How To Protect Crypto Exchange Accounts

Mitigate the chances that your crypto exchange accounts get hacked by following the tips below.

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You may have read articles of families losing their entire online Exchange accounts balances due to hackers breaching and stealing everything they own. Some of you may believe that the responsibility of these hacks is on the Exchanges, and I'm here to tell you this is usually not the case. Before you get angry, let me first explain the two types of hacks that occur that lead to you losing your entire investment.

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The Exchange gets hacked.

In this situation, the Exchange company itself is the victim. They're numerous occurrences of this happening, and it is not the fault of the customer. The company either had outdated security protocols, practices, or holes in their IT infrastructure with outdated code. Here is a link that provides historical data on known breaches with crypto Exchanges https://cointelegraph.com/news/most-significant-hacks-of-2019-new-record-of-twelve-in-one-year.

When the company that is the custodian of your cryptocurrency is compromised, and you lose because of no fault of your own, in our opinion, the said custodian should be forced to make you whole. However, there are instances where companies do not guarantee making you whole in their terms of use in the event of a hack. So please read those carefully and understand the risks of keeping those valuable assets in their care.

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You are hacked.

This situation occurs more often than anything else. Whether you had poor Cybersecurity practices or were just the victim of a sophisticated attack when your account is compromised, and they log in as you in the Exchange account, you are liable, and dare I say, reasonably too.

When you repeat the same password or don't care about security measures, it's not the fault of the custodian to return any stolen assets. It's analogous to leaving your keys in your car while you go into the store to buy beer. If you came out and the car was gone, you wouldn't run back into the store and yell at the clerk that they owe you a new car, right?

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How to mitigate the chances of you being hacked?

I'm glad you asked! Please see the following article: https://itecsonline.com/post/crypto-wallet-and-how-to-secure-it

and check out this article: https://itecsonline.com/post/edr-security

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Now let's talk about SIM SWAPPING.

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What is SIM SWAPPING?

The term SIM SWAPPING means that a hacker successfully impersonates you and asks your cell phone service provider to move your line (phone and SMS) to a SIM card in their possession. So how do they successfully impersonate you? Well, I won't go into those details but let me assure you it's pretty easy given that a lot of "sensitive" information is fairly easy to find online. Plus, with hacks like the infamous Equifax breach, most U.S.A. adult's information is easily accessible on the dark web.

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Why is SIM SWAPPING away into your online assets?

Here's a hint: You have multifactor authentication (MFA) enabled so that when you log into your Binance/Coinbase/FTX account, you get a text message...

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How to stop SIM SWAPPING?

Call your mobile phone service provider and ask them to enroll you in their SIM SWAPPING protection plan. T-Mobile offers it for free for their customers, and it forces anyone to authenticate with a text message code BEFORE a SIM SWAP is validated. Ironic? Think about it. If you are a hacker and know my social security number, pin code, EIN, or whatever, call my provider. Before they follow your instructions, you have to have the original phone in your possession to give them the validation code.

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