Four Best Practices to Save Your Crypto Assets When Your Wallet is Hacked
What can you do when your wallet has been compromised?
What can you do when your wallet has been compromised?
On 3rd August, around 8,000 private keys for wallet addresses on the Solana blockchain were leaked. At the time of writing, the loss of crypto assets amounted to about US$8 million dollars. Most of these stolen assets were SOLs, USDCs, and some NFTs. The cause for a leak of such a scale is still under investigation.
It is worth noting that many users were ignorant of the severity and scale of this incident before the attack had reached its zenith. Many just watched as their fellow crypto users began to mysteriously lose their crypto assets. It was not until when their own addresses were exploited that they began to think about reacting to the situation.
When your wallet is compromised, time is of the essence to save what remains. So, what can you do?
Here are some best common practices:
1Transfer All of Your Crypto Assets from Your Hot (Online) Wallet into a Cold (Hardware) Wallet Immediately
When cases like hacks occur, the first thing a crypto user should do is to log in to their hot wallet in a clean, safe, uncompromised PC or mobile device and transfer the remaining crypto assets into a cold wallet. A cold wallet is hardware — only those with direct access or connection to hardware (Mainly, and only: You) can have direct connection to your crypto assets. There is no way a hacker can have access to your cold wallet remotely through the internet once your cold wallet is disconnected from the internet.
2If You Do Not Have Access to a Cold Wallet,
Follow these Steps:
Step 1: Install a safe wallet App on a new, uncompromised device. The app must not have reports of weak security or have not been reported as hacked. Non-custodial wallet apps are usually preferred.
Step 2: Disconnect the new, uncompromised device from the internet. Disable wifi; disconnect your ethernet cable. This is the most important step!
Step 3: Run the app, generate a new wallet address, and remember to record the seed words and wallet address in a safe place (Like writing them down on a piece of paper)
Step 4: Transfer your remaining crypto assets to the new wallet address.
Step 5: Reformat your old device or do what it takes to clean all data on the old device.
Step 6: Once the situation has been resolved, import the new wallet address to a safe wallet app using the seed words you have recorded in Step 3.
If neither of the above two methods apply to you, try these:
3 Transfer All Applicable Crypto Assets
through a Cross-Chain Bridge
Visit a cross-chain bridge connecting to the source blockchain (In the case of the hack, Solana) and a reliable target chain (Like Ethereum), and transfer all of your remaining crypto assets from your compromised wallet (Found in the source blockchain) to a safe one in the target blockchain.
Note: This only applies to crypto assets that are supported or wrapped in both the source blockchain and the target blockchain.
4 Transfer All Applicable Crypto Assets to a
Crypto Exchange (CEX) Account
If you have an account with a CEX (Make sure it has an established reputation), you can transfer your remaining assets into said CEX.
Note: CEXs usually only support fungible tokens — You may consider your NFTs a loss if you choose to follow this method. If your CEX supports storing NFTs, great!
We would recommend the first two practices instead of the last two — They are the quickest and safest ways to protect your assets as all means of connection with the hackers are cut off (Internet). This is not to say that the last two methods are bad, however, it is possible (but unlikely) for hackers to track down transactions of individual wallets and attempt hacking into a CEX or a wallet in a different blockchain during the period of an attack.
Above all, remember: When attacks like the recent one in the Solana blockchain occur, think fast and act quickly. Follow our suggested solutions to protect your crypto assets as soon as possible, even if a hacker has not reached you yet.
Knowledge on crypto cybersecurity is the best deterrent against security compromises. It is important for everyone in the crypto community to gain understanding and practice sufficient levels of cybersecurity.
To stay up-to-date on hacks and other security situations in the crypto space, join our Telegram group.
Looking to strengthen the security of your project? Contact us at https://fairyproof.com