Basic Security Measures When Buying Cryptocurrency

Cryptocurrency needs to be protected as carefully as any other finance. Minimal intervention of the state and law enforcement agencies in this area gives more freedom, but less security. The risks of becoming a victim of scammers in the crypto world are on average higher, and the chances of returning the stolen funds are still vanishingly small. Let’s consider the most general provisions of cybersecurity in the cryptocurrency market.

How to buy cryptocurrency safely

Perhaps the safest place to buy cryptocurrencies remains exchanges. First of all, these are centralized exchanges that work on the principle of “Know your customer” and require verification according to documents. However, even decentralized exchanges are much more reliable than the USDT to TRX exchange in Telegram.

Choose a reliable exchange

Of course, even the most popular resources can be unreliable, as happened with FTX. However, you should adhere to the following recommendations:

• Pay attention to the duration of the existence of the exchange: a resource that started working a week ago is less trustworthy than one that has been operating for several years.
• Find and read user reviews.
• If possible, choose centralized exchanges with mandatory verification. The choice is quite rich, you do not have to be limited to Binance at all, maybe Huobi Global, Coinbase, Gemini or another platform will suit you better.
• In addition, it is better not to enter the exchange through a search engine, as there is a risk of getting to a phishing site. Instead, it is better to bookmark the exchanges you need in your browser.

By the way, it is better to use only one or maximum two devices (for example, a PC and a mobile phone) to work with cryptocurrency in order to reduce the risk of your account being hacked.

Take care of account protection

After choosing an exchange and registering on it, you need to ensure the protection of your account. To do this, it is recommended to do the following:

1. Create a strong password

A strong password is essential for any account, especially if you work with finance and cryptocurrencies. A truly strong password must meet the following requirements:

• Uniqueness – passwords from different accounts should not be repeated, even partially.
• At least eight characters, but twelve or more is better.
• A complex combination of lowercase and uppercase letters, numbers, punctuation marks, and special characters.
• It does not contain words, phrases and personal information (include the name of your cat or the year of birth of one of the relatives in the password is a deliberately failed option).

If it’s hard to come up with and remember a password, you can use a password manager that will generate a strong combination and save it.

2. Two-factor authentication

All major exchanges recommend setting up two-factor authentication. The first factor is the complex password itself, and the second factor is the numeric codes. Usually, when setting up the second factor, it is recommended to use a code generation application (for example, Google Authenticator or the exchange’s own software).

For even greater security, you can use a physical security key, that is, a flash card that you can connect to your device. In this case, you authorize in the key itself (by code, password or fingerprint), after which it creates a private key to enter your account.

3. Backup

When you set up two-factor authentication, the system also generates backup codes to restore access. You can save them on your smartphone or PC as photos or text copies, or add them to your password manager, or write them down by hand on paper and store them in a safe place. Choose the safest way for you to store your backup codes, but ideally they’d be better on an offline device that’s not connected to a network.

Beware of scammers

In the field of cryptocurrency, scammers are especially active, because transactions with digital money are difficult to trace. The most common scams in this area include:

• Fake trading platforms and exchange services.
• Fake crypto wallets.
• Phishing emails that ask for your personal information ostensibly on behalf of a crypto exchange.
• Distribution of cryptocurrency, which is usually carried out on social networks and is accompanied by very tempting offers.
• Pyramids, which are usually fictitious investments.
• Copy-and-paste viruses that change the address when copying to pay for goods or send currency, and you inadvertently transfer money to attackers.
• The “pump and dump” scheme, in which a new cryptocurrency is introduced to the market, which is rapidly advancing and becoming more expensive. Then its creators quickly sell their assets and users are left with unclaimed coins.

Choose cryptocurrency Apps carefully

If you don’t have enough time to track the BNB to AVAX exchange rate, you can use DApps for this – decentralized finance applications based on smart contracts. Outwardly, they look like ordinary mobile applications, but instead of a centralized server, they work on the blockchain.

In DApps, you can set the conditions of a smart contract, for example, buying a cryptocurrency at a certain price. If the transaction on the exchange meets these conditions, the application automatically conducts the operation. But don’t forget that you are granting access to your wallet and permission to use the funds. Therefore, download applications only from official stores, check user reviews and ratings, and choose the most famous and reliable ones, such as PancakeSwap, Uniswap, SushiSwap and others.