This is how you protect your crypto currencies on your PC

As a crypto owner, you probably know that there is a lot of money to be made in this form of investing. That is of course also a good prospect for criminals. How can you safely buy crypto or prevent your crypto from being stolen digitally? We give four tips to protect your computer and your crypto against online criminals.

This is how criminals steal crypto currencies
When robbing a bank, we immediately see how that happens: thieves target the safe for this. Online it is about the same, but on everyone’s individual safes. Cyber ​​criminals circumvent the security of a crypto exchange and in this way can request and use the data of all customers of that platform, including you. Setting up a fake website or sending phishing emails are also common techniques used by cyber criminals. It is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish whether something is real or fake, so it is good to protect your crypto and your computer as much as possible.

Tip 1: Divide your crypto over multiple accounts
Just as it is not smart to bet all your money on one type of crypto, it is also not smart to store all your crypto together in one place. It is best to divide all your currencies and store them in different accounts with different brokers. If one of your accounts is robbed in the worst case, you will not immediately lose everything. It is important that you use different passwords for each account, otherwise criminals can also access your other accounts in no time. If you’re not good with saving passwords, many reputable companies will let you download a password manager for your computer. It will then remember all passwords for you.

Tip 2: The best password and double security
Security is also in protecting your account itself. That is why it is wise to choose a unique and strong password. Leave out ‘welcome01’ and preferably choose a password with random letters, numbers and special characters. Unfortunately, any password can eventually be retrieved as long as you search for it long enough. That’s why enabling two-factor authentication is also a good idea. You will then receive a code via your phone number every time you want to log in to a new device. You must enter this code to log in. That way you keep hackers out, since they can’t access this code when they try to log in.

Tip 3: Store your crypto offline
We all know that once data on our computers is susceptible to malware, hackers or criminals. That is why there are also solutions to store your crypto offline, in the form of a hardware wallet. This wallet is very similar to a USB stick: you insert the wallet into your computer, put your crypto on the wallet and then disconnect the wallet again. That way you keep your crypto offline and you are 100% protected against cyber criminals.

Tip 4: Use a VPN connection
Are you dealing with crypto online? Then make sure you are connected to a VPN network. Without a VPN, it is easy for criminals to track your data, for example via your IP address. With a VPN connection, you hide this personal information, allowing you to trade crypto more anonymously and with encrypted data.

This article was produced in collaboration with bestebank.org