4 Ways to improve the Safety of Your Cryptocurrencies

So you’ve decided to invest in cryptocurrencies, good for you. It’s likely that you’re making a profit from at least one coin if you’ve invested in a few. So, you’ve bought these coins, you’re letting them grow, and that’s all there is to it, right? Wrong. Your cryptocurrencies are actually in danger as long as you believe they are safe without doing anything to actually keep them safe. Here are four ways to keep your cryptocurrencies out of harm’s way:

1. Mobile wallets are a no-no

Coinomi and Jaxx are convenient ways of keeping cryptocurrency on your phone, but definitely only keep as much on your mobile device as you would keep in your pocket (up to the equivalent of 150 dollars). You do not want to keep all of your cryptocurrency on your mobile device. As soon as you lose your phone or someone gains access to it, you’re going to have to say goodbye to all of that hard-earned money.

2. Choose the right operating system

If the device where your cryptocurrency is stored runs on a Windows OS, there is an extremely high chance that you will be hacked (that is if you have not been hacked already). Windows is known for its easily penetrable security, as well as the sheer number of viruses made purely with Windows in mind. If you keep your cryptocurrencies on a Windows device, then use this device for the installation of free games, watching pornographic material, etc. and have yet to lose your cryptocurrencies, consider yourself unbelievably lucky.

If all you own are devices running on the Windows operating system, consider looking into a virtual machine such as VMWare Workstation or Virtual Box and running Linux on it. This is not to say that Linux is an operating system that will effortlessly keep your money safe either, because it will not. There is no such OS that will offer you guaranteed safety with no extra measures taken. Despite this fact, however, Linux and Mac will keep your cryptocurrencies safer than if they were stored on a Windows device.

3. How to pick an anti-virus software

If you say you’ve got anti-virus covered while looking down at your computer and updating the free anti-virus software that came with it, think again. Nothing good comes for free, everything worthwhile has to be paid for. Here is one question: if you own cryptocurrencies and choose to scrimp when it comes to an anti-virus software, how stupid are you going to feel when all of that currency is stolen because you were too cheap to pay a few bucks a month to keep it safe?

It is necessary to think about the bigger picture and what you stand to lose. BitDefender, Kaspersky, or Eset Internet Security are the safest bets for anti-virus software. If you really want a safe bet, use either of these anti-virus softwares in combination with Malware Bytes Premium.

4. Enable Two-factor authentication wherever possible

You can do this with Authy or Google Authenticator. Once you log in to Kraken, Poloniex or one of the other exchanges, you’ll be asked for a code provided by the authenticator program you have chosen. A code will be requested from you each and every time you attempt to make an exchange or withdrawal, and these codes will be changed every 30 seconds.

In other words, if someone does happen to hack into the system and retrieve your log in details and password, they will be able to do with it what they please. That is, unless you have two-factor authentication enabled. In this case hackers will be able to log in, but will be unable to take any further steps without the authentication codes required to carry out any transactions.