The field of cyber security is avoided by many because it seems very technical and complicated. But, contrary to many beliefs, people do not care about safety, cyber security, or information security. For example, people don’t care about passwords. People don’t care about private keys.

Research shows that 40% of employees don’t even know about the cyber security policies at their workplace. As a result, many in the field of IT are inclined to practice a much riskier style of web surfing, superficially counting on their technical department that it would fix anything that breaks. Also, almost half of the professionals feel that the official workplace policies inhibit their potential.

• InfoSec becomes interesting only when we have money like Bitcoin on our devices.

There are a few root causes that create the passivity and apathy in the online users regarding cybersecurity and online data protection:

• The effects of a hack are not felt immediately, creating a mental bias in which we feel safer than we are.

• We quickly forget things and pass them on to the next attention grabber.

• We get more and more accustomed to the hacks.

• We got used to someone watching our backs and, most of the time, having support to call to.

Not your keys, not your coins

Your keys, your Bitcoin. Not your keys, not your Bitcoin.

The big problem is that many people have no idea how to even start to decide if they control the keys to their public address in their wallets.

• If you are running a wallet where, when you started using that wallet, it told you something like Write down these twelve words / these twenty-four words and keep them as a backup! It then means that you own those private keys.

Mnemonic phrases, seeds

Those words generate all your keys. The reason you have to write them as a backup is that that’s the way you are controlling those keys. If you lose those words, you lose the keys & the cryptocurrency stored.

With great power comes great responsibility

If you have a wallet where you were asked to write down the backup, you control the keys.

If you didn’t write down the backup, you should do it as quickly as possible for your safety. Open the settings, go to backup, and write down those twelve words before you lose or break your phone. If your Bitcoin disappeared because your phone blew up, then what?

• There is no Bitcoin help desk.

The most secure device you own is not your desktop or your laptop! And if it runs on Windows, the risk of holding a cryptocurrency wallet on that device rises through the roof.

• In the cybersecurity field, they say that you don’t own your Windows machines – your Windows machines are owned by a combination of viruses and trojans that hackers control.

They are not your machines. They just let you use them occasionally. It’s wise not to put Bitcoin on those devices. That’s like donating to hackers. They have software actively looking for Bitcoin software, and when they find it, they take it. Or they deploy a keylogger, wait for you to do a transaction, enter your password, and then take it.

How to control your keys

In general, the most secure device you own is your smartphone. It’s been a lot of R&D, and billions poured into the industry to have a safe and performant pocket computer with you. However, if you are an average person, devices operating on Android and iOS are the most secure devices you own.

• Smartphone operating systems are far more secure than laptops and desktops, especially those using Windows. So your smartphone is probably the best place to run a wallet.

A hardware wallet is useful.

A hardware wallet is a USB device specially designed to store your cryptocurrencies safely. The most used ones are Ledger, Trezor, KeepKey, and many others.

A hardware wallet is a little USB device that keeps your bitcoin keys on a highly secure, unique purpose device.

Even if your computer is full of viruses and hackers, you can use that device securely because everything happens on it, and the device itself can’t be attacked over USB. It’s almost impossible. So, it would be a good idea to buy a hardware wallet.

The second best choice security-wise is downloading software onto your smartphone if you can’t buy a hardware wallet. Download those wallets, install them on your smartphone, and then when it tells you to make a backup of your twelve to twenty-four English words, do it. Don’t get fancy! Use paper and pencil to write down the words.

• Any time you want, restore from those words. All of your transactions, all of your money, you get back. Now you control your cryptocurrency.

The chances are meager that someone will get hold of that and know what it is for. So please put it in a drawer, and lock it. Please put it in the safe, and close it. Then you can use your phone. If you lose your phone, you have the words. If you lose the words, you have your phone. Both are equivalent.

Control your cryptocurrencies

This is how to control your keys. Download one of those wallets and write the seed phrases, pen on paper. If our civilization ended tomorrow, all of the CDs, DVDs, hard drives, and USB drives would be dust. But we’re still finding paper from the Egyptians!

Paper lasts. Please don’t put it on a USB drive. Simple, acid-free paper will last for hundreds of years. If you’re extra paranoid, you laminate it so it cannot get destroyed by water. And then you buy a very inexpensive, fire-proof safe from your office store. You put it inside so it can’t be burned.

Flood, fire, theft, covered!

Now on that kind of system, you can store millions of dollars. Once you have control of your bitcoin and crypto, it doesn’t matter if there’s a fork. It doesn’t matter if your exchange decides to go one way or another. It doesn’t matter. You should not be keeping your money on that exchange.

You should not be HODLing your money by trusting someone else to keep it safe for you. That’s just a bank. Part of the open blockchain technologies emerged because people don’t trust banks.

IXFI has the potential to become your new All-In-One Alternative to any financial application that is suitable for your needs. Join IXFI today and don’t forget to tell your friends about it.

Disclaimer: The content of this article is not investment advice and does not constitute an offer or solicitation to offer or recommendation of any investment product. It is for general purposes only and does not take into account your individual needs, investment objectives and specific financial and fiscal circumstances.

Although the material contained in this article was prepared based on information from public and private sources that IXFI believes to be reliable, no representation, warranty or undertaking, stated or implied, is given as to the accuracy of the information contained herein, and IXFI expressly disclaims any liability for the accuracy and completeness of the information contained in this article.

Investment involves risk; any ideas or strategies discussed herein should therefore not be undertaken by any individual without prior consultation with a financial professional for the purpose of assessing whether the ideas or strategies that are discussed are suitable to you based on your own personal financial and fiscal objectives, needs and risk tolerance. IXFI expressly disclaims any liability or loss incurred by any person who acts on the information, ideas or strategies discussed herein.