In recent years, cryptocurrency has become extremely popular and has taken the world by storm. Due to the new interactions with NFTs, this in turn brings questionable characters aiming to make some extra money by scamming people out of their digital assets. In this blog, we will go through 5 security tips when setting up a crypto wallet.
Security Tips For Setting Up A Crypto Wallet
Back Up Your Wallet
When setting up your crypto wallet, one of the most important security measures that everyone should abide by is to back up your crypto wallet. Many people forget to do this and then later, once they have forgotten it, they can’t access any of their digital assets as they can’t be accessed without it.
Backing up a crypto wallet is a very simple process. All it involves is you writing down your 12-24 word recovery phrase. It is essential that you write this down and put it in a safe place. Do not put this in any digital format, or take a screenshot or photo as these can easily be hacked. Many wallets will ask you for a username and password and others will require you to save a file to open your wallet. So before you start investing, ensure you are setting up your crypto wallet correctly and back up the recovery phrase.
Securely Store Your Recovery
When setting up your crypto wallet, it is essential to back up your recovery phrase, which you should have already done. The next step is to secure your recovery phrase properly. When you store your recovery phrase after setting up your crypto wallet, the most important thing to remember is not to store this in any digital format as these can malfunction as well as being hacked. It may be tempting to have it in a note app or in your emails but this will lead to your phrase being compromised.
Once you have written down your recovery phrase, you need to place this somewhere secure. If you have a safe, this is a great option as it won’t get lost or damaged. Wherever you put this piece of paper, you need to ensure nobody else can get to it. So when you have finished setting up your crypto wallet, ensure that your recovery phrase is safe.
Never Share Your Recovery Phrase
After setting up your crypto wallet and once you have written down your recovery phrase offline, it is essential that you do not share your recovery phrase with anyone at all. This even means legitimate employees of crypto websites, crypto wallets or even support teams. If there is one major rule in the crypto world, it’s that you do not share your recovery phrase after setting up your crypto wallet. No legitimate person will ever ask for your recovery phrase. If anyone asks for your recovery phrase, it is 100% a scam.
If hackers get hold of your recovery phrase, they can duplicate this and create a copy of your wallet and withdraw all of your funds so after setting up your crypto wallet, remember not to give your recovery phrase to anyone.
Avoid Downloading Malicious Files or Clicking on Phishing links
Finally, after setting up your crypto wallet, you need to make sure that you are not clicking on any links or downloading files from random senders as this can help to protect yourself from crypto-stealing malware. If you do click on a malicious link accidentally or unknowingly, then the hacker will be able to access your wallet remotely and steal your details and private keys which will, in turn, result in them emptying your wallet. To prevent this further, it is worth installing anti-malware and anti-virus software to catch any attempts.
If there is one thing to remember when setting up your crypto wallet is that you should always write down your recovery phrase and don’t let anyone know it or where it is. This is for your eyes only. Never keep a picture of it as this is giving hackers a chance for fraudulent activity.
If you believe you may have been the victim of a crypto scam, then please contact us today to arrange a free consultation to see if we can help you recover lost funds.