How to protect your Bitcointalk account from getting hacked.

[SuperBitMan]

I created this thread to help newbies secure their account so they won't get hacked other old members that will fine it useful can apply it too so there account will be secured, all this hackers target reputable accounts more.

1. Use a very strong password:
If you know you didn't use a wrong password please change it now to a very strong password use the forgotten password option and then change it, use a mix of latter's, numbers and symbols to create a strong password.

2. Enable 2FA (Two-Factor Authentication):
There's an option available for Two-Factor Authentication in Bitcointalk forum so it is very good that you use a Two-Factor Authentication in your Bitcointalk account so that even if someone stole your password they can't even login to your account and it will become impossible for them to hack it.

3. Secure Your Email Account linked to your forum account:
That Email that is linked to that your forum account is the pass key to your account because if someone gets hold of your email account they can use the forgotten option and when a link is sent to your email they can easily change your password through that and your forum account is gone.
So secure your Email that is linked to that your Bitcointalk forum account very well in fact use a strong password and 2FA for your email.

 4. Create a Signed Bitcoin Message Backup:
In this forum they allow you to prove account ownership by signing a message with a Bitcoin address that you control and make sure that the Bitcoin address is your personal address, so what you should do is to link your Bitcoin address to your account and save the signed message so that if your account ever gets hacked you can recover it with it.

Lastly don't rent your Bitcointalk account to anyone and don't use people's wifi to login your account and don't click on some link sent to you in PM, be very careful and enjoy the forum.

[LTU_btc]

This is basic security tips that were posted here so many times. But I guess it's useful to repeat it time from time. Few extra things that I can add. Don't use throwaway email to signup on Bitcointalk. That will make recovery proccess very complicated. If you used such email to signup here, better change to real one. And tip not related to Bitcointalk only, but in general - be careful when you connect to public Wifi networks.
BTW, from what I see problem of hacked Bitcointalk accounts isn't that frequent nowadays. I remember times when half of Meta topics were request to recover hacked account.

[Joy- maker]

I created this thread to help newbies secure their account so they won't get hacked other old members that will fine it useful can apply it too so there account will be secured, all this hackers target reputable accounts more.

1. Use a very strong password:
If you know you didn't use a wrong password please change it now to a very strong password use the forgotten password option and then change it, use a mix of latter's, numbers and symbols to create a strong password.

2. Enable 2FA (Two-Factor Authentication):
There's an option available for Two-Factor Authentication in Bitcointalk forum so it is very good that you use a Two-Factor Authentication in your Bitcointalk account so that even if someone stole your password they can't even login to your account and it will become impossible for them to hack it.

3. Secure Your Email Account linked to your forum account:
That Email that is linked to that your forum account is the pass key to your account because if someone gets hold of your email account they can use the forgotten option and when a link is sent to your email they can easily change your password through that and your forum account is gone.
So secure your Email that is linked to that your Bitcointalk forum account very well in fact use a strong password and 2FA for your email.

 4. Create a Signed Bitcoin Message Backup:
In this forum they allow you to prove account ownership by signing a message with a Bitcoin address that you control and make sure that the Bitcoin address is your personal address, so what you should do is to link your Bitcoin address to your account and save the signed message so that if your account ever gets hacked you can recover it with it.

Lastly don't rent your Bitcointalk account to anyone and don't use people's wifi to login your account and don't click on some link sent to you in PM, be very careful and enjoy the forum.

@SuperBitMan well done you have really tried with this thread you came up with, because this basic security tips you just listed above will be very helpful to newbies who are just getting started with bitcointalk to protect their bitcointalk accounts from getting hacked, but not only newbies it will also help  other old users who have not known about them before to also enhance the security of their bitcointalk accounts and protect their own accounts from get hacked as well. I know it's rear This time to people complaining of hacked accounts, but even as that This basic security tips are tips that should be reposted after a long period of time to remind newbies and other users about them.

