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Crypto Daily Topic

Should you Use a VPN for Cryptocurrency Transactions? 

With the growing number of cybersecurity threats, online privacy is becoming a huge concern for most internet users. As such, privacy-conscious users will likely prefer using cryptocurrencies to fiat or debit cards for financial transactions. 

Sure enough, all financial transactions done using digital currencies are cryptographically secured, protecting user privacy and anonymity. Recipients won’t know your identity or any other personal information unless you buy physical goods and have them shipped to your physical address. 

But the security of your transactions is just one part of the whole online privacy equation. As long as your crypto transactions are done over the internet, you still face the risk of being hacked, falling victim to identity theft, and other cybercrimes. Now, this is where a VPN comes in. 

But first, let’s understand how a VPN works. 

What is a VPN? 

A virtual private network (VPN) service is a programmed security tool that encrypts data being transmitted over the internet. The tool secures your privacy by routing your internet traffic through an encrypted channel, making it hard for third-parties, the government, and even your internet service provider (ISP) to intercept or read your online data.

In other words, the sources and destination of your data are masked when using a VPN. This is especially important if you are using public WiFi to access the internet. At this time, you are highly vulnerable to third-party traffic interceptions who may exploit your personal data. 

Vpn Forex Academy

On a regular network, all your online activities can be traced back to you using your computer/smartphone IP address. The address functions pretty the same way as a home address in that it helps identify your exact location. However, when using a VPN, your real IP address is concealed then you’re assigned a new mock IP address enabling you to bypass geo-restrictions. This means your online activities can’t be traced to your exact physical location. 

Why You Should use a VPN for Cryptocurrency Transactions

Now that we understand how a VPN works, it’s easy to see how it adds an extra layer of security when using cryptocurrencies. Let’s break down why you need to use a VPN when transacting in cryptos over the internet. 

I) Sending Cryptos to other Hot wallets

One of the easiest ways for a hacker to steal your cryptocurrency is by exploiting security loopholes in your hot wallet. Whether you’re sending digital currencies to an exchange site or to another party that you are in business with, your wallet and public key address can easily be identified. With this information, all your transactions can be monitored and even intercepted to gain access to your hot wallet. 

The security loopholes stem from the fact that hot wallets and most cryptocurrency transactions are done over the internet. As such, hackers can leverage their expertise to prey on your activities online and even steal your personal information.

Using a VPN, in this case, can help encrypt your online transactions by encrypting data on both ends. That is to say, transactional data between your device as the sender, and that of the receiver cannot be intercepted in any way. Even when using a public WiFi network to carry out the transaction, your activities are hidden from third-parties’ preying eyes. 

II) Using Decentralised Apps

On the bright side, decentralized apps such as decentralized exchanges and DeFi tools, do not request users to provide identifying Know Your Customer (KYC) information. From a privacy and security front, users are protected from hacks and personal data theft. But even with this security advantage, users’ activities can still be monitored by identifying their unprotected IP address. You can keep your actual location under wraps by leveraging the ability of a VPN to conceal your real IP address. This way, your activities will be completely invisible, making you less of a target of cybercriminals. 

III) Bypassing Internet Firewalls

In the few countries where cryptocurrencies are completely illegal, the government places a geo-restriction, barring any cryptocurrency transactions within the country’s borders. Even those using digital currencies within the country can easily be traced by the government and charged for violating the crypto ban. 

However, using a VPN, your connection is routed to a remote server that virtually puts you in a different geographical location. As such, your new location won’t be under the geo-restriction even when you’re actually located in a country that has imposed the geo-block. This way, you can freely transact in cryptocurrencies without detection. 

In a good number of countries, using cryptocurrencies is legal. But this doesn’t mean that the government is friendly to the idea of blockchain and cryptocurrencies altogether. As such, the regulators have been known to keep tabs or monitor the transactions of those using digital currencies. If you are concerned about your privacy, the idea of the government monitoring your transactions won’t sit right with you. 

Which VPN should you Use

The VPN market is flooded with numerous providers touting their services to be the best in the market. While indeed some offer superior privacy protection, a good number of them should be avoided.  

For starters, steer clear of free VPN services for the simple reason that these providers tend to fund themselves by selling users’ private data to governments and advertisement agencies. On the other hand, paid VPN fund their services and infrastructure from the subscription fees paid by the users and have no reason to sell personal data. 

