Security experts advise you on how to protect yourself and your digital currency against thefts and hackers that are targeting cryptocurrency resources.
Criminals targeting cryptocurrency investors
Thief cases targeting those investors who are enriched by the rise of Bitcoin, Ethereum and other digital currencies are growing all over the world. From Phuket, Thailand, to Manhattan also to the Ukraine, stories of abductions, and even murders just to have access to peoples Bitcoin’s, has become the major news all around the world.
Fiat currency accounts with traditional banks and other financial maintenance systems have extensive controls and countermeasures that have long been developed against thieves. Anonymous nature of cryptocurrency though guarantees criminals that once they have access to their wallet and can transfer to their own personal wallet, it is almost impossible to identify their identity.
Chainalysis is a company which specializes in tracing criminal doings on the Blockchain network. Jonathan Levin the founder of the company has helped the law enforcement agency, globally to try and track down stolen Bitcoin and its like.
Even when a transaction can be tracked from side to side of the Blockchain ledger, though the anonymous design of cryptocurrency tolerates criminals not to have their true identities connected to their crypto accounts. This is where the trail goes cold and not much more can be done.
“For this [crime], the advantage of Bitcoin is that it’s hard to verify,” said Chanut Hongsitthichaikul an investigator with the Chalong Police Station in reference to the extortion case in Thailand that involved a young Russian couple who were held in their apartment by armed assailants until $100,000 worth of cryptocurrency was transferred.
The police were able to track the victim’s laptop to Kuala Lumpur where it was discarded and that was where the investigation ended.
“This is now becoming more pervasive and touching more law enforcement divisions that deal with organized crime and violent crime on a local level,”
Jonathan Levin, founder of Chainalysis.
New security being developed
Recently a group of about 170 crypto leaders in the world held a roundtable security conference in Cancun, Mexico. The meeting was tagged “the meeting the Satoshi roundtable” the group discussed on how people can protect themselves and their investments for from crypto hackers.
One measure that came from the roundtable meetings was having a ‘duress wallet’. That is a wallet with a small amount of currency to fling hackers off the trail of larger holdings.
General Security Advisors agree that the best measures at this time to guarantee the security of your crypto-coins is to keep your holding in a multi-signature wallet. Multi-signature wallet is a type of wallet that requires at least two people to sign in for the transaction to be successfully completed and that one of these people can be off location, maybe a lawyer.
Programmers are also in the process of developing wallets with embedded stress codes. Just like duress alarms with banks, these codes can be directly used to prompt private security or law enforcement agencies directly when a person is forced to transact.
Keeping a low profile is perhaps the best and the easiest way to protect yourself and your cryptocurrency. In a new high profile case, the theft occurred after the victim talked to his friend about his new crypto fortune.
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