We talk about bad actors all the time . We have even developed protocols in our everyday life to prevent thieves from getting into our homes . We lock our automobile doors and don't leave items in the open . We secure our bank cards keeping them deep within our pockets or wallets . Our Pin numbers to them are kept as if national security depended on it . All to prevent any loss . But when it comes to Steemit we are careless . There is no other way to put it . Careless !
In the last 5 days in my small circle I have encountered two people who have had their account hacked . Both times it was because of carelessness . It is equal to dropping you ATM card on the ground with the Pin number written on it.
There are four keys
POSTING
The posting key is used for posting and voting. Logging into SteemitACTIVE
The active key is used to make transfers from your wallet and place orders in the internal market.OWNER
The owner key is the master key for the account and is required to change the other keys.
The private key or password for the owner key should be kept offline and not usedMEMO
The memo key is used to create and read memos.
The Posting and Active Keys are the only keys you should be using . It is the best practice . It will not prevent your account from being hack . It will however allow you access to your hacked account and with your owner key reset your Keys to lock the hacker out .
The only key on my computer is my posting key . I have a thumb drive that I keep all keys on and access it when I need to use my active key .
I have no doubt the most of the newbies have their Owner key stored on their Web Browsers . This also needs to be corrected . Never save your passwords ( Active Key ) in your web browser. Some web browsers ask if you would like to save your password. When you enter your Active Key for transfers , Always say no.
- Here is a post from @reazuliqbal on the noblebot , that will help if you make a mistake an put your key on the blockchain .
https://steemit.com/busy/@reazuliqbal/introducing-the-noble-bot
- Here is a post on securing your wallet
These are both goodreads . There a a lot of people that you never see or here that work hard to make your experience here a pleasant one . Do your part
Join the weekly Pay it Forward curation contest Here
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Giving back A.S.A.P
P.S. Great write up, I hope this saves some Steemians from getting their accounts stolen. @insideoutlet
This post is like an urgent reminder notice that we all need from time to time.
I think as the cryptosphere evolves we will mature along with it. The thing is that most of us will eventually learn but before that happens we'll see some real great examples of stupidity. All we need to do is to make sure that we don't become that example.
Have to laugh at that but it is so true
Its nice that we have people who work and hackers and account recovery . they have plenty to do without us giving them more preventable wotl
very sound advice, thanks for all the help and information you are giving to us Planktons!
It took me forever to find with all the searching and mostly stumbling across it . When I find something out I like to pass it on.
I saw that you were entered into the curation league
yes sir I like the looks of your bunch and wanted to get a good
start, move up and be able to help others.
Thats a good thing and a plus for the platform
yes sir. I believe a few dedicated people working together can
achieve dang near anything. change the world.
I believe that to
the working together is the hard part
really. my impression on Steemit is that most people work
together and help each other, that's what I like about it.
don't tell me I'm wrong! lol
Thank you so much @wolfhart for this vital and important information.
Great explanation @wolfhart. I've had quite a few people ask me about the keys, now you've made it easy for me :D This is definitely going into the library !
I hope it leads to more people doing some research and learning not only this but other things also
This issue with the keys needs to be stated over and over , There should be no one who loses their account because of the owners key
Thanks so much for this post, I've come to realize that it's risky to login using owner key
That's it. Store them on a flash drive. Thank you
My posting key is on my computer that is the only one .
Congratulations @wolfhartIssue 65, your post has been selected by the @asapers for a resteem and a feature in our brand new curation post.
What does this mean for you? Well first an upvote from some members of the team, we are no @curie or @ocd but who is going to be unhappy with some extra upvotes. Also each post featured in the article will receive a 10% share of the SBD generated from the curation post.
Please wait seven to ten days for payout. Keep up the great work and please consider supporting the @asapers with an upvote and/or a resteem on the post you feature in.
Your friendly @asapers
Giving back A.S.A.P
P.S. Great write up, I hope this saves some Steemians from getting their accounts stolen. @insideoutlet
My hope is that people stop using their Owner key and put it away .
Thank you for this post! I was very unaware that we had 4 separate keys... I will be doing more research into this topic. Thanks for opening my eyes. Great info.
the quicker changing from owner key to posting key the better . I attached a link for your info and research . Its important to look up things for yourself , that will help with your understanding .
The only two keys that need to be used in everyday operation is the posting key and active key when transfering funds
Very good way to inform all people who uses steemit on how to protect their accounts and investment...I agree that we all should be aware of everything cause a lot of scum are trying to go for our hard work...Thanks for sharing your knowledge to everyone and may your hard work be recognized more in the future.. congrats for your @c-squared
Thank you
well great job and consider that your first step... people who stays are those who are persistent and thinking about long term success... those who left are the ones who is thinking that steemit are easy money and posting shitty stuffs and thinking they will earn big... staying in here is peoples perspectives you cannot do anything about that but in improving the platform I guess youre on your way...sharing facts that users often dont care about is the one needed...
This is such great information to pass on. I wish I had realized this when I first joined and never saved any other key than my posting key. I now never ever use my owner key to log in it is only the posting.
I use my posting key and it is in my google saved passwords . All others are on a thumb drive . one thumb drive with other keys kept in my firebox . the active key on a thumb drive right here by my PC and I access it when making transfers . never saved to PC .
I got lucky because I ran across @guiltyparties (a witness) in the Veteran's discord and steemit chat room . He does so much work dealing with recovery and staying up with hacked accounts . The information he puts out is to help steemains secure their accounts . and I followed his recommendations
We have a good library ( Steemit Greeters Guild and Pay it Forward ) people need to use them and the information they contain
Thank you for this article @wolfhart. Seems like I needed it. I had automated my login and saved my password on one the of browsers. Just removed it.
Certainly a timely reminder. Thanks @wolfhart
I have always considered myself fairly safe with these things because I started off in Steemit coming from cryptocurrency where I use a hardware wallet to protect my private keys. I was never really comfortable with having to enter the Steemit keys so often. The various ones make it quite confusing. I see the various keys as sort of like API permissions with private keys. Thank you @wolfhart for this information.
@abitcoinskeptic
thats it .
We need to make sure others know and understand because most of us do not know about the crypto world
Good job! Something that needs to be constantly surfaced. Just a couple of clarifications that might be useful:
Posting: Voting on posts/comments
Active Voting on Witnesses
Memo: Encrypting and decrypting encrypted memos (with a #)
I have a question.
What is the difference between the keys as you see when you first look at your "permissions" page and the "private" keys you see when you click on the "show private key" button?
Its a security feature . Its a way to keep your keys safe on the platform and your PC@viking-ventures the keys are encoded that you see . to reveil them you have to click the "show private key" botton
This post was shared in the Curation Collective Discord community for curators, and upvoted and resteemed by the @c-squared community account after manual review.
all kinds of keys we have to guard well and do not get lost