THE STEEMIT CRYPTO ACCADEMY WEEK 5 - SECURITY PROBLEMS FACING CRYPTOCURRENCY@gbenga

Im @wondeerbowy by username. I have heard a lot about SteemCryptoAccademy but didn’t know it was this fun until i recently joined. I was amazed with the classes offered by the Professors. I thought I knew so much about cryptocurrency , but when I went through the past lectures like lesson 4 I realized there is always much to be learnt.
This is the right place to be when it comes to knowledge acquisition in cryptocurrencies. Too bad, I couldn’t take part in previous task though but I’m going through the lessons to equip myself with knowledge needed for the future. Cryptocurrency is the future and everyone should be educated on it so you do not fall behind. I’m very grateful to steeemit for such great initiative and also the Professors who have volunteered to take us through weekly lessons. It is not easy but it’s worth it, once again keep it up with the good work.
This happens to be my first task and i hope its a good work done.

lets look at the key word' security'; this is simply the act of keeping oneself save from intruders attack.
Now lets go straight to the tasks ahead.

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One good thing about cryptocurrency is its decentralization, meaning no third party when it comes to assets control, transactions or transfer of funds, personal data and identity being kept safe. Although all these are great advantages of cryptocurrencies or DeFi, vulnerability is still a keen thing in cryptocurrency ecosystem.
There have been several news on theft on individuals or organizations.
I’m about to elaborate on some security problems facing the cryptocurrency ecosystem be it individuals or organizations.
Its one big problem facing everyone. one can fall a victim if care and the necessary safety precautions are not taken.

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The first one I will like to elaborate on is DUSTING ATTACKS , in this process, hackers sends small amount of cryptocurrency to a holders wallet. They then monitor your activities including fund transfers, withdrawals, exchange for other assets etc. when they are able to monitor you for a while and you are not lucky, your information might leak to them. As soon as this happen they send a phishing link to you. It could be sent to your gmail, message or social media platforms or even the crypto wallet. The links leads to malicious websites If you should click on it.
This messages could come the form’ RECEIVE/CLAIM FREE’ the cryptocurrencny follows. It could be bitcoin, lte coin, ether etc. if the attacker is able to get hold of the wallet then you can easily be hacked. And that’s the end because even if you able to identify the hacker nothing can be done because you act as your own bank.
For that matter, you are responsible for anything that happens to your bank. No one could be held responsible but yourself.
One measure that could be taken to curb the situation is regular change of wallet address. So any time I log into my wallet there is a new address meaning the old one has expired and if you could get access to that previous wallet address, and send a phishing link to it , the link does not come to the new address.
Also becarefull of the links you click, some are very dangerous malicious codes that redirects you to the hacker. That makes you vulnerable and you assets could be lost in just a twinkle of an eye
Also antivirus are great source of protection, and that matter everyone should one from a trusted producer.
So any malware attack could be detected and blocked. Some antivirus prompts the user of phishing links

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Also, our wallet is a major concern when it comes to security. Login into your wallet on another devices which is likely not yours makes you extremely vulnerable. If you should forget to log out and clear history you are at risk. One major mistake is entering your private keys in public places.
You might not know who is watching. Maybe there is a hacker standing just next to you and picturing everything. We all know private keys are not that long and could be easily memorized. Never make that mistake of exposing your keys. Even seed phrase are supposed to be kept in a secured secrete location.
I would advise putting it into a pdf form on WPS and encrypting it. That way you would have to decrypt whenever the need arises to use your keys. Also you can upload you encrypted pdf to your google drive to keep it safe with you always.
Your wallet is your most priority and should not be exposed anyhow. Do not show or display private keys to anyone or make way for it to be exposed.
If a hacker should get access to your wallet all assets could be transferred to his wallet leaving yours with zero account. You can recover your wallet if he or she should change your security codes but your funds or assets will be gone by then.
Sometimes account holders with huge sums of funds exposes them to either impress or show prove of assets which is very wrong. You easily become a target and little mistake could lead to loses.

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Use of figure prints are very dangerous. When you fall deep asleep one can easily use your fingers to unlock your devices. if it happens that you use that same figure print for your wallet too then it can easily be unlocked and funds transferred to another wallet. Although figure prints or cryptographic signatures are good please minimizes the use. When little brother unlocked my phone whiles, I was sleeping. I noticed my phone was used the following morning, he was the only suspect, I asked him and he said yes. He was able to do that because I used figure prints. He just took my thumb, swapped, and had access to my device. From that day I stopped using figure prints.

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When it comes to eclipse attack , the hacker aims at just attacking individual person rather than the whole network of users through isolation. Because a decentralized network does not allow all its nodes to connect via all other nodes on the net, its easy for attackers to use this means. The aim is to hijack all these connections. Trail and errors are mostly used by the attacker through a control botnet of host nodes.
Each with a unique IP address. The attacker has a good chance of being in control when the network is disrupted and the victim is forcing his or herself to join the network again.
Once the hacker is able to hijack the connection, he can send a zero confirmation to the other two parties involved in the network making them victim send again and the hacker hijacks this funds into his wallet. When the network is manipulated like this, you will think you are using the real blockchain but it’s the work of the hacker. It will be too late by the time you will realize it.
This system is very powerful in the sense that it can be used to attack the bockchain itself during PoW.
An isolated nodes mining power is hijacked where the victim sees only the ledger which the hacker is showing him. If he is able to hijack enough miners he may control huge amount of hashing power. He will be able to establish his own chain as a legit fork to the true ledgers gaining enough support at the end a becoming the true ledger

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Finally , being it an individual or an organization, your safety depends on you . Keep your wallet, network system, servers etc from leaking into the hands on hackers, scammers or thefts.
Stay safe and enjoy your cryptocurrency. Crypto is the future and Defi is the key to financial power.
Thanks @gbenga for your awesome lessons , keep it up with the great work you are doing Professor.

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