<center><img src="https://stakepool.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/crypto2.jpg" alt="Hacker Stealing all Your money" width="450" height="300" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-412" /></center>
<b>I once lost 150 Bitcoins due to an exchange being hacked, I am more careful now with who I exchange with!</b>

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<h2>First things first - Your Steem & SBD is valuable - Secure it Hard!</h2>

<b>Lets start by getting into a good security routine that you should apply to all of your accounts from now on, but let us begin with Steemit:</b>

Step #1: Go to https://lastpass.com/ and install the chrome & firefox addon - buy the premium package, security is worth paying for.

Step #2: Go to Permissions here on Steemit and change each password so you have a unique password for each login (Posting, Active & Owner)

<b>A great password should contain at least 100 chars and look something like this: 9J7Jw64fH&SuoTPZj1y7LmsVDZnwW1X4B3u084*DxgY!y8vv94@9nA6%g8U1LyIuU6gThAO!R6gw0JjThj8yVNSF0csh$F&D!J</b>

The Password-handler (LastPass) will take care of remembering it for you.

Use your Active Login for Money/Transfers
Use your Posting Login for posting & upvoting.
Put your Owner-Login away in cold storage, do not use it to log in with EVER, unless you are selling your steemit account.

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<b>Keep your master-password and owner-key in a safe & secure place in case you ever need them</b>

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<h2>Exchanges that I trust & why!</h2>

The #1 Secure Exchange is  <a href="https://bittrex.com/">Bittrex</a> - You can read the story of Bittrex on Richies blog, but long story short - The owners of Bittrex are hardcore security experts from the largest data-centers in the world. In the time of need, when "all" exchanges got hacked, they built this enormous fortress we know and love as Bittrex Exchange. They take security so serious that their internal jokes are impossible to understand due to all the encryption. Use them and <b>ALWAYS ENABLE 2FA & A SECURE PASSWORD FROM LASTPASS</b>

The #2 Secure Exchange is <a href="https://poloniex.com/">Poloniex</a>  - They got hacked once, and lost a lot of their customers bitcoins, but they have mad respect from me and others (even the bittrex owners) for how they handled the hack by being upfront with their users, took a socialized loss divided on everyone and paid everybody back. They have never been hacked again after that, as they now take security very seriously due to their previous experience. <b>ALWAYS ENABLE 2FA & A SECURE PASSWORD FROM LASTPASS</b>

The #3 Secure Exchange is <a href="https://bitshares.org/">BitShares decentralized exchange</a> created by the guys who also made Steemit. Bitshares is ultra fast & decentralized. It is a step more technical to get into and understand then Bittrex & Poloniex, but if you can understand Steemit, I am sure you can also understand Bitshares and will love using them as well. But as always: <b>ALWAYS ENABLE 2FA & A SECURE PASSWORD FROM LASTPASS</b>

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<b>It does not matter how good lock you have if you leave the doors and windows open.</b>

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<h2>How to avoid to be scammed or lured into "secret" groups</h2>

The best way to avoid being scammed or lured into secret groups is by being member of a big open group who you can consult with if someone is contacting you privately to get you into some pump & dump group or to invest in a coin that you have no clue about. 

I personally spend about 17 hours every day on <a href="https://stakepool.com/about/connect/">Stakepool Teamspeak</a> & <a href="https://stakepool.com/stakepool-radio/">Stakepool Radio</a>  Fintech Market Watch open for all and governed and guarded by a community of analysts, traders and investors in crypto who will look at anything with critical eyes and give you their honest opinions 24/7 all year.

I also spend a great deal of time on <a href="https://steem.slack.com/">Steemit Slack</a> to make sure I stay informed, actually - I spend time in every slack group of the coins I trade to stay informed, and talk about it live on Stakepool - sharing the information in realtime using voice is so much more effective then text-chatting, you got to agree with me on that.

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<b>Having a large group of serious people to consult with is a virtue, never respond to strangers with invitations to join big money - I have seen a lot of rich people become poor doing that.</b>

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<h2>Always keep your browsers, antivirus & OS updated</h2>

Now that you are making money on #steemit - you need to think twice about what sites you visit, what you download (or have already downloaded in the past) and make sure your operative system is updated and not outdated.

If you over the years have downloaded and tried out a lot of free crap, chances are that you already have a keylogger installed on your computer, so unless you know for sure that is not the case - make sure you know by downloading the most popular antivirus for your computer & os and do a deep scan of everything. You will be scared to death of what you might discover that has installed itself on your machine and is reporting all kinds of sensitive information to the people who really should not have it - and it is all your fault for not being careful in the first place, so maybe the best thing is to buy a brand new computer with a clean installation and start a new and better computer-life.

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<b>Thank you for reading all this important text - Please comment, upvote & share with all your friends</b>

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