Protect it or lose it, A Crypto Nightmare!

With the Blockchain revolution firmly taking its place in modern society, taking care of your Crypto-Currency is more vital then ever!

This is a tale of woe, and it’s just a reminder to look after whats yours!  When asked for a little advice we were as usual happy to help, on the condition we could use this as a warning to others.  So one of our clients, that we’ll call “Mr X”, wrote this for us and you!

Hacked  29/05/2018

I always told myself that it would never happen to me… I’ve been into technology ever since I can remember, starting out on MS-DOS and building my first “PC” when I was 17 years old. Software and programming naturally became to me what a jungle gym is to a child. I would always set my challenges higher, trying to reach the end of those arm-aching monkey bars which over time turned into keystrokes and soldering irons. Little did I know about the chaos that awaited me… It started like a normal day. I did my rounds on all the hardware and programs integrated into my day to day routine, scanning the digital horizon for the slightest hint of anomalies. My keyboard was set to stun however minute after minute turned into hour after hour with no trace of activity. I ‘initiated’ my daily fitness regime, which consists of an hour flapping around in a pool followed by purging my system of all toxins known to mankind in the steam room and sauna. When I leave the gym the first thing I always do is check my emails. This time there was an email in my inbox I did not recognise that had already been opened.

As I frantically checked the content, to my horror it revealed a withdraw request to send all of my funds from one of my cryptocurrency trading accounts to an unknown wallet address.

Frantically, I logged into my trading account but I was too late. The coins were already in transit. After using EthScan to do some research on the address where my coins had been sent I found out that I was not the only one to whom this had happened.

My first thought was to secure all accounts and find the entry point through which they gained access. I made a list of all the certain features this hack had shown which helped me to narrow down and eventually locate the breach in the so called ‘security’ I had in place. As an active personality on social media and the internet, I produce daily vlogs and updates about the projects I’m working on. By using this information and the email address / phone number attached to me on the internet the hackers managed to penetrate my email and duplicate my phone. From this point they had access to all of my accounts. Seeing as I only use one of my trading accounts for trading analysis and signals it was the only account that got targeted.

As you can imagine, this was a horrible experience and at the time I was completely devastated. I really dropped the soap in the shower this time. But over time I have come to see this as an important learning experience and now try to warn others not to make the same mistake I did. Hackers really are out to get you! Be careful!

With all the positive aspects the digital era brings to our lives we tend to avoid thinking about all the problems that will surely follow. This however is the only way of the digital innovations we so dearly cherish ever progressing. The laws of cause, effect and solution are what we use to determine whether or not we need something i.e. if a computer virus is the cause and the effect is the destruction of your pc then the solution would be an antivirus program. With each milestone into this unknown abyss we discover amazing new innovations and uncover the dark applications that they can be used for but you should never let that steer you away from your ultimate quest for knowledge and understanding.

These being expensive lessons in my eyes I choose to use this gained knowledge of the situation to combat any threats to my kingdom of digital assets by engaging a cold storage unit to lock down any sensitive data. I recommend you do the same.

So what should you take away from this???

• Don’t tell others what you have!
• Keep your trading/wallet accounts private.
• Limit your exposure on ANY exchanges.
• Consider Cold Storage. (The Chelsea Gamer will be stocking a range of Cold Storage Devices later this year)
• Apply strict security measures. 2FA & Strong passwords at a minimum.

It can be tricky to cover all bases, but all you can do is try your best.  Feel free to get in touch with us if you need some further advice on any of the issues raised in this article.  And good luck to all the miners and traders out there! And of course a big thank you to our “Mr.X” for sharing.