Originally Posted by Desiack

It was 4/5 years ago and back then the recommendation was to store them on a USB stick and use a portable OS like Ubuntu. I did set it up but at the last minute decided to leave them where they were (as you say, in a wallet with an online trading company) and cash out in a few weeks as the price was rising daily. You only have to visit the wrong website or download the wrong file and your computer will be compromised and if Government agencies and large corporations can't keep hackers out with their resources, my little laptop will be easy meat.

If you only use them for nights out and can afford to lose them, go for it but after 25 years of hassle free Bank transfers and 6 months of Bitcoin heartache, I'll take the safer route if it's all the same. Once bitten... as they say.

Nothing is safe nowadays and everything can be hacked...

Just keep in mind that nobody would waste his time with an individual like you and your PC (unless he was sure your PC can make him rich). Even in this case it's up to you never to open any dodgy links/emails/sites and stay safe...

Hackers are mostly trying to hack big companies and steal thousands of wallets, that's why it's not recommended to keep your BTC on those companies.

Anyway... Shit happens... I am really sorry for your loss

Originally Posted by TheTrader

Nothing is safe nowadays and everything can be hacked...

Just keep in mind that nobody would waste his time with an individual like you and your PC (unless he was sure your PC can make him rich). Even in this case it's up to you never to open any dodgy links/emails/sites and stay safe...

Hackers are mostly trying to hack big companies and steal thousands of wallets, that's why it's not recommended to keep your BTC on those companies.

Anyway... Shit happens... I am really sorry for your loss

Someone did waste their time to hack my PC so they could access my email account to confirm the BitCoin sales but I know what you mean. They must have hacked the company first to see I had something worth stealing so blanket hacking everyone in the hope of capturing a few wallets is unlikely... for now. With ransomware on the rise we are all vulnerable and I'm always careful about dodgy links/emails/sites but it only needs one and as you say, everything and anyone can be hacked. Occasionally I glance at stories about improved security for Bitcoin as I'm still a fan of the concept but I'd rather not risk losing any more of my hard earned cash to organized Russian cyber-criminals. Shit happens indeed and just imagine what I could do with those 267 coins today!

We live and learn.

Originally Posted by Desiack

Someone did waste their time to hack my PC so they could access my email account to confirm the BitCoin sales but I know what you mean. They must have hacked the company first to see I had something worth stealing so blanket hacking everyone in the hope of capturing a few wallets is unlikely... for now. With ransomware on the rise we are all vulnerable and I'm always careful about dodgy links/emails/sites but it only needs one and as you say, everything and anyone can be hacked. Occasionally I glance at stories about improved security for Bitcoin as I'm still a fan of the concept but I'd rather not risk losing any more of my hard earned cash to organized Russian cyber-criminals. Shit happens indeed and just imagine what I could do with those 267 coins today!

We live and learn.

267. Holy fuck

Just keep in mind something else... The hackers probably disabled the email confirmation option after they hacked the BTC exchange site and then they just transferred the coins to their wallets... I don't think they hacked the BTC exchange site and then also hacked thousands of emails to do their "job". Makes no sense!

Originally Posted by TheTrader

267. Holy fuck

Just keep in mind something else... The hackers probably disabled the email confirmation option after they hacked the BTC exchange site and then they just transferred the coins to their wallets... I don't think they hacked the BTC exchange site and then also hacked thousands of emails to do their "job". Makes no sense!

Thinking about it, there wasn't a big scandal at the time so clearly not everybody's wallet had been emptied. They didn't disable the email confirmation option as that's how I found out about the transfers. One confirmation for a transfer of one coin and then a minute later, another confirmation for the transfer of the rest. I stupidly hadn't set up two step verification with the mobile as I didn't know much about that at the time and just assumed the email confirmation would have been enough. Anyway, I've put it behind me (and improved my security) and only remember how much the coins cost me rather than what they were worth when I lost them. I've just looked at the exchange rate now and seen that 267 coins will buy me a very decent house these days but back then, they would have bought me a fairly decent second hand car so not that bad.