Steps To Protect Yourself against Phishing Attack

Key points

• Strong Passwords
• Using a Password Manager
• Implementing Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)
• Question Everything

Increase in the volume of cryptocurrency investors has also led to an increase in the activities of the hackers to gain access to its victim’s crypto wallet. Hackers are using every possible method to acquire its target’s personal information. The most commonly and most widely used method that is implied by the attackers is phishing technique. 

Phishing is a method in which the actor impersonates himself as someone legitimate and sends a malicious message containing a link to a website, which is hoax and designed to get victims credentials. Attackers use different subject lines in their malicious mails so that it can bypass the spam filter. If a victim opens the message sent by the attacker and downloads the malicious file or accesses the malicious link, he gives the attacker the opportunity to gain access to your system and all the personal information on it. 

Phishing attacks have a potential of causing a lot of harm to its victim. Implementation of a few simple security measures will significantly reduce the efficacy of the attack. 

Strong Passwords

It is highly recommended to use strong passwords to protect your account. Passwords are like locks on the front door. Just like on the front door, where it is important to have a strong lock to protect your belongings from thieves, it is also essential to have a strong password to protect your account or crypto wallets. 

It is also not advisable to use simple phrases or DOBs of any loved ones as your password because they are easy to guess and could be cracked easily.  

A strong password should be a combination of letters (having both uppercase and lowercase), numbers and special characters. They should be at least 8-12 characters long.

Using a Password Manager

For a human, to remember all credentials, for all his online accounts, can be a daunting task. Sometimes, users in order to avoid this situation or any confusion use simple passwords that are easy to remember or use the same password over all platforms; this could be very risky. To prevent such complications it is advisable to use a password manager. Not only will the password manager provide its users with strong passwords for different online accounts, but it will also remember them for you. 

Implementing Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)

2FA is a two-step verification process; in this an additional security layer is added for the authentication of the users, apart from his username and password. There are different methods to provide 2FA, the least secure of them is SMS verification process and the most secure is utilization of a physical key such as ‘YubiKey’.

It is strongly recommended that 2FA should be used by all the users. It should also be noted that in 2FA stronger authentication methods should be utilized and SMS authentication should be used as a last resort. 

Question Everything

Whenever you receive an email from an organization whose services you are using, always check for the authenticity of the email. URL should be checked properly to see if the message is not sent by an imposter trying to gain access to your account. One should question the authenticity and purpose of the message and only after getting the correct answer you should access the message.       

Disclaimer: The article is just to provide information and shouldn’t be considered as any financial advice. It is advisable to conduct thorough research before investing in any cryptocurrency.

Photo by –