The rise in cyber attacks has been on an upward trend in recent times. As the crypto market is experiencing an increase in adoption and popularity, so is the potential risk of attacks by unscrupulous individuals. The group of malicious individuals (Hackers) are constantly finding new ways to loot your crypto holdings.

It is essential for you, as a crypto enthusiast and investor, to know the basic steps that can improve your portfolio’s safety and keep your investment intact. Here, we consider some of the best practices you can employ to ensure the safety of your crypto portfolio. They include:

• Use Secure Wallets

Your wallet is the medium to access your crypto holdings. If it is compromised, you risk losing all that you’ve acquired and stored with the hope that it’ll rise in value. Thus, it’s important to make sure you keep your wallet safe.

Also Read: 10 Best and Most Secure Crypto Wallets 2023

Whether you’re choosing between a custodial or a non-custodial wallet, ensure the wallet is secure and has no loopholes. Wallets with multiple protection layers are best, as it’s harder to break them by merely compromising your password. Stay vigilant, and do not reveal your wallet details (offline key, seed phrase, or password) to anyone.

• Ensure Your Password is Strong and Unique

Ensure your password can’t be easily guessed. Using special dates, mobile numbers, or your other half’s name is too commonplace. They’re the first set of passwords a hacker would try. Thus, ensure your passwords are unique, complex (mixed with different characters), and uneasy to memorize at a short glance.

Avoid the practice of using the same password for multiple accounts. This can be detrimental, as a compromise on one account leaves others vulnerable. You can use a password manager to keep your different passwords safe and always go there to retrieve them in case you forget any of them.

• Enable Multiple Factor Authentication

Passwords only can’t do it these days. Adding an extra security layer to your accounts makes them more secure. Different authentication factors have now been introduced, from one-time passwords (OTPs) to biometrics (fingerprints), facial and voice recognition, etc.

You can integrate these authentication factors with your passwords to optimize your security. Authentication could be two-factor (2FA), three-factor (3FA), and above. The difference lies in the number of factors combined, e.g., password and OTP, password, biometrics, and OTP, etc.

• Do Not Click Suspicious Links

Whether suspicious or otherwise, clicking links these days can be very risky. Hence, always verify the links you receive before clicking them. Don’t click links from unknown persons or links that are not related to what you’ve engaged with in recent times at all. Hackers usually send these malicious links to unsuspecting individuals, and they can compromise accounts by leveraging these links.

Links can be contained in emails, social media posts, e-commerce sites, etc. It could come as a never to miss offer or an existing bonus you must join. Avoid these links, and ensure you only enter your details or personal information on secure websites.

• Always Verify a Project Before Adopting

Besides phishing attacks and password compromise, rugpull is another scam you’re exposed to as a crypto investor. Some projects are built solely to carte away investors’ money. They appear real, get hyped up, and lure many people to join their presale, realizing huge sums.

Afterward, they phase out gradually, and nothing would be heard of the project again. To avoid this, ensure any project you’re investing in has a white paper that clearly shows its roadmap; the project must pass through an appropriate security audit process and make public its certification of being safe, secure, and anti-rug.

• Use Reputable Exchanges

Exchanges are coming under attack now, and the recent happenings to the FTX exchange is a wake-up call to many others. Ensure that you only trade or store your crypto assets with reputable cryptocurrency platforms with high-security integrity and a proven safety track record. Consider the security features on the platform, any history of attacks, smart contract audit certification, and other important factors. Do not overlook any red flags because these are what hackers exploit.

• Diversify Your Investments

Do not keep all your crypto investments in a single portfolio or wallet. Ensure you have them in diverse places so that a compromise on one won’t leave you REKT. Just like investing in different crypto assets, keeping different crypto wallets also greatly reduces your risk. You could keep your long-term or high-value investment in a separate wallet from your short-term purchases. Accessing them from different devices also makes the safety measure more efficient. A password manager can help you keep track of the different passwords you use for the different accounts to make it easier.

• Updated Your Softwares

Software developers are equally as busy as hackers. They’re trying to mitigate every new way they find to launch malicious attacks, which is why they launch software updates with upgraded security patches gradually. Thus, also ensure you update the operating system on your device, and you keep any other software or applications you use for your crypto investments up to date. It makes you less vulnerable to some of these basic attacks.

• Avoid Greed

More times than not, scanners exploit crypto investors’ greed to carry out a successful attack. As a crypto investor, it is important to know that if it’s too good to be true, it’s probably too good to be true. Don’t jump on offers without due diligence, and remember, you can’t get huge amounts of money for free in the crypto market. Hence, do not expect any returns from a transaction you didn’t initiate or any investment you didn’t make. These things are common scammers’ plots, and you should be wary. Keep your emotions in check, and don’t be quick to make a rash decision.

Final Words

The rising adoption of cryptocurrency has been followed by a rising threat by individuals looking to take undue advantage of the market’s profitability at the expense of others. Thus, it’s paramount for crypto investors to know how they can protect themselves from this rampant occurrence.