The short answer is yes. But that doesn’t tell the whole story, does it?
To elaborate on it a bit further, using a VPN is a crucial element of protecting your digital wealth. Just like you would protect your physical resources, you should take similar steps to protect your digital ones – that much is clear. But before you can truly understand how to protect your cryptocurrency, let’s first take a look at how hackers can snatch it straight from your wallet if you’re not careful enough.
Most commonly, they do this by tricking you into giving them your login details through a fake login page, a practice otherwise known as phishing. You might get a message sent to you via email, or through social media that’s prompting you to update your account details or something similar, pretending it’s from a legitimate sender. In reality, no one else other than a hacker is behind the keyboard. The reason why such a move works is that it was designed to prey on people’s naiveté. Once a hacker gets a hold of your login credentials, all they need to do is log in to your account and empty or transfer its contents.
Another way they use to trick you into sending your hard-earned money into the wrong hands is by infecting your PC with malware that alters the contents of your clipboard. You might be thinking you’re sending the money to a friend or a legitimate charity, but the malware edits the Bitcoin address to the one belonging to a hacker without you noticing.
Now, all of the above-mentioned methods of crypto-theft have something to do with trickery. One would think that by simply staying alert at all times and double-checking everything such grim scenarios could be avoided with relative ease. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case. What if you knew that in certain situations, hackers could intercept your login credentials despite you exercising the maximum caution?
Apart from safeguarding your privacy and anonymity online, a VPN also has another important function. It encrypts the traffic exchanged between your device and the server you’re communicating with. In other words, even if someone were to intercept it on its way to the intended destination, it would be utterly useless to them without knowing the proper key.
When logging in to your crypto-trading accounts, inputting your login credentials is a necessary evil. However, if you’re connected to a potentially unsecured network (such as the public Wi-Fi’s you often find at a cafe or any other public place), they could be intercepted by a third party at this very point. Having two-factor authentication turned on helps a great deal, but not all providers support it, so there’s no need for you to be taking chances for no reason. Just get a VPN. It will help you sleep at night.
Bitcoin (and other cryptocurrencies) is untraceable by design. Or is it? As the industry experts will tell you, the government has been actively trying to trace its flow, and they may be spying on your transactions as well – your ISP may be assisting them with it. Furthermore, certain cryptocurrencies keep tabs on all the transactions and send them straight to the government whenever requested. The bright side of using a VPN is that the ISP won’t be able to see what’s going on, and you will remain anonymous in the eyes of the government.
First and foremost, you need to make sure there is no malware installed on your computer or smart device that might be spying on your transactions. Otherwise, nothing mentioned in today’s article will make a difference. This can be done in two ways; either by reinstalling your OS or scanning it with an antivirus software of your choice. If you’re extra-paranoid, reinstalling the OS might be your best bet (since not all antivirus scanners are 100% accurate).
Then, you need to make sure that your software and OS is always kept up to date. That way, it’s going to be less vulnerable to hacks and exploits. Finally, if you’ve decided that you’re going to store your cryptocurrencies on your local machine, double-check it’s encrypted and make regular backups to ensure you don’t lose access to it overnight.
Safe cryptocurrency trading is a complex beast, but yes – buying a VPN is undoubtedly a crucial part of the overall equation. By now, you should have a good idea what you should be doing to stay as safe as possible, and if you still haven’t applied everything we’ve mentioned, now is the time to do so.
To elaborate on it a bit further, using a VPN is a crucial element of protecting your digital wealth. Just like you would protect your physical resources, you should take similar steps to protect your digital ones – that much is clear. But before you can truly understand how to protect your cryptocurrency, let’s first take a look at how hackers can snatch it straight from your wallet if you’re not careful enough.
There’s more than one way hackers can compromise your wallet
Most commonly, they do this by tricking you into giving them your login details through a fake login page, a practice otherwise known as phishing. You might get a message sent to you via email, or through social media that’s prompting you to update your account details or something similar, pretending it’s from a legitimate sender. In reality, no one else other than a hacker is behind the keyboard. The reason why such a move works is that it was designed to prey on people’s naiveté. Once a hacker gets a hold of your login credentials, all they need to do is log in to your account and empty or transfer its contents.
Another way they use to trick you into sending your hard-earned money into the wrong hands is by infecting your PC with malware that alters the contents of your clipboard. You might be thinking you’re sending the money to a friend or a legitimate charity, but the malware edits the Bitcoin address to the one belonging to a hacker without you noticing.
Now, all of the above-mentioned methods of crypto-theft have something to do with trickery. One would think that by simply staying alert at all times and double-checking everything such grim scenarios could be avoided with relative ease. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case. What if you knew that in certain situations, hackers could intercept your login credentials despite you exercising the maximum caution?
Why crypto traders view VPN as an essential cybersecurity measure
Apart from safeguarding your privacy and anonymity online, a VPN also has another important function. It encrypts the traffic exchanged between your device and the server you’re communicating with. In other words, even if someone were to intercept it on its way to the intended destination, it would be utterly useless to them without knowing the proper key.
When logging in to your crypto-trading accounts, inputting your login credentials is a necessary evil. However, if you’re connected to a potentially unsecured network (such as the public Wi-Fi’s you often find at a cafe or any other public place), they could be intercepted by a third party at this very point. Having two-factor authentication turned on helps a great deal, but not all providers support it, so there’s no need for you to be taking chances for no reason. Just get a VPN. It will help you sleep at night.
Some crypto traders are concerned about the government surveillance
Bitcoin (and other cryptocurrencies) is untraceable by design. Or is it? As the industry experts will tell you, the government has been actively trying to trace its flow, and they may be spying on your transactions as well – your ISP may be assisting them with it. Furthermore, certain cryptocurrencies keep tabs on all the transactions and send them straight to the government whenever requested. The bright side of using a VPN is that the ISP won’t be able to see what’s going on, and you will remain anonymous in the eyes of the government.
What else do you need to engage in safe cryptocurrency trading?
First and foremost, you need to make sure there is no malware installed on your computer or smart device that might be spying on your transactions. Otherwise, nothing mentioned in today’s article will make a difference. This can be done in two ways; either by reinstalling your OS or scanning it with an antivirus software of your choice. If you’re extra-paranoid, reinstalling the OS might be your best bet (since not all antivirus scanners are 100% accurate).
Then, you need to make sure that your software and OS is always kept up to date. That way, it’s going to be less vulnerable to hacks and exploits. Finally, if you’ve decided that you’re going to store your cryptocurrencies on your local machine, double-check it’s encrypted and make regular backups to ensure you don’t lose access to it overnight.
Conclusion
Safe cryptocurrency trading is a complex beast, but yes – buying a VPN is undoubtedly a crucial part of the overall equation. By now, you should have a good idea what you should be doing to stay as safe as possible, and if you still haven’t applied everything we’ve mentioned, now is the time to do so.
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