[Alone055]

I created this thread to help newbies secure their account so they won't get hacked

I wonder why a hacker would want to hack a newbie account when they can literally create a new account, make a few posts, and become a newbie just like that, unless a newbie is too knowledgeable, and has managed to get a good amount of merits early on and then someone else wants to get access to that account because they know they can't achieve that themselves.

Hackers, or we should say stealers, often target dormant accounts, which means that they look for accounts that have a high rank and have been inactive for a long time, so that they can find a way to access those accounts and then sell them so that they can make some money out of it. It could happen to active accounts as well, but they know it's difficult since those who are active will have tighter security.

Anyway, the tips you've provided are useful, but it's high-ranked users who should make sure they follow them instead of newbies because newbies will barely get targeted.

[Darker45]

You can actually include the basic dos and don'ts in dealing with anything connected to the internet. It's also protecting your account if you avoid clicking on questionable links, dealing with strangers online, downloading dubious apps, even connecting to public Wi-Fi, and so forth.

But if the hacker's goal is to take advantage of the reputation of the account, that's pointless. The real owner could easily create an alternate account and report the incident, warn everybody that it's hacked, ask DTs to tag it, and so on. The account would just be wasted. It happened a number of times.

[LeyMonte]

I created this thread to help newbies secure their account so they won't get hacked other old members that will fine it useful can apply it too so there account will be secured, all this hackers target reputable accounts more.

1. Use a very strong password:
If you know you didn't use a wrong password please change it now to a very strong password use the forgotten password option and then change it, use a mix of latter's, numbers and symbols to create a strong password.

2. Enable 2FA (Two-Factor Authentication):
There's an option available for Two-Factor Authentication in Bitcointalk forum so it is very good that you use a Two-Factor Authentication in your Bitcointalk account so that even if someone stole your password they can't even login to your account and it will become impossible for them to hack it.

3. Secure Your Email Account linked to your forum account:
That Email that is linked to that your forum account is the pass key to your account because if someone gets hold of your email account they can use the forgotten option and when a link is sent to your email they can easily change your password through that and your forum account is gone.
So secure your Email that is linked to that your Bitcointalk forum account very well in fact use a strong password and 2FA for your email.

 4. Create a Signed Bitcoin Message Backup:
In this forum they allow you to prove account ownership by signing a message with a Bitcoin address that you control and make sure that the Bitcoin address is your personal address, so what you should do is to link your Bitcoin address to your account and save the signed message so that if your account ever gets hacked you can recover it with it.

Lastly don't rent your Bitcointalk account to anyone and don't use people's wifi to login your account and don't click on some link sent to you in PM, be very careful and enjoy the forum.

if one follows these four steps correctly then the chances of an account being hacked will be reduced to zero. We must take utmost care to keep our account secure then no hacker will be able to hack our account.

strong password is the most important thing for account security. If 2FA is set up with this then no one will be able to login even if they know your password. If an active email is linked to the forum account, if your account is ever hacked and the hacker changes the password and email then a notification will be sent to your email from the forum which will be valid for 14 days. During this period, by looking at the email, you can easily recover the account from your original email and make the hacker lose the account. In addition, if there is a backup of the signed Bitcoin message, it is possible to easily recover the account at any time.

I myself recently added an active email to keep my account secure and used a strong password. After the first change, I felt that it needed to be more secure so I changed the password again. Along with this, I activated 2FA. Hopefully, there will be no more problems with this.

Although account hacking is not very common on this forum, we still need to be careful and maintain awareness in using accounts. Everyone stay aware and enjoy keeping the forum safe. Thanks to everyone, especially the person who made everyone aware through a nice message.

[OcTradism]

I created this thread to help newbies secure their account so they won't get hacked other old members that will fine it useful can apply it too so there account will be secured, all this hackers target reputable accounts more.

I wrote about more tips there with many information you did not have in your topic.
Forum account: security, privacy, and recovery.

Moreover, if you want to get more knowledge and improve your practice for security and privacy, check this.
Security and Privacy Encylopedia.

In general, people must be careful with practice but to have top class security and privacy for their practice, they must learn and have enough knowledge, then practice carefully will help them improving security and privacy.

[cryptomaniac_xxx]

I think Theymos did a great job already preventing hacks in the community with 2FA. But initially there was a lot of hacks account that had happened here, although most of them have been recovered as there are teams dedicated handling this.

Even Laszlo Hanyecz account was recently restored to the man (if anyone is not aware of it).

So yeah, good tips on how to protect our account some of them might look basic, like not clicking on links but it will save us that headache. Just be self aware and practice good security hygiene and we are going to be ok.

[cryptoaddictchie]

Solid advice! Securing your password, enabling 2FA, protecting your email, and keeping a signed Bitcoin message backup are all crucial steps which newbies should be able to do already and also avoiding risky links and public Wi-Fi keeps your account extra safe. Ive always consider to have my own data or only open this forum at home and avoid such connection to public we dont know but there might be compromise on public networks.

[EluguHcman]

I created this thread to help newbies secure their account so they won't get hacked

I wonder why a hacker would want to hack a newbie account when they can literally create a new account, make a few posts, and become a newbie just like that, unless a newbie is too knowledgeable, and has managed to get a good amount of merits early on and then someone else wants to get access to that account because they know they can't achieve that themselves.

Well I understand your thoughts are basically centered on the need why a hacker can pass through those processes just to hack accounts of a newbie when they can comfortably create as much as easy from their own ends.

But it is obvious that OP highlighted reputable members being on the targets. We should ought to know that there are newbies whose activities in the forum from the beginning could prove potentials, so they can also be qualities that may interest hackers to attack newbies.

Other way round, hackers may want to just gain access on newbies (users) bitcointalk account and without any activity in the account but keeping eyes up on the user and strikes when they think it is right for them. Probably when the newbie or user has acquired the expected quality.

[tbct_mt2]

Solid advice! Securing your password, enabling 2FA, protecting your email, and keeping a signed Bitcoin message backup are all crucial steps which newbies should be able to do already and also avoiding risky links and public Wi-Fi keeps your account extra safe. Ive always consider to have my own data or only open this forum at home and avoid such connection to public we dont know but there might be compromise on public networks.

Remember that 2FA in the forum is different than 2FA for your email or exchange account. You can turn off your 2FA and access your forum account too. It's an important note on forum 2FA and users must know this and secure their email address as a most important thing together with strong password for their forum account.

A note of theymos in 2FA added.

If you use the forgotten-password function, then there's an option to remove the 2FA. So 2FA does not provide any protection in case of a compromised email. Make sure that your email address is secure. If you don't want to set an email address, use something like yourUserName@invalid.asktom.cf; don't use a random nonsense email like y@x.com, since somebody might create that domain/email.

How to Create a Strong/Secure Password.

[BitBakerr1]

SuperBitMan you did very well by putting this down here to be honest some of the steps you mentioned here on how to protect our Bitcointalk account I don't know about it and I don't even know they are possible here thanks for bringing this up I will have to try one in other to protect my account, this hackers target people who don't know how to secure there account and I'm very sure they will not like this thread you just created, I have seen some old thread where people complain of there account being hacked but is one follow this steps you have written down in this thread I'm very sure there account won't be hacked by anyone, it is very important we secure our account very well let's not be lazy in taking steps that will secure our account, those reputable members in this forum please take this information seriously because I'm sure your accounts are always the target.

[KiaKia]

The first priority thing to secure is your email account, once this is compromised it is over, I would rather use 2FA on my email account than the forum, for someone to take over your account they need to access your email account, that is where your recovery password is going or any changes you want to apply like a change of password for example.

I think the 2FA on this forum is not a good as others I have used, but not entirely bad, still I believe that if your email is the most secured it will be extremely harder for people to steal your account.

I need to learn how to sign Bitcoin messages, it is a big shame that I have been trying to avoid it and it is very bad coming from someone who have been into Bitcoin since 2017 now, I feel somehow not knowing about this yet.

[Porfirii]

I created this thread to help newbies secure their account so they won't get hacked

I wonder why a hacker would want to hack a newbie account when they can literally create a new account, make a few posts, and become a newbie just like that, unless a newbie is too knowledgeable, and has managed to get a good amount of merits early on and then someone else wants to get access to that account because they know they can't achieve that themselves.

-snip-

I don't know if this is still being done today, but I remember that the sale of accounts was quite frequent when I joined the forum, and the price offered exceeded thousands of dollars in many cases, but even lower ranks where sold for tens or even a few hundreds. And that was before the merit system.

What I mean is that your Bitcointalk account that you have built with so much effort doesn't just have a value for you and, even if you don't expect to suffer an attack anytime soon because you think your low rank is worth nothing, if you haven't done it yet, you should start protecting it NOW.

[Obim34]

Let me add to your thread that your email address used to create your Bitcointalk account should be a different address to your commonly used addresses, usually the ones connected to your local banks or any hot wallet.

Secondly, in your account settings make sure to restrict your email address from displaying public.

[Catenaccio]

I need to learn how to sign Bitcoin messages, it is a big shame that I have been trying to avoid it and it is very bad coming from someone who have been into Bitcoin since 2017 now, I feel somehow not knowing about this yet.

You can learn it easily.

How to sign a Bitcoin message.
Stake your Bitcoin address here

It's more difficult but if you want to have more proofs of your account ownership, you can learn about PGP key and sign your message too.
The BCT PGP/GPG Public Key Database: Stake Your PGP Key Here
[Eng: Tutorial] PGP Signature - Encrypt/Decrypt message - Fingerprint
[Eng: Tutorial] PGP Signature - Encrypt/Decrypt message (Linux Only)

[Awaklara]

Let me add to your thread that your email address used to create your Bitcointalk account should be a different address to your commonly used addresses, usually the ones connected to your local banks or any hot wallet.

It would indeed be better that way, use a different email that is not connected to your device, or for creating an account on any application like social media. Do not store your account login details in online documents like Google Sheets, just to be safe.

Secondly, in your account settings make sure to restrict your email address from displaying public.

It should be set by default when you create an account, the email will be hidden. But for business purposes, some users might intentionally leave their emails visible.

[tbct_mt2]

It should be set by default when you create an account, the email will be hidden. But for business purposes, some users might intentionally leave their emails visible.

And email addresses for business purposes need to be different than other email addresses of a same person or a same company. This practice is a very good barrier against compromise on your business as hackers will less likely hack an email address that contains all important documents, conversations for example.

You need to use strong password for your email, set up 2FA.
Make sure to check whether your email has been pwned.
https://haveibeenpwned.com/

[Ultegra134]

Let me add to your thread that your email address used to create your Bitcointalk account should be a different address to your commonly used addresses, usually the ones connected to your local banks or any hot wallet.

Secondly, in your account settings make sure to restrict your email address from displaying public.

This is the second most solid advice after using 2FA. I have three email addresses, using mostly the two on a daily basis, but my point is that my Bitcointalk account is registered through an old email address that isn't as "public" anymore. I won't use it on new sign-ups, nor does anyone barely know it. I have my official email address for the majority of my online activities, and the second one I'm using for Bitcointalk, although its initial purpose was to be used as my primary email, I changed it after a few years and left it mostly inactive.

[Davidvictorson]

3. Secure Your Email Account linked to your forum account:
That Email that is linked to that your forum account is the pass key to your account because if someone gets hold of your email account they can use the forgotten option and when a link is sent to your email they can easily change your password through that and your forum account is gone.
So secure your Email that is linked to that your Bitcointalk forum account very well in fact use a strong password and 2FA for your email.

Do not make you email visible in your profile if you decide to add it.
There is a security question and answer in the profile section that you can do to add an extra layer of security.

Lastly and most importantly, do not sign in your account on any device particularly those ones that are not your own like in a public computer in a library, a cafe, or even in a friend's house. While you trust your friend, you do not know your friend's friend.