Steemit Crypto Academy Contest / S7W6 - Careful, Has your Steemit account been hacked?

Assalamualaikum everyone,

Welcome to this post. I hope that all of you will be doing well and enjoying the time with the grace and blessings of Almighty Allah. Today, I am here to be a part of the last week 6 contest in the SteemitCryptoAcademy and the topic of discussion is very much important, Careful, Has your Steemit account been hacked?. So, let's start the discussion without any waste of time.

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Have you had your Steemit account hacked? What do you think about dubious links offering rewards? Give us your opinion.

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We all know that the crypto space is not free of scams and insecurities. There are many things that may lead to a great loss for the users in the cryptocurrency ecosystem and this is mainly due to the decentralized and transparent nature of blockchain technology.

Crypto scams are very common and one of the most important types of crypto scams is the Hacking of our crypto wallets or accounts. Talking about Steemit, being a decentralized social media platform, there are always the same risks this platform.

Talking about myself, I am thankful to Almighty Allah that I have never experienced this condition of being hacked in the Steemit platform. The hacking of the Steemit account actually means getting access to the private keys of our account, these private keys could be the Active Key, Posting Key, or the Master Password.

The most dangerous hacking is the hacking of the Active Key or Master Password as both of these keys can allow the hackers to access our Steemit Wallet and get access to our assets in the wallet. So, it can harm our Steemit journey a lot. The hackers can withdraw the tokens that we gathered after very hard work.

Dubious Links Offering Rewards

On the Steemit platform, we have seen different links in the comments, blogs, or posts in which the author of those posts claims that we can get rewards by clicking those links, but actually, those links are scams. It is possible that there are some scammers behind those links.

On clicking those links, you may lose your precious assets and the hackers use such algorithms that they can get access to your keys. And in this way, they can get access to your wallets to harm you. Some examples of such dubious links are given below.

_{Examples of Dubious Links}

In the above screenshots, you can see that the authors of these comments are claiming that they are making huge profits by joining some other platforms. But, you should be aware that these links are actually malicious links that may lead to the hacking of your account.

When you will click these links, you will be asked to enter your private key so that you could be able to claim the huge rewards. In the greed of getting huge rewards, you will put your private keys and thus you got scammed by these cunning scammers.

Remember, Steemit is a decentralized platform so we cannot stop the way of such scammers and hackers, but what we can do is just keep ourselves secure and safe. So, we must avoid clicking such links that are claiming high profits, high rewards, etc.

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What are your recommendations to prevent your account from being stolen or hacked? Give us your opinion.

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As I have already mentioned that we cannot stop scammers to do scams on platforms like Steemit due to their decentralized nature. But, there are some precautionary measures that can help us to stay safe on the platform. Some important suggestions and recommendations to prevent your accounts are as follows.

• The most important thing is that we must be aware of the fact that the links that we get online, claiming different huge rewards are scams actually. We must avoid clicking o opening such links.

• Never share your private keys with someone. We cannot trust anyone in this regard because privacy and security are the main concern.

• Never use the easy passwords for your Steemit wallet. Avoid using the easily determined passwords that you use in your daily lives.

• Another important thing in this regard is that we should never share our keys online with someone else.

• The dubious links are one of the major reasons behind the hacking of the account, so we must be aware of it and don't click such links.

• Upgrade your anti-virus software and the browsers that you use for accessing the platform. So that you could never miss important security updates.

• Regularly visit your account and check your Steemit wallet daily. If you will see any suspicious activity then you must take proper action.

• Security of the keys is very important. Avoid storing the keys on online platforms. Hardware copies of the keys or offline applications are the best things to store the keys.

• Do not use unverified, untrusted websites and software on your devices so that you could be away from malware attacks.

These recommendations will surely help you to reduce the chances of getting your accounts hacked on the platform and avoid huge losses.

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Why do some accounts get hacked? What would you say to people whose accounts are hacked?

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We have seen many people on Steemit that claim that their accounts have been hacked. There are many reasons behind these hacking conditions but the most common and general reasons could be as follow.

• The most important reason is that they may click the dubious links that they find interesting on the platform.

• Some of the accounts could be hacked because of the irresponsible behaviors of the owners in the sense of storing the keys.

• Some of the users also experienced the hacking of their accounts because they lost access to their keys which has been lost.

• Malware attacks could also be a reason behind the hacking of some Steemit accounts.

• Another reason that could be the cause of some hacking is the loss or stealing of the devices in which they have stored their Steemit keys.

• Unawareness of the high risks involved with the crypto world, just like the crypto scams could also be a reason behind the hacking of some accounts.

There could be some other reasons behind the hacking of some accounts, but these are the common reasons that could be possible.

To the People whose Accounts Hacked

First of all, I felt sorry for all of the people who have faced difficult situations in the form of the hacking of their accounts. It is a very bad experience for a user whose account has been hacked. There could be any reason behind that hack but anyways, they have to pass through a difficult time as they have lost their assets. But, thing hack must be a lesson for them so that they never repeat the same mistakes and be careful by the next time.

The users whose accounts have been hacked must have to change the password immediately so that they can minimize the losses and get access to their accounts. Regularly visiting the platform and monitoring all the activities of the account is also very much important so that they can take proper action against suspicious activities from the account in the form of transactions, rough posting, etc.

It is also important to contact the Steemit support team or the well-experienced Steemians from your area so that they could guide you to avoid further losses. Also, scan your devices regularly so that you could be away from any type of malware, virus, or any other malicious attack from hackers.

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If you find out that your account has been hacked, what are the steps you should take immediately to prevent your tokens from being stolen?

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I will try my best to keep my account safe and secure from any kind of hacker attack. But if unfortunately my account goes hacked then I must have to take some important steps so that I can recover my account and avoid huge losses. I will follow the below steps to ensure my safety.

• First of all, I will power up all the liquid rewards (Steem or SBD) so that they could be secured.

• Then, I will fastly change my Steemit account password so that I could avoid further losses.

• I will contact my friends and Steemit team members to help me in this regard and I will follow their instructions.

• Then, I will write about the hacking of my Steemit account through a post. So that all of the Steemit family could be aware of that and help me in that regard.

• I will monitor all the activities, and transactions from my account and if there is any suspicious activity, I will inform the Steemit team.

• At last, I will try my best to find out the reason for that hack and will avoid such mistakes in the future.

So, these are some steps everyone should have to follow if their Steemit account goes hacked. These steps will surely minimize the losses of that hack.

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Conclusions

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Steemit is a social media blogging platform and it is decentralized in nature so just like the other decentralized blockchain platforms, there are some risks that are involved with it. These risks are actually scams and hacks. We all know that hackers and scammers are wandering around in the digital world and finding victims so that they could harm innocent people.

At the Steemit platform, one of the major reasons behind account hacking is the phishing attack through malicious links and attachments. We should avoid clicking such links and attachments so that we could maintain safety. Unfortunately, if our account goes hacked, then we should have to follow the above instructions, especially changing the keys.

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I would like to invite my friends @malikusman1, @cryptobitcoins, @alihussain07, @nadiaturrina and @sualeha to take part in this amazing contest.

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