Additionally, the headquarter of a VPN service determines its commitment to protecting users’ data. A VPN operating from one of the 14-Eyes Alliance countries can be forced by the law to provide a user’s data since these countries often conduct mass surveillance programs. A VPN service provider based in privacy-friendly countries such as the British Virgin Islands, Panama, and Switzerland can be trusted to keep their client’s data private. In fact, these privacy-friendly countries have imposed laws restricting companies from recording any personal data of the users. 

Other useful features you should consider when choosing a VPN include a kill-switch function that terminates your internet connection if you encounter any problem connecting to the VPN. The provider should also have a transparent no-logs policy, meaning that they won’t record any of your online activities. Also, be sure to check if the VPN provider accepts cryptocurrency payments, just to add a little more security and privacy. 

Conclusion 

There’s no doubt that cryptocurrencies are an ideal way to protect your online financial transactions. While they offer a certain degree of anonymity, users can still fall victim to cybersecurity attacks from the fact that they are connected to the internet when transacting cryptos. So, be sure to use a VPN service to keep your transactions under wraps while at the same time protecting your devices from malware. 

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Crypto Guides

How Different Is Permissioned Blockchain From Permissionless Blockchain?

Introduction

Blockchain has created ripples throughout many industries. Its security futures are ever essential now with increasing data due to IoT. Artificial Intelligence and Machine learning are used to analyze the data generated to find different patterns as per the requirement. Blockchain is essential to secure the data or transfer the data securely.

Different industries are trying to implement the blockchain technology to improve their business. Hence, it is essential to design the platform in terms of their requirement. To facilitate the same, we have different types of blockchain platforms available. They are as follows:

  1. Permissioned blockchain or Private blockchain
  2. Permissionless blockchain or Public blockchain.
  3. Hybrid blockchain.

Permissionless Blockchain

Cryptocurrency platforms are classic examples of permissionless blockchain platforms. As the name suggests, it is a public blockchain. Anyone can join the network to perform different activities in the network, like users, miners, developers, or community members. Since the network is transparent, anyone can have a look at the transactions getting confirmed in the network.

🔓 Permissionless blockchain networks follow all the underlying principles of a real blockchain network. These networks are genuinely decentralized.

🔓 Authorities cannot shut down the network as no single entity controls the network. People, regardless of nation, location can join the network from anywhere.

🔓 Mostly all public blockchains are linked to a token with some intrinsic value. Based on the network-specific number of coins are mined at the beginning itself, or new coins are mined after every block is confirmed.

🔓 Miners are rewarded with these tokens to keep running the network smoothly.

🔓 Bitcoin is an example of a permissionless blockchain network.

Permissioned Blockchain

Enterprise blockchains are an excellent example of permissioned or private blockchains. Permissions should be given for different entities to join the network.

🔐 Everyone should have valid credentials to join the network.

🔐 These networks are not genuinely decentralized as these networks are created for the purposes of enterprises.

🔐 Not all the members of the network can see the transactions unless they have appropriate permissions.

🔐 Different Hyperledger platforms developed for different enterprise use cases are good examples of permissioned blockchain networks.

🔐 These blockchains are often not associated with tokens as enterprises run these.

Consortium Blockchains

Consortium blockchains are nothing but private blockchains but run by different entities together. Blockchain, being niche technology, different companies, even rivals, are coming together as a consortium to develop the technology.

R3 Corda is one such example in the financial place formed to create the technology for Fintech purposes.

Hybrid Blockchain

Hybrid blockchains offer the functionalities of private and public blockchains together at the same time. The entities involved can choose which data should be open or closed, depending on their functionality. The users need not forgo one feature completely to utilize the other functionality.

🔐🔓 Interoperability is very much possible, enabling to form multichain because of the hybrid nature of the platform.

🔐🔓 Dragonchain is an excellent example of Hybrid blockchains.

These are different types of blockchains available as of now, enabling the adoption of various industries as per their requirement.

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Cryptocurrencies

How to Prevent, Detect and Recover from Cryptojacking 

As cryptocurrencies grow in popularity and value, they continue to face cyber threats due to their internet-based nature. The most common threats are security breaches targeted at individuals and firms holding significant amounts of digital currencies. 

Over the years, as crypto mining has become expensive but still lucrative, cryptojacking has become the latest threat facing virtual currency users. 

What is Cryptojacking? 

Generally, cryptojacking is the unauthorized use of a computer, tablet, smartphone by a cybercriminal to mine cryptocurrencies. The process is pretty straightforward as all the hacker has to do is send you a malicious link or infect a website with malware. Once you open the link or the website, the malware auto-executes in your device and starts mining cryptos in the background.

The attack might also be targeted at a business’s cloud platform. By hacking into this platform, the cybercriminals tap into the computer resources resulting in increased cloud usage cost at the expense of the business or institution.  

You might think that cryptojacking was rampant only in 2017 when the market was booming. On the contrary, recent data suggests that the practice has been on an upward trend even in the bearish market. The reason for this is that as the crypto-market turns bearish, mining doesn’t generate enough profits to cover the resources used. This has led cybercriminals to resort to siphoning computational power from unsuspecting victims as a cheaper and less risky alternative to earning returns. 

Most of the cryptojacking is done using JavaScript miner, which is also used for legitimate mining. This means that a perpetrator doesn’t require high technical skills since the miner can easily be bought as a complete kit. What’s worse, it’s impossible to trace a miner to a particular hacker since the mining code doesn’t encrypt their data. This is especially true for anonymous cryptos such as Monero and Zcash, which makes it harder to trace cryptojacking activities. 

How to Detect and Recover Cryptojacking 

It may be hard to trace a cryptojacking hacker, but that doesn’t mean it is impossible to know if your device is compromised. All it takes is just paying attention to your device’s performance. So, here’s how to find out if your device has been infected with crypto mining scripts. 

i) Overheating 

Cryptojacking codes tend to use a lot of electric power, causing your device to overheat. If left unresolved, overheating can damage other hardware, such as the storage drive leading to expensive repairs. Keep in mind that overheating doesn’t necessarily mean your device has been compromised. It can also be caused by unrelated issues such as a damaged fan or dust clog-up. So, ensure your device is always in good condition to make it easy to detect overheating caused by cryptojacking. 

ii) Notice Lag in Performance

Cryptomining code slows down your device’s performance, as it overworks the Central Processing Unit (CPU). You’ll easily notice the lag when performing basic functions such as opening files or typing in details. 

Alternatively, you can look at your CPU’s level of usage from the Task Manager tab on your PC or Activity Monitor on a Mac computer. If the CPU usage is higher than usual, then there’s a good chance that the cryptomining script is running in the background. 

iii) Scan for Malware 

Making use of your device’s security software is one of the best ways of detecting cryptojacking scripts. Although not all scripts can be detected, scanning for these malicious scripts regularly can save you the damage. You should also ensure your security software is always up to date for effectiveness. 

Additionally, if you own a website, it is advised that you scan for any changes in your code. This is where cybercriminals embed cryptojacking codes, so monitoring your site can help you detect threats early enough.

iv) Keep Tabs on Cryptojacking Trends

Cybercriminals are always improving and devising new ways of siphoning your device’s computational power. Staying on top of the latest trends will help you keep with the script’s improvements as you also learn how to detect them. You can get the latest news on cryptojacking from reliable sources such as CoinDesk, CryptoSlate, and other top cryptocurrency blogs. 

Having known how to detect cryptojacking, it’s pretty easy to recover from it. If you are dealing with a JavaScript attack, your first response should be to kill all running tabs. In the same vein, you should uninstall any suspicious browser extensions. Also, blacklist the website from which the attack originated from. It’s also advised that you deploy anti-malware to avoid further attacks. 

With this in mind, let’s look into how you can prevent cryptojacking in the first place. 

Ways of Preventing Cryptojacking

Here are some preventative measures you should take to safeguard your device from cryptojacking:

  • Security Training 

Security training involves building awareness of what cryptojacking attacks look like. This method works perfectly in a business or institutional setting where there are many employees, some of whom aren’t aware of cryptojacking. 

Essentially, the training should be aimed at educating employees on cybersecurity tips such as not clicking on phishing emails or suspicious sites, and downloading files from trusted sources only. 

You may also consider training your IT team on how to identify various attack methods and necessary actions to take to mitigate the threats. 

  • Disable JavaScript

Disabling JavaScript when browsing online, can prevent cryptojacking scripts from running on your computing devices. You can disable it on a single page of a site or even within the entire website. Keeping in mind that JavaScript is widely used by most sites, you should expect some web features to fail to work. 

  • Use Anti-Cryptojacking Extensions

Most of the cryptojacking scripts are found in web browsers and online sites. As such, installing trusted anti-cryptojacking extensions such as minerBlock and No Coin is an effective way of preventing cryptojacking. Ad-blockers can also help detect and block malicious scripts. 

Conclusion

Cryptojacking is not only a threat to the digital currency community but also to everyone who has a computing device. Like any other cybersecurity threat, it is almost impossible to anticipate cryptojacking or even stop it from happening. The only sure way of dealing with these threats is through the early creation of awareness, detection, and prevention.