RE: Steemit - Security - Exchanges & Why - By a guy that has been in Crypto since 2009 - [NEW PEOPLE - READ THIS NOW]
What?!! Why?! on!?! earth?!!? are you still using an insecure password?! FIX IT NOW. Right now!
Yes... while I'm waiting. I'm waiting... Do it. Go. Click. Yes, up there. On the right. No don't save it in your email, aaarrgggh!!!!! What? Too hard? Okay, email is a fair compromise if you have two factor authentication on. TURN IT ON NOW.
Remember, even your phone sim card can get cloned with just a copy of your ID... so don't keep anything on there that you're not afraid to lose.
If you can copy down your password onto paper, it will probably get cracked. I can crack BILLIONS of passwords per second, if I wanted to. Think about it! BILLIONS! I can save every single password ever dumped, on a few harddrives, and test them all in just minutes. I can test trillions of permutations of them in a day.
Randomness and entropy, and length are your only real friends here... you want to be really safe? Move the bulk of your funds across several paper wallets you created offline, using not just any code, but the code you got at source, and ideally that you reviewed yourself.
Want to be even safer? Back up your online wallet password by taking a photo with an offline camera with a display (not analogue... oh you trust the camera shop?) that you can hide and find in a box of a few hundred other identical cameras... or from a clean computer - brand new install on a brand new harddrive, copy and paste it into a text file created directly on a flash disc or two that is only used for this purpose... What? you want to keep them in a safe with just a few digit lock?! Have you seen how quickly safes are cracked by safe experts? Fine, there are only so many safe experts in the world, why would they target you.... right?!
....Are you starting to see why banks still make so much money?
Security only exists in layers. Save your password in an encrypted file with a password you know, on an encrypted drive, with another passphrase, on a phone with another password.... and even that will only slow down someone who's really after your funds.
Funny enough, the safest place to save your funds easily, is on a fairly new Android phone, factory defaulted, without any account synced and without any apps installed, not bought from a dodgy source such as second hand, grey import, etc. - with full phone encryption on and a screen lock pattern. And making a backup of your keys on a flash disc or sdcard that you can hide well.
Or you can just use a bank.... just don't piss off the politicians who run your country, too much, okay?