How a simple phone repair becomes a nightmare if you hold crypto

Smartphones. Who doesn't have them these days. And we all have tons of apps for our portfolio management. We got our FIAT banking apps, we got the CEX apps. we got wallet apps and then browser for accessing the ones that don't have a dedicated app and finally logged into our account and an authenticator app.

With so many apps and so many passwords I bet you that we all have unknowingly used save password or better copy pasted or clicked a photo of our seed phrase. So many internet and crypto etiquttes are broken just for the sake of convinience.

When does this come to bite our behind ?

The first obvious one is losing our phone. But you know, accidents like dropping it in water and damage usually destroy it or once we lose it it runs out of charge. Even then, getting into it requires passords or some biometrics. And we can remotely lock our devices too if someone where to get in.

But what if I bring to your imagination a nightmare even more simple ? You have to give your phone for service. Now we all aren't the richest people in the world and definitely I am not. After dropping my phone and cracking the screen, the first thing I do is see if I can still use it with the display still cracked.

To my dismay, I saw rainbows and a epiliptic touchscreen that refused to obey. The next course of action is to curse a few suitable words and then look up the price of servicing it. Oh boy, a week to service and half the phone's cost to do it. Hell no. And buying a new one is even more expensive.

And here is the conundrum. I go and give it for service at the local shop that uses questionable parts but is cheaper and will get it done by the next day.

But here's the kicker, they need my phone's password.

And that my friend is the stake through the heart.

Immediately I tell them "Actually let me just quickly go home and get the money for this" and go back home to assess my options AKA steps to secure your funds

1. Sign out of Google: This will ensure that your authenticator will be disabled as well as accessing your cloud data is disabled as well. No accessing your password manager so your sins are forgiven.
2. Sign out of your CEX: Not all CEX have this so verify now the ones that you use allow you to remotely signout of your accounts. This is needed in case your phone's display or touch fails
3. Remove your SIM card: If you have a physical SIM card, remove it. This will prevent them from trying to access through SMS 2 factor authentication which a lot of CEX and banking apps use by default.
4. Block withdrawls: If you can block withdrawls for a certain amount of time then better do that until you get your phone back.
5. Delete seed phrase images or copy pastes: If you can access the cloud backup and delete it then better do it.

If you have the seed phrase as a local file on your phone then you are pretty much screwed. Someone can simply download metamask and use your seedphrase.

So there, this was one hell of a 24 hours for me and gladly it seems they didn't tamper with my phone. But it really did hit me like a hammer when I went to the shop and finally before giving the phone they asked for my password.

Hope this made you think twice of your security status. And stay safe everyone