Hey Guys, We are working tirelessly to regain access to the c | Coin Bureau Insider

Hey Guys,

We are working tirelessly to regain access to the channel. My assumption is that large YouTube channels have become targets for hackers and as such, even a simple change in IP address can trigger a flag on the account.

Hope to be able to bring you the news tomorrow though

However, this whole experience has left me quite jaded. So much so that I decided to upgrade some of the other aspects of my crypto security in general.

The most important place for me to start was of course my hardware wallet backups!

For those of you who have been following me for some time, you will know that I use safe deposit boxes to store my recovery seeds for my hardware wallets.

For a time, I was comfortable with this method. The safe deposit boxes were some of the most secure I could find in London and I was the only one who had access to it.

However, I recently read this story which really disconcerted me:

https://www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2021/06/12/fbi-overreach-millions-seized-in-raid-on-safe-deposit-boxes.cnn

Basically, as part of an investigation, the FBI seized the contents of all the deposit boxes (even if the owners had done nothing wrong!)

They were not handing the contents back and were putting it on the owners to prove that they were not involved in anything illegal. That's quite an overreach and is really quite shocking.

Given the generally sceptical view authorities take on cryptocurrencies, I can only imagine the difficulty a crypto holder would have to go to in order to get their seed words back. I would even go so far as to say that they would not get it back at all.

But it’s not just the risk that comes from government seizure of these safe deposit boxes. If there is a fire or theft, your seeds are gone. I also think you will have a tough time insuring crypto seed words.

So, I decided that it was time to upgrade that security with something more full proof...

Now, before I begin, I want to point out that if you are beginner to crypto, this is overkill. I am just really security conscious and wanted to make sure I planned for a long term hodl.

So, with that disclaimer out of the way, this is what I did:

On the advice of some followers, I decided to opt for a 2 of 3 Shemir Backup.

So, what is that?

Well, it's basically analogous to a multi signature in that you require more than one set of seeds in order to restore your wallet.

Essentially, you need a certain threshold of sets of seeds in order to restore the wallet. For example, if you have a 2 of 3, then you need 2 of the 3 seed sets in order to restore. If you have a 4 of 7, 4 of the 7 etc etc.

I have opted for the 2 of 3 otherwise it would get unwieldy.

Now, there are software wallets that allow you to set up these schemes but the only hardware wallet that I know is the Trezor Model T. As you know, Trezor is my preferred hardware wallet and I am glad that there was this option.

https://trezor.io/shamir/

I bought two Trezor One's and set these up with the 2 of 3.

I then rented an extra deposit box. I store one seed set in my current box. Another one in the new box and a third at my home.

This means that if ever one of the boxes is compromised or destroyed, I am still able to restore a wallet.

It also means that if ever I lose the one seed copy at my house, I am still able to recover it from those that are in my safe deposit boxes.

So, this seed storage mechanism has left me a lot more comfortable with hodling my crypto. The chance of anyone being able to access my seeds and crypto through overreach is greatly reduced.

However, as mentioned, this can be considered overkill for some. If you are already using a hardware wallet, that's the first big step in taking control.

And, while we are on the subject of hardware wallets, I want to bring your attention to the latest attempt at ledger seed phishing...

Basically, fraudsters are mailing poisoned ledgers to unsuspecting victims of that database breach. I tweeted about this the other day:

https://twitter.com/coinbureau/status/1405752388649033729