Steemit Crypto Academy Contest / S7W6 - Careful, Has your Steemit account been hacked?

Hello everyone! I hope you will be well and good and will be enjoying your journey here. Nowadays scams and phishing attacks are everywhere on social media. A few days ago I received a phishing link at my discord server. But I already knew such phishing attacks and links and I didn't click that link and I was safe and sound. Similarly steemit is also a social media but decentralised social media with freedom of speech.

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Have you had your Steemit account hacked? What do you think about dubious links offering rewards? Give us your opinion.

There are always chances of being hacked as the hackers are always finding ways to get benefit from our mistakes and to steal our funds. But I am lucky and so far safe and sound from being hacked. My steemit account hadn't been hacked. But once when I was new, mistakenly I published my posting key thank God it was my posting key not private key. But my brother @afzalqamar told me to delete the post right now and I was safe in this way. After that I always try my best to stay away from phishing links and from any free steem claims and from human mistakes.

Hackers always create phishing links and they try to spoil the users. Free steem rewards offering links and banners can be seen most of the time. And mostly the new users who are not familiar with the tricks of hackers fall prey to those attacks. Sometimes I have seen beautiful banners offering steem rewards based on the user's reputation. And newbies quickly click on those banners and links to get free steems and they are hacked. And mostly these hacker's accounts are new and have low reputation.

Actually earning steem is not an easy job and how someone can offer free a lot of steems, it is obvious it is said by the hackers and scammers to steal the rewards from the wallet. And people like me become greedy to claim the free rewards from those dubious links and fall pray to those scammers and hackers. So always avoid those free offering dubious links and confirm from your seniors or guiders about those free rewards offering links but before clicking in them.

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What are your recommendations to prevent your account from being stolen or hacked? Give us your opinion.

Earning anything even a single penny is not an easy job and surely to earn steem rewards it also requires dedication and time, so we should be very careful because no one will want to lose his hardly earned assets. Here are some recommendations from my end to o protect steemit account from being hacked or stolen.

According to my opinions there are two major cases for the protection of steemit account regarding the steemit account keys.

• CASE - I
  Firstly save your steemit keys offline and do not save online. Because if your keys are offline then your account cannot be hacked or stolen from any hacker or spammer. So the first important thing is to try to save your keys offline.

• CASE - II
  Secondly, if you have kept your keys online such as in the Google drive or anything else which can be accessed by others. Then you should be more careful from hackers and scammers.

• If you use your keys for the login then please do not save your password in the Google. This is highly recommended for the private active key which is used to log in steemitwallet. And this is the key which is used to transfer funds from your account.

• Always clear your cookies and cache memory as well to avoid further risks.

• Do not click on free rewards offering links as well as banners. These free rewards offering links are phishing links which are made to steal your passwords to hack your account.

• If you see anyone is offering free steem rewards or anything else free within the steemit then do not join that free rewards offering airdrop. If you are a newcomer and do not know much about those free airdrops which are fake then please consult from your senior steemian friends.

On the whole always keep your private keys at safe place and do not save your passwords in the Google and do not click on any suspicious link. Do not join free rewards offering airdrops. Use verified and safe browsers which protect you from malware and other phishing attacks.

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Why do some accounts get hacked? What would you say to people whose accounts are hacked?

No one wants that their account get hacked and do not even think about this thing. But our negligence and mistakes result in being hacked. Here are a few reasons due to which accounts get hacked:

• People click on unknown links.
• They click on banners which are fake.
• They join free Airdrops which are fake and a trick to hack them.
• They save their passwords in Google.
• They are careless.
• They do not have enough understanding to know the phishing links and attacks.

I have a real example of account being hacked. My cousin was a steemit user with the username @ahmadfaraz and his account was hacked because of not having enough knowledge about the phishing links. So he received a comment from an unknown steemit account. It was a fake airdrop and my cousin clicked on that link to receive free steems as a bonus or reward. But as soon as he clicked his account was hacked. Unfortunately his account was logged in with the private active key and the hacker @wwefun suddenly changed the keys of his account before he could do. The hacker transferred all his assets and did power down and collected that as well. In this way he lost his assets and it was a great loss for him. After that he is not here.

So I would say to those people always avoid random invites, links and banners which are offering free rewards. And always keep your private keys at the safe and sound place.

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If you find out that your account has been hacked, what are the steps you should take immediately to prevent your tokens from being stolen?

If my account gets hacked then here becomes two cases for the prevention of my funds and to get back my account.

• CASE - I

We know that our private password is the thing which is used to transfer funds from our account. So if I know that my account has been hacked and the passwords of my account hasn't been changed yet then without waiting for a nano second I'll change my passwords on the spot. And in this way my assets and my account will become safe.

• CASE - II

In this case if the passwords of my account has been changed then i will suddenly perform the steps for the Stolen Account Recovery to get my account back with the help of the steemit team.

I know that I have already lost my liquid steems because the hacker has gotten my keys and in this way hacker will suddenly transfer my funds from my account to his account. But if I get my stolen account back I'll be able to save my steem power, because it takes almost 4 weeks for the power down of whole steem power. And at least after 1 week some part of my steem power will be converted into liquid steems. Indeed it takes long to recover a stolen account but I think it will save my some assets.

So these are my suggestions and recommendations if my account gets hacked.

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Conclusion

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Hackers are always active and using different techniques to hack us and to steal our early earned assets. So it is highly recommended that please do not click on the unknown links, banners and do not join unverified free airdrops. Always keep your passwords at safe place. And do not save your passwords in the Google.

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