the software.

Other important things to consider:

Always log out of your devices, exchanges, and wallets. Although this seems like common sense, hackers will benefit from you leaving your account open and unattended.
Avoid using the same username and password twice.
Avoid sharing sensitive details about your crypto-assets, such as the number of coins you have, where they’re stored, usernames/passwords etc.
Do not store login details online, this makes your account susceptible to attacks.

Maintaining high levels of IT security is no longer optional for businesses. Recognising this necessity, Milnsbridge embarked on a security audit in late 2016 which laid the foundation for the Milnsbridge Secure Operating Environment (MSOE)

There have been zero infections of crypto-related attacks recorded since the MSOE rolled out across all Milnsbridge Managed IT Services’ clients.

Call Milnsbridge today on 1300 300 293 to make sure your business is protected