Topic: Phones on mobile wallet becoming riskier - page 2. (Read 638 times)

In case someone forces you to unlock your smartphone that way, you won't have too many choices - either you'll do it voluntarily, or you risk losing your finger (or your whole hand). Furthermore, if you are sleeping or in a state where you are not fully aware (drugs/alcohol), someone can use it and unlock your device.

As for classic hacking, various methods have existed for years, and here you can read about one that is relatively simple and cheap -> Hacking Fingerprints Is Actually Pretty Easy—and Cheap

This is one thing I don't fancy about those who go on live video cast to talk about how much they invest and what ROI they expect or make from such an investment. It makes them vulnerable to attacks.

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PCs have become like mobile phones in developed countries where almost everyone owns and carries one around. It's in underdeveloped countries that PCs are seen as an exclusive acquisition of the rich and only a few carry it.

How so, please explain I urge thee. I would think a fingerprint feature on a phone or any other device is tough to break. I use it on my phone and it's seamless to use.

When I was hacked $12k worth of assets in my 3 Metamask/Trust Wallet accounts combined, I just realized that it’s time for me to consider storing them seriously in my Ledger Nano S. So from now on, my assets should be stored in the Ledger Nano S.

It is not safe anymore to store them in mobile wallets, especially if you have exchange apps like Binance, KuCoin, etc. In the future, if muggers would definitely going to take advantage of it, they would really force us not only to hand over our phones, but also to unlock it with finger print or facial recognition. In case our exchange apps have extra layers of verification, they would also force us to do that before handing it over to them to steal our assets.

My advice is that if we don’t need to withdraw or transact our assets while going outside, better not bring our phones where we have installed Binance, Trust Wallet, etc. Always have a burner phone where you can just simply bring it for communication purposes only and not having crypto apps there. Just my two cents.

The wider the adoption, these kinds of crimes would also increase too. That’s the sad reality though.

There's also a few other things that a lot of users might not even consider. For example, and I believe you might want to get your tin foil hat out for this, but what about unlocking your wallet in public spaces? There's the chance that prying eyes could see what password you're using, but also security cameras. They could technically be recording you entering your password, increasing the chance of being able to use that to successfully get into your wallet, especially compared to just looking over the shoulder or what not.

I've see it where people are entering their passwords or pin numbers right over a security camera. I'm not saying that the security camera owner would even look, but for me it's a glaring security issue that you wouldn't get with your computer, since it's very likely you're using your computer in your own home.

So, as you hinted. Even if a mobile phone isn't inherently insecure itself, the fact that it is mobile basically enlarges its attack surface.

So which is it? 

As people have already hinted on this thread, the user himself makes one or the other true, based on his security awareness, and how zealous he is on the matter. Nevertheless, carrying around a phone with substantial amounts seems more risky per se than using a laptop at home, due to the mobility factor, having perhaps greater chances of being coerced to opening the device/wallet (no data to back this though).

Smartphones are prone to malware and spyware attacks more than PC but still PC can be infected with malicious links especially if we use pirated softwares even the OS especially for the windows users. So having basic knowledge about how to safe ourselves from sich attacks can save our money as well as our private contents. Especially when someone want to store bigger amount they can go for hardware wallets.

I installed electrum on my phone but it doesn't have much balance. Of course, there are many risks that lurk including robbery, theft, or damage. There are several other options that can be done besides having a custom ROM and in my opinion is to backup the private key or seed ^{[have several copies]} and uninstall it on android, keep it in a safe place if someone wants to store large amounts of bitcoin in electrum.

Of course that's my personal opinion although actually I wouldn't keep all bitcoin in one wallet including electrum or HW. Also I don't think a person should carry a wallet that has hundreds of thousands of dollars in his cell phone everywhere he goes. Just have a customized copy of PK or Seed and he will be able to access his wallet easily even if he has uninstalled it from his phone.

When it comes to malware, Spyware and the likes, desktops are more at a risk of catching this viruses than mobile phones, desktops can easily download documents, apps and all sort of files while you browse or have data connected, even without your knowledge.
Using desktop wallets,( without adequate and proper security softwares installed and running) is far more riskier than using mobile wallet.

In the other hand, mobile wallets (no matter how insecure it looks like they are) can not be easily ruled out of this game because of their ease of use and how convenient they are, many of us are crypto traders on the go, we need our mobile phones, and the mobile wallets in other to be able to buy, sell, withdraw, send, store our crypto even while on transit, we need the mobile phone and wallet to be able to monitor the market and grab financial opportunities when they show up on the market even while we are traveling.

Yes, this is really a good advice and it's sure a thing to consider, even if the phone does not have the hide feature, there is an app or apps on Google playstore or iPhone app store that can do the job effectively and efficiently, I have the app on my phone through which other apps can be hidden, the app itself can also be hidden, you can't want to ask: How then can the app be opened when needed?
Here's how....
When downloading and installing the app, during setup, you will be required to setup a passcode of your choice, this is the code you will use to unlock the app, but incase you also decide to hide the app also, when ever you need the app to open, you just go to your dial pad and type in the app passcode, after typing, press the "#" sign and the app will open automatically so that you can access your hidden apps.

Custom ROM's just have more privacy, and security features than the default usually. Not always, some default Android's (Manufacturer's alterations) are pretty good. I guess the question then is if you trust your manufacturer. To a certain extent, if you're using their hardware already, you do.

That's right. Custom ROM's usually utilize preexisting launchers that you can get without actually running custom ROMS. Although, I'd recommend a open source one if possible. I'm not too familar with Nova launcher that you've recommended, so can't comment either way.

Whilst on that topic. Open source custom ROM also. Although, as far as I'm aware most of them are, since they build from phh's treble. Except for a few.

While I do somewhat agree, I'd probably recommend users only store as much as they can afford. That's going to be different from person to person.

While this is an option, you don't even need to install a custom ROM to have those app hiding features. Nova Launcher, the best customization launcher back then has this hide app feature whereas you can only see the hidden apps when searched; and I'm pretty sure numerous other launchers also has this feature. Not the very best solution, but at least your bitcoin wallet isn't in the spotlight.

Also, always use your mobile wallet as a hot wallet. Probably only with a maximum of $200 worth of crypto or so. It's sucks to lose $200, but at least its only a minority of your stack.

Right, I have it for android phone at the moment. The custom ROM option will allow us to hide any apps we use including the wallet because when we switch to multiuser the phone will only show the default apps. This method may be useful if bitcoin users are comfortable enough using a mobile wallet to make transactions. Security depends on the personal of the user, there are many options but there are risks.

is not a guarantee that desktop wallets cannot be attacked by malware, even more violent malware is designed for desktops. Mobile wallets are still more secure than desktops. But it all also depends on the user. Use double security with antivirus and it will help the wallet to be more secure.
Actually everything is vulnerable whether mobile wallet or desktop, make sure not to be careless and not to install unknown apps. stay alert, don't give the private key to anyone.

Phone mobile wallet is prone to alot of risk, due to Lost of phone,Robbery attack ,phone hacking, easy access to phone by friends and close once all in the name of using your phone, phone damages and forgotten passwords,it also has it advantage for effective monitoring of your accounts and market rates ,for fast easy transactions anywhere.

This will be the case now for a more modern theft or something. It's not just the wallet applications but also the trading exchange applications that can be utilized. If there is access to the phone, then they can manage to log in to the app (they are probably hoping that it's still logged in) and then probably withdraw in some way. They could also put to use the wallet apps. Imagine custodial wallets just requiring you to receive an OTP to your device, and you can then send the balance you have on that wallet to another one.

It's going to be a hard thing to do, to manage everything in one device and then lose it. People should be vigilant with their smartphones.

Stealing Robbing and Thuggery of mobile phones are nothing new in the UK! We see them on BBC news.
A whole lotta violence out there on the streets, were they also forced or coaxed to input them seed phase ? (Victims)

Stealing etc have been in going even before C-C!! and BTC

Hiding apps on mobile devices is still not safe i just agree with hard ware wallets or paper wallet as safest except for urgent transactions a small fraction can be transferred across mobile wallets for immediate transaction. Thieves are getting more digital and advanced lately and many spend time learning how to debug and cack down softwares to steal informations

I believe we are as well expected to guide our mobile devices with safety by taking some security measures, always put your mobiles in your bag or pocket, avoid holding it too much frequently at hand except you're using it, though i understand from the name implies "mobile handset" but still yet we have to be security conscious and avoid rendering it to vulnerability of attack, there are somethings we ourselves do to attract the attention for an attack but when we are security conscious then we increase the safety from our own end as well.

I have used this several times on my Android phone, hide the wallet app and password it.. But I have noticed to broswe more with phones and use phone more for daily online reasons while my PC is not connecting so much online than my phone, because of these, I moved my online wallet completely from phone to my PC. What is most risky that I do not like about phone is that people are using fingerprint for everything they want to access, making the risks of this kind of coin theft to be high, but following security way of handling phones can help just like you said.

If they target a Coinbase account, it's not even a wallet. I'd never give my phone access to an exchange or bank. There's no 2FA either if it's all in the same device.

I don't even use my real email address on my phone.

These days, people who are more comfortable using their cellphone for business other than a personal computer now go an extra mile of owning two cell phones, one for personal use and the other for business. Anyone with a concern that muggers may easily access their wallets on their phones can get two phones as well, one which everyone can see, and another that you keep privately and don't move around with. Another method to use if you can't get two cellphones is to lock and hide any crypto related application on your cellphone.