Buy IOTA: Security Tips for 2FA, Wallets, Exchange and more

Original post: http://www.pc-magazin.de/ratgeber/iota-kaufen-sicherheit-wallet-2fa-coinbase-bitfinex-tipps-3198775.html

All credits to: The-Khoa Nguyen

NOTE THIS IS NOT THE BEST TRANSLATION TO ENGLISH

The IOTA course is picking up speed and many people are putting Euro and US dollars into the Berlin cryptocurrency. Before investing your money in a purely digital asset, read important safety tips so you do not lose your money. Not only cybercriminals can take care of that, but also their own carelessness. We collect tips in this article and will bring updates as soon as it arises.

Cryptocurrencies are not subordinate to the euro or the US state authorities and banks. They work decentrally. The responsibility for equipment is entirely up to the owners. This means that you can store cryptocurrencies like IOTA on a marketplace or online portal like a bank. In the case of theft, such as a hacker attack (equivalent to bank robbery), many portals do not need to hope for insurance or support of any kind.

That's why it's important to pay close attention to your cryptocurrencies. Think of it like online banking. You have your access PIN and your TAN generator - regardless of the PIN of your debit card. At least as well, you should protect yourself from cryptocurrencies.

In addition, there is a risk that access to your Bitcoins, IOTAs or ethers can be forever gone if you lose your access data or secret key. Then you can not just run with your documents to a bank and escape the nightmare "total loss". The tips on the next page will spare you such nasty surprises.

Secure passwords for all relevant websites

You can not say it often enough: your access and password for a website is like a key to a door or a gate. This can only be a rundown garden hut or the garage for your car - in any case, you want to lose nothing. That's why you do not negligently use your data and money when assigning passwords such as Coinbase for fast IOTA buying or Bitfinex trading.

Think of a sufficient length (the more characters, the more secure), renounce strings such as 123456789, use upper and lower case letters as well as special characters. Detailed tips for a secure password can be found in the linked article. Ideally, use a password manager as well .

Set up 2FA - Save Secret Key

If possible, use two-factor authentication (2FA) on every website. Thus, when you log in to Coinbase, for example, you not only need your e-mail address and password, but also an access code that the provider sends you via an authenticator (such as Google). So only the one to the account, who has the access data and at the same time access to your 2FA device - the smartphone, for example.

It is also very important that you save and hide the secret key displayed when setting up 2FA (QR code or a string)! If your smartphone is lost, you can quickly save the 2FA on a new device. Needless to say, you should file all relevant passwords, keys and more well and hidden. So you can still access your tokens in tens of years without any problems.

(Hardware) Wallet instead of Exchange

Anyone who has ever bought IOTA and just wants to keep it to benefit from the course is tempted: "The money is good there. The provider is serious and certainly safe enough! "You should not have this setting despite the best password and set up 2FA. At the end of the day, even in well-secured marketplaces, the collected money of the users is in one or more wallets of the provider.

For quick action transfers usually take place at the portal level. Only if you want to transfer your money from the marketplace to your own wallet, there are appropriate movements on the Blockchain. Otherwise seconds transactions and fast daytrading would not be possible for many users. Since a cybercriminal only needs access to the provider's wallets, one should not rely on secure passwords, 2FA and Co.

The one who hoards and does not want to act uses his own wallet, ideally an offline wallet in the form of a device. Access is only possible if you have the access codes and the device in possession. There is no hardware wallet for IOTA yet. However, Android users can already use the official app, which allows you to organize and transfer your units if you wish. At the moment there are according to user reports still problems, which the offerer should get however fast. In a short time should also support for hardware wallets come. We'll keep you up to date.