Your wallet is more vulnerable than you think and you should really change your view on security when it comes to crypto.

Since I got hacked, I've began to take a serious interest in security, something which I never really paid much attention to before. Tbh, I hardly even cared before. I was the classic, yeah I know what sites I visit and I know what I download and that was true, until you make a mistake. Whether you're tired, high, drunk, or just distracted. We ALL make mistakes.

But one thing that really irks me, when I started to dig deeper into security (and lets be honest, this is prob the tip of the iceberg.) is just how vulnerable crypto wallets are.

Yes I'm going to get people saying BUT DUDE you CLICKED AND DOWNLOADED AN EXE! ITS NOT CRYPTOS FAULT ITS YOURS! I know that. But who's to say it can't happen to you?

To show you what I mean, let's take a pilot, when we teach a pilot do we teach them how to prevent mistakes? YES. But what do we also teach them? What to do in-case something DOES happen. We teach them how to crash land, how to land a plane with low engine power, how to deal with either HUMAN error or mechanical error. When something happens, does the pilot go ahh fuck both engines are down, I was never taught how to crash land, because I thought everything would be safe all the time?

Nah.

That'd be fucking stupid.

So why the fuck do we have this attitude with crypto?

Have you ever actually delved deeper and realized that a website can download a file AND run it, without you ever knowing? But wait, I don't download files from sites I don't know. Sorry, but if you visit a website, you are already downloading info. Don't believe me? Go to a shady site, with an AV like Kaspersky running. You'll get messages saying hey this site tried to download this file, or run this command.

Then there's the even better, DON'T STORE YOUR SEED OR PRIVATE KEY ON YOUR PC and you'll be fine. Wrong. How do you think my MM was compromised? Yes, I did run an exe. BUT I had nothing on my pc, relating to my private key or my seed phrase, everything was written down in a physical book. If MM was so "safe" then I shouldn't have lost anything, except maybe from the account I had logged in. But my other accounts I wasn't logged in. I literally saw someone debating in another subreddit that your SF and Key is completely safe, because the wallet doesn't store it. Which is so wrong. Your SF and Key ARE stored, within the data of the extension, perhaps it's encrypted to some degree, but judging how easy it is to swipe google chrome passwords I wouldn't be surprised how easy it is to grab the MM data.

But dude just don't download bad shit!

Yep.

And tell the pilot to make sure his plane is perfect, every-time before taking off (safety checks obv do exist, but error CAN be made and HAS been made.).

Even our beloved hardware wallets are not invulnerable, this article right here outlines some of the vulnerabilities of the hardware wallets. https://blog.gridplus.io/hardware-wallet-vulnerabilities-f20688361b88 so I won't rewrite what was already said.

My point is every damn hacker (we'll use a general term) wants to get a hold of your crypto wallet and drain it. Crypto is far easier to deal with compared to a bank. Gain access, and your shit's gone. So why the fuck, are you counting on YOU the most susceptible part of the chain to errors, to have ZERO errors and not make a SINGLE mistake, regarding your security? This is even more true if you are dealing with larger funds.

So what's the solution? Honestly, I'm not sure. I'm trying to look for a wallet that has encryption, or maybe there's a ghetto way to do it by encrypting your wallet when you aren't using it and only decrypting it when you are. I'm not entirely sure, but I think spreading awareness that wallets are vulnerable is good, because they are yet people seem to think security just needs to be not storing your SF or Key on your computer. Which is just not true.

(also, genuine experts, feel free to point out where I am wrong. I'm happy to take back what I say if I'm genuinely wrong.)