Security post - Samourai Bitcoin wallet stealth launch and Crypto related crimes on the rise

Testing the Samourai wallet that i have written about before in this post.

Recently a user on Twitter sparked a conversation on Twitter about how customs agents could pat down your phone in search for undeclared crypto assets. While i am not sure about the likelyhood of this happening, there are multiple other reasons where one would prefer to hide cryptocurrency wallets from appearing anywhere on their phone. Maybe you have a nