Let's see what steps you can make to ensure the safety of your cryptocurrency assets. I see many many people with fairly decent holdings who underestimate or totally ignore the risks, and just take the security of their money for granted, meanwhile in reality it's just luck that is the boundary between their purse and a hacker's purse. Let's see what can ordinary people do to ensure their security.

1) Use Linux

I know it's redundant, but it's the truth, Linux is far superior in security than any other OS, so if you don't use it yet, do start to use it, I wrote a simple and easy tutorial how to install it, it only takes 10 minutes and it might save you from a trojan malware that might empty your Bitcoin wallet:

• https://steemit.com/technology/@profitgenerator/linux-mint-installation-tutorial-full-install-in-10-minutes

2) Encrypt your Data

On Linux encryption is easier than you think, just open the Terminal and enter:

Encryption:
openssl aes-256-cbc -a -salt -in secretfile.txt -out encrypted_secret.txt

Decryption:
openssl aes-256-cbc -d -a -in encrypted_secret.txt -out secretfile.txt

The a prompt will appear where you enter the password after typing that command in. It's just this easy, and it can save your money or precious data from hackers. Any file can be encrypted not just .txt.

• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/16056135/how-to-use-openssl-to-encrypt-decrypt-files#16056298

3) Use Strong Passwords

I have already wrote a tutorial about how to measure the strength of your password, and this applies to private keys too, in fact private keys should be even stronger:

• https://steemit.com/security/@profitgenerator/how-strong-is-your-password

4) Keep your Smartphone in the Trash

That is really where your phone belongs because it certainly starts to look like a surveillance device. This is not a conspiracy theory, even Facebook brags about a patent that they applied for that will secretly take snapshots with the camera to record your face:

• http://investorplace.com/2017/06/facebook-inc-fb-2

Now if Facebook openly brags about this shamelessly, then imagine what the Government can do with your phone.

I'd keep my phone really far away from your password, you might never know you wrote down a password on a paper and the phone is aimed at it, it takes a photo, and bam, your Steemit password is now exposed to any hacker that can get that off your phone which would be trivial:

• http://www.cracked.com/article_20345_5-terrifying-smartphone-hacks-you-wont-believe-are-possible.html
• http://money.cnn.com/2015/06/17/technology/samsung-galaxy-hack/index.html
• http://money.cnn.com/2015/07/27/technology/android-text-hack/index.html

So really at this point your phone belongs in the trash, get an old phone without a camera if you don't want to be watched 24/7 by perverts and hacker thieves:

• http://cameras.reviewed.com/features/how-your-smartphone-camera-can-be-used-to-spy-on-you

This is not tinfoil hat conspiracy theory anymore, they don't even hide the surveillance anymore, they openly brag about it, and turn it into a friendly app.

5) Limit the Information Exposure

You know the social engineering type of hackers are relentless. They will put the bits and pieces together depending on what you reveal to them.

For example I have seen many people upload personal photos here to Steemit. I have checked a few, it turns out they are full of juicy metadata information:

• It reveals the location of the picture
• The device it was taken with
• The app version / OS version
  and many more…

I guess potential hackers are drooling. So they know your location, burglars can come to your house for example.

But the also know electronic information, like the version your app’s are using. It only takes a few vulnerabilities working together and they might just take control of your entire OS.

For example there was a chain vulnerability (meaning that unfortunately multiple vulnerabilities in different apps and the OS, that if used in the correct order would give a hacker a total backdoor into your OS).

So they only need to use the version of your softwares you are using and a few more information that I am sure are also publicly available, and bam, they enter into your PC without your knowledge and empty your Bitcoin wallet instantly.

We live in the information age, and everyone wants to spy on you, from your local supermarket asking you to use their app, to bad hackers. And eventually if you don’t limit your exposure some kind of vulnerability will always be there and if they take advantage of that, then it will be very bad.

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Sources:
https://pixabay.com

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