NORTH KOREA WANTS TO STEAL YOUR CRYPTO!

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Cyber attacks by the controversial nation of North Korea, with the intent of stealing funds and information has always been a major source of revenue for them; nothing new really. Infact, according to the 2019 United Nations (UN) Panel of Experts Report, about $2billion worth of cryptocurrency was stolen through hacking by the country to fund their illicit weapons activities.

North Korea continued to develop its nuclear and ballistic missile programs during the past year and cyberattacks on cryptocurrency exchanges were an important revenue source for Pyongyang, according to an excerpt of a confidential United Nations report seen on Saturday by Reuters. Source

According to the above report, one the major sources of funds used by North Korea to fund its nuclear and ballistic missiles escapades is from illegally gotten cryptocurrencies, which are mainly gotten through hacking of exchanges and individuals' wallets.

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So unless you plan to make an unwilling donation to North Korea for a not-so noble cause, then perhaps now would be the perfect time to review how secure your Hive account is, and also your other accounts on exchanges and decentralized wallets.

Things you can do to secure your account.

For your hive account, I recommend going through this post by @thekittygirl , it has all the basics of what you need to keep your hive account safe.

For accounts on exchanges and wallets, the following can be implemented:

Use a secure internet connection: Though this might come as a cliché, but avoid using public Wi-Fi for critical operations like crypto transactions, if you must, then atleast use a trusted VPN service.
Don't click on suspicious links: This is a no brainer, a link looking so innocent and harmless could be a bait for a virus, or phishing attack, so your best bet is to avoid clicking it all together.
Don't store your passwords or private keys either on your device or online: Sometimes the safest way is the old school way; write it out on your journal and keep it somewhere safe. if you must store your keys or passwords online, then make sure you find a way to encrypt them safely before doing so.
Use a 2FA where possible: 2FA simply means 2 factor authentication, and its sort of like your last line of defense against a third party gaining access to your account. you simply get a trusted 2FA app like Google 2 Factor Authenticator from your app store, and link your account/wallet to it, that way, you will be prompted to input a 6 digit code each time you perform a transaction on your account, a code that is randomly generated by the app every 60secs.

Takeaway

Hopefully the security of Exchanges and wallets continue to improve over time, but right now one of the drawbacks of having a decentralized financial system is that you need to do the extra work of keeping your accounts safe by yourself.

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Cool Hive divider by @thepeakstudio

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My name is Edwin Ifeanyi Louis (eil7304) and I love gaming, reading, learning, cooking, and most importantly, writing about my experiences on a Blockchain social media platform called Hive.