Newbies Task 3 - Security on Hive

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Good day colleague newbies and the hive community. I come your way today to present my response on the third task for the newbies initiative. This week's is in line with the tutorial we had on discord on Sunday which focused mainly on security on hive.

Before I proceed, I would like to thank @nkemakonam89, @starstrings01 and all the others involved for making that tutorial a success. Thank you to @moremoney28 for his continuous guidance as my team leader.

What Are Keys on Hive?

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We all know from our general knowledge that keys are objects that help us to unlock locks to safes, doors, among others. Without these keys, we would not be able to gain access to what we want. You could call these keys a tool for protection. When we misplace these keys there are certain things we do to gain access to what those keys are supposed to protect. Be it braking the locks or other means.

Hive keys are not so different except that because hive is a blockchain where each and every account is of monetary value and of worth, it is important and necessary we protect these keys. I wrote here 2 weeks ago why we should strive to make blockchain security number one.

Hive keys come in 4 folds when you sign up. These 4 keys allow you carry out different functions on the blockchain and your account. One of the keys allows you to blog while another allows you to make transactions. Another allows you to encrypt and decrypt messages while the final allows you to control these 3 and change them when you want.

Key type	Function
Posting key	Allows you to make posts, edit them, comment, reblog, reply to comments and vote on posts.
Private key	Allows you to make transactions on hive
Memo key	Allows you to encrypt messages sent and decrypt the encrypted ones received.
Owner key	Allows you to change other keys and recover your account.

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How Do We Keep These Keys Safe?

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The hive keys we are given on hive for our account are to be protected and kept safe.

• We can protect our hive keys by keeping them offline. We can write all the keys out legibly on pieces of papers and hiding them.

• We can keep the keys on external hard drives and pen drives.

• We should not enter our keys into sites and apps we do not trust. Some links are phishing links and as soon as we click them, our accounts are compromised.

• We should use the right key for the right purpose and use the owner key as little as we can.

• We should make sure no one knows where we are hiding our keys. They are private for a reason and should be known by just us.

We could also keep our keys in our google drives and some other online means but it has been well established that keeping our keys offline are better ways of keeping the keys safe since it is difficult for hackers to reach.

Possible Ways An Account Could Be Hacked.

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• Clicking on phishing links. Phishing links are messages from bad people that make the messages look like they are from big and trusted organizations. Be careful on links you click on.

• Leaving your keys exposed.

• Entering your keys into untrusted sites. Enter your keys into peakd, hive keychain, hive signer and ecency.

• Virus on your computer.
  

How To Recover Your Account.

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Due to how hive is set up, it is important we set up recovery accounts. Lost keys cannot be replaced and accounts hacked no longer belong to you if you do not have a recovery account.

To set up recovery accounts, we can follow the steps below. I will be using peakd for this.

• Login to peakd.

• Click on account actions and click on keys and permissions.

• Click on recovery account and scroll down to select change your recovery account.

• Enter the account name of someone you trust and enter your owner key. You could even set up an alternate account and male that your recovery account.

• The change in recovery account takes 30 days and so my change from ocdb to my new recovery account will take 30 days.

To conclude, it is important to set up an account recovery so that you can have a chance to save your account when it is hacked. We are humans and we are bound to make mistakes. One thing could lead to another and our account will be compromised.

It is best to take necessary precautions to save yourself from a lot of stress and a potential loss in money.

Thank you,