$9000 of crypto - gone in the blink of an eye.

in Proof of Brain4 years ago (edited)

You already know that I was hacked in April. For the entire day yesterday, I was sweating bullets. Were we seriously about to take another crypto hit in this family, this soon?

Honestly! It makes you pause and just before the top of your head blows off and the tears start to fall AGAIN - you have a moment to just speak "How much more can I take?"

My day started off GREAT yesterday, and then shortly after - my son texts "Can you take a look at my computer?"

"Of course. Bring it upstairs."

Brand new computer, 6 months old. solid state drive (that is supposed to be more reliable, yes??) no. The drive was trashed, no way to unlock everything in there - but THANK GOD I told my son to save his crypto keys!!!! Right? RIGHT?!?!?!!

"Yeah. I saved them. Just like you said............on the computer."

PAUSE. BREATHE. PAUSE. BREATHE. SCREAM. BREATHE. DIE.

Let me just cut to the chase. After 8 hours of what can only be described as "panic anguish desperate brain torture" (and that is putting it MILDLY) we got the keys from the computer.

I cannot tell you the relief. I think I just sat there saying OH MY GOSH for about 5 straight minutes as the anxiety finally melted away in waves of exhaustion.

Yesterday, @Snook asked us to spread kindness and joy. We only needed to do it for one day, but today I needed to shine the light on someone amazing (who is either ignoring this post completely or cringing that I'm about to gush LOL)

My bet is that he's doing both.

This is obviously me draping some pink stuff on @Penderis who is clearly the knight. The bitter man in the back,judging us harshly - that represents the stupid computer that died.

To the knight in shining armor that spent the ENTIRE day rescuing a damsel in distress. Lolol

Thank you Sir @Penderis.

My brain is fried like the hard drive you recovered and forced to unlock its mysteries! You're an angel 😇 You're a beautiful human being. You're a good egg. I don't care what you say. You're a pumpkin! Hehehe

You did more than make us smile yesterday. You put my family and their desperation lol - far above your love of sleep! hahahahahahahahahahaha And that is like - THE HIGHEST PEN HONOR IN THE WORLD. Thank you for never giving up!

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CRYPTO PEOPLE.


You think... that you have 👉allllllllll the time in the world👈 to grab those keys and put them in another safe spot. You don't. YOU DO NOT. You have no more time. Right now is the best time to go store you keys in another safe place.

Have those keys in MULTIPLE SAFE places.

You don't have to only fear hackers. You probably should fear your own procrastination 100x more than you fear hackers!!! LOL You think I'm kidding? I guarantee - someone is reading this right now and thinking "Yeah, she's right. I'll do it TOMORROW."

Don't wait. You will REGRET waiting.





or else...


bye bye crypto




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Happy for you that you receieved a good outcome of this. I can relate to your post. I think many, even OGs, have our mindset from the legacy system, that on purpose learn us to me naive and dependent on them. I have started engraving my password or keys on metal plates. Dunno if it is more secure than paper, but I feel very responsible doing it.

oh wow!!!! that is super cool! hehehe How long does it take to engrave???

I love the idea, but then you might be tempted to not update passwords?? because of the metal engraving? hehehe I dont know

but I have to say its VERY responsible! (as long as you're keeping those engravings safe! haha)

I'm so so glad that we got the passwords too! and my husband was prompted to go print his out IMMEDIATELY hahahahahaha

Hi! It does not take that long time. Key phrases are typically 12 works (MM). Try it: You will feel very responsible, and I somehow doubt I will every loose my metal plates:)

I have put my keys in my wife computer and at Harddrive.
File only contain keys without mentioning for which account this key belongs to.(A little safety against trojan maybe.)

Posted Using LeoFinance Beta

Yeah that's smart!!! Making sure to not identify what those keys are! Hehhee all the little tricks to keep us safe :)

That's really some scary shii. It would have been really painful to lose all that much money just in a split second. Would have been really hard to recover from.
I think I'll not hesitate again, I'm saving those keys in another safe place and I hope and pray nothing unusual happens.

Thank goodness you had a knight to come to your rescue. The man at the back can stare as much as he wants. Today you're having that big smile .

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaa NOW I HAVE A HUGE SMILE.

oh my gosh!!!!!!!!!!! "the man at the back can stare as much as he wants" I'm dying laughing @chincoculbert !!!!!!!!!!!!!! hahahahahahahahahahaha

and yes - it was SO freaking scary. my hack was TWICE as much and I thought i was going to just throw up for days and days how sick i was. i didn't want my son to lose a penny!

but it was a good lesson for him to STORE HIS KEYS in multiple SAFE places

thank you for coming to visit hehehehe and thank you for the laugh!!! LOL

Keep the smile, you deserve it @dreemsteem

😂😂😂😂, You're enthusiasm just made me laugh IRL or should I say your laugh made me laugh? Hahahaha..
But it did made me laugh.

Shii, two times is no child's play, I'm glad your son didn't lose nothing at all. He's lucky to have a mom like you who would protect him for anything, including the guy at the back.

You're welcome anytime dear.

ROFLLLLLLLLLL that guy at the back better wipe that look off his face.

😂😂😂...
He better , but I'm guessing he's still in a hell lotta shock..
Don't worry, I'll help him wipe it off, hehe

What a relief!!! I know that feeling too, for I almost lost my account a year ago and had but a 9 minute window in which to recover, 30 days after losing the keys........phew.

A couple of tips for anyone interested:
https://peakd.com/hive/@barge/hive-blockchain-account-recovery-security-guide-resource

9 minutes?!?!?!! gahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

i'm feeling the panic for you all over again hahahahahahahaha

whew... so glad that you recovered it too!! and thanks for sharing more tips! hehehe

the more the better!

Uff don't remind me lol, October 2020 was intense and a little JamesBond-like. What was great was also to realise how robust the system is in this regard. Goodluck 🤗

Omg what a nightmare!

I'm really glad you were finally able to recover those fu... keys.

I always have a cloud backup of them. I know a lot of people don't trust clouds but hey if they are able to hack Google then they can come to my house sit on my chear and eat my lunch.

We aren't safe anyways for being hacked but we at leas can try and have our best practices possible.

Bad news then good news.

🤗

tell me about it!!! ohhhh someone i know JUST got hacked on the cloud this past weekend - lost 0.5 eth. so please please be careful with the cloud!

but I agree with you - you can only do so much, and you have to be comfortable with your decision and then live -right?

but still - lol do be careful with the cloud!

but yes - the story ended in good news - i'm so happy @drakernoise!!! :)

Yes, you are right, clouds, devices, cold wallets... all of them are sensitive enough to be exploited somewhat.

At security I always think the same: the worst enemy is you! Sometimes we take risks that we wouldn't with our bank accounts. Sometimes the threat comes from your closest environment. It's a hacker's premise, close as much as possible to your victim (virtually or physically).

I'm always been curious on security and attended some courses. Always the same: you can secure your assets but sometimes you may open the door undesiredly.

Anyways. good security habits in terms of virtual/physical behaviour helps to not getting too paranoid 😛

HEHEHE well - i'm SUPER paranoid after my hack now.

geez - sometimes i shake when i even go near an old wallet! isn't that crazy?!?!?!

i don't use Metamask anymore LOL i think someone is gonna come steal all my money the second i would open it hahaha

Lol that's too much but I can understand you.

Just don't get too mad, maybe a safe vault at a Switzerland bank would fit your needs for those printed keys 🙃 (kidding)

and armed guards please hahahaha

but you know what?? i thought i was like - crazy! but people who have been hacked say they experience the same thing

I even wrote a post on it called PHSD ! hahaha

instead of post traumatic stress disorder... its called post hack stress disorder! LOL

its real! hahahaha i hope you NEVER experience it! if so - i will have a support group for you. lol

i will have a support group for you. lol

😆

I was SO happy to hear that you finally got the keys back!!!

Now GO BACK TO SLEEP!

Love you!!!

hahahahahahahahahaha yes - safe and sound and

what did you say??? sorry - i was sleeping

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz LOL

HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
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oh my gosh - i'm dying - lies! LLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

SHUSH LADY! I'M TRYING TO SLEEP HERE!

hehehehe

Giirrrrrrrrrl. I can't even word this properly so it goes something about not backing their keys up and then admitting in public they didn't have their keys backed up. I know.. it's hard to fathom.

I got @penderis on my discord, good to know who the pimps are.

my son is probably gonna be like - DID YOU SERIOUSLY OUT ME ON HIVE.
hahahahaha

shushie son. it's for the greater good and you got your keys back.

now, you.
you better have your keys backed up.

i'm so serious!
GO GET THAT DONE!!!!

and @penderis is my knight in shining armor - you can only borrow him if you need stuff with your keys. but you won't. cuz you have already written them down in so many places.

right?

On both sides of the country and I mean that.

This sounds proper and right.

I and dreemie, and I approve of this message

I panicked reading the title.... Thank God, it's ended well. I am really happy for you.

Right now is the best time to go store you keys in another safe place.

Coincidentally, I made a video today about how to keep your crypto assets saved and I mentioned "write those keys down" it's might be stressful but it also works. My friend once lost his crypto worth $2000 because his computer spoilt and the motherboard was bad, he couldn't retrieve it.

I cannot tell you the relief.

Yeah Ikr.... Hahaha, Don't worry we won't be bitten twice.

I'm off to bed now...... Enjoy the rest of your evening!

goodnight Sam!!! :)

and yep - I have mine printed! HAHAHAHA its like 8 pages of keys - and i have them printed and stored in several places hahahahahahaha

and then on an external drive - and a thumb drive and... hahahahahahahaha

yes - i'm glad you are preaching the message too - my gosh - that was a heart attack yesterday hahaha

i thought that he had saved them in multiple places - whew. heart attack hehehehe

Man, you are literally giving me anxiety attacks! Damn you people!! How on earth did you manage to recover it? Amazing!!

I am happy for you, and shout out to the hero of the day, @Penderis

We also have a trick, that we haven't done yet, but having the keys in a booklet, in few different locations inside the house. It will become handy, unless your forget about the books hahaha. woops...

yes- I have my keys in MANY places - but he is 21. hahahaa

he thought saving it as a file was good enough on his computer.

Basically what we did was create a bootable disk - and boot the computer from that and then get inside the hard drive.

but - there were so many errors and hardware failures along the way - it took 8 hours.

then when we finally got inside - freaking Microsoft made us put in some 48 digit key or something??? that we NEVER knew we had

we had to log onto his account that he DIDN'T even know he created once - and freaking there it was!!!!

then we get INTO windows - and there are all his files - EXCEPT his file for his keys!!!!!!!

we found it in some folder that we never used - and never created... it was insanity and i'm telling you - God just allowed us to unlock it and recover those keys. Without that? i was literally 60 seconds from just giving up.

Thank you so much to Penderis who never stopped fighting for it for us - oh my gosh.

we are planning something nice for him hahahahaha believe me! LOL

My brain is fried like the hard drive you recovered and forced to unlock its mysteries! You're an angel 😇 You're a beautiful human being. You're a good egg. I don't care what you say. You're a pumpkin! Hehehe

I cannot remember the last time someone had this many good things to say about @penderis (the devil's money hater 🤡)

Glad you got your keys back. I have been hearing a lot if stories about hacks and keys and i must confess, they are getting scary. I do have my keys saved offline, thankful but i will be getting a hard wallet soon.


Posted via proofofbrain.io

hahahaha yep - stick around and you will hear lots more :)

he is my knight in shining armor (no matter what he says hahahaha)

the stories are for sure going to be piling up more and more as there is more reason for people to steal!!!

but that's why we have to be on our best guard to make sure that we have all the help we have FOR us.

too often we are our own worst enemy! LOL

You probably should fear your own procrastination 100x more than you fear hackers!!!

Those phrases keys used to open your wallet don't just come out of your butt...

Even if they did it would be impossible to get just the right combination of shit necessary to crack open a wallet.

!PIZZA

People always think they have more time to do what they know they should take 5 min to do now. Lol

I know there are people that are reading this and going....damnnnn that sucks... yah I'm for sure gonna get my keys safe ....soonish.

Hahhahaha

It's also important to tell one other human being you know and trust where the exact location of those keys are and how to use them. That is a hard one. My wife hates crypto and my son is about as intelligent as your son so I'm still looking for an heir.

"Yeah mom. The keys are stored safely on the computer."

If crypto prices jump another notch I will definitely have to teach him by force.

!LOLZ but this is so true. With crypto you need to tell your loved ones where to find the keys and show them how to use them to!

A boy in school put his report card on the ceiling
He needed to get his grades up

@mineopoly, I sent you an $LOLZ on behalf of @samsmith1971
Use the !LOL or !LOLZ command to share a joke and an $LOLZ. (2/4)

Hoooo...boy. That would definitely be cause for all manners of panic. Been there (sort of) done that, when a piece of hardware failed lass than half a day after creating a crypto account. Fortunately, I remembered that I had "stored" them as an email to myself until I could get to a place with a printer and thumb drive... so I could go to my online email from a different machine and retrieve them.

Glad it all turned out OK in the end! Ultimately, our keys aren't 100% safe anywhere, as thumb drives can be lost, hardware can fail, pieces of paper thrown away, cloud-based vaults hacked. We just have to find the level of risk we're OK with and go with it.

that's right! every single thing can be lost! But we just have to do whatever we can - without being too crazy hahahaha and then have peace with the system we have!!!

yes - and i felt that "hoooo boy" LOLOLO I really felt it! hahahaha

that's exactly how I felt that day! LOL

So, you recovered the funds with the aid of Penderis' magical hands? I'm glad. Though, I felt similarly when I got married and started seeing the wedding bills. There was no hard drive to crack. Shhh. Let's just keep that between us.

It was a lovely wedding, though. A friend of mine calculated a number of lap dances I'd need to give to pay off the bills. I don't know what to tell you. Things got real after he showed me the numbers. Stupid lap dances. Retirement homes never had it so good.

Ah, I'm just kidding...

I'm glad there was a happy ending to your story.


Posted via proofofbrain.io

I am too busy laughing at this comment to give you a proper response right now!!!! LOLOLOLOL

well I suppose I can say this...
Penderis has earned an honorary place in our family. That's for sure ❤️

I really can't tell you the rush of relief - i've never experienced something that intense after 8 hours of grueling emotional panic. it was mind-blowing.

and when we finally got it done? it was 4:30 am for Pen.

that's a good guy right there! My son thanked him profusely over and over. hahaha we love pen :)

When I saw the title, I was like "ohh no". Penderis definitely a lifesaver. I'm writing down all my wallet keys and putting them with my other important documents now

thats right - right now! and then keep it someplace VERY VERY safe!

Done. I also copied it unto a flash drive.

you're set now hehehehe

Thank God for this.
I saved mine in the mail. I hope that's safe enough

LOL i've never heard of that method. 😄

While it's not hacked all fine. Those exploits can come from any source: job mates, friends, family and the worst scenario, you could be hacked by an external individual... 😟

Security in crypto without obsession, that's my goal.

Cheers

i love that line... security in crypto without obsession! yup.

but i dont' know what he means??? saved in the mail? that doesn't seem secure? unless i'm misunderstanding

You can always make a draft and add an encrypted .rar file with your keys attached. They would then be stored in the Google Gmail cloud till you decide to send it to bin or delete or send it. ( Althoug he's talking about Outlook or any other desktop app, then it would be stored at his computer unless it's an IMAP account).

I personally preferr Google Drive and Mega Drive clouds for this though.

I don't store there... i printed it out with my printer - have it on my external drive and a thumb drive. hehehe so - if all of those get lost.... then i guess i'm just doomed LOL

oh wait - did you mean email?!?!!

oh - i would be EXTREMELY cautious about email!!!! I think that played a part in my hack
I had sent myself a file to my email address with my keys - and i think that's how they opened it
be very very very cautious with email.

wow, sorry for your loss and thanks for this great piece of information. We need to do the needful before it is too late.

oops - you didn't finish reading the post :)

be sure to read it so you know what happened!

oh thanks anyway, l miss that part.

yep - I didn't lose it - thank God :)

Yay! 🤗
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Crypto does require a higher level of responsibility ... like walking to the top of these local hills (hard enough) vs. getting to the top of Mt. Rainier ... although in your specific case, the difficulty level was more Everest-ish ... nonetheless, thank you for the reminder ... there's always one more way to do a backup...

Wow... That was too close! I'm glad his funds are safe, did he lose anything important?