Time to review and improve your security

Posted about 3 years ago by LN+

As we're preparing for the next Bitcoin bull run, what should we do besides stacking SATs? Review and improve our security. This is the cost of self sovereignty. You should take time and make an effort to do it. Here are 16 advices to follow:

Before taking any steps that are related to security, ensure you’re in the right frame of mind: well rested, calm, rational, and you have plenty of free time to research, think, check and double check everything. 🧘
Avoid paper wallets unless you can check the code generating it. Get a hardware wallet instead: Ledger, Coldcard, Trezor (affilate link). ⛑
Review your backups and if you can recover your funds in case of a cold storage hardware failure. Do you have your mnemonic words in a safe place? 💥
Create a safe backup of your backups to protect against black swan events. Off site backup perhaps? 🏴
Consider multi-sig accounts for large holdings for redundancy and added security. 👍👍👍
Move your funds from your mobile wallets, exchanges and any wallet connected to the internet into your cold storage. ❄️
Somber thought: Consider what happens to your funds in case of your death or if you become incapacitated. 🪦
Review the security of your email accounts, exchanges, password managers. Remove access from devices you don’t use frequently. ⛔️
Add second factor authentication to all critical systems, but remove phone based 2FA to remove the risk of SIM swap attacks. 📵
Ensure your devices have security updates, and protection against attacks. 🦠
Consider implementing hardware based firewalls at home and office. 🚒
Develop an adversarial mindset. How would you attack yourself? 😈
Harden yourself as a person against social attacks. There is a lot of scamming going on and you don’t want to fall for some too good to be opportunity to lose your funds. ❤️‍🔥
Be super sceptical and overly cautious. Never take the shortcut to click a link in an email for example. Don’t use a free hotspot. Don’t plug-in an untrusted device. Unplug listening devices when not in use. Don’t overshare on social. 🤐
Sign up to security related newsletters that are related to the systems and devices you’re using, so you can be informed about any events that may influence your setup or decisions. 🚨
Setup an alert for yourself to periodically review your setup and procedures and make changes if necessary. Review the history of your accounts for any unexpected activity. 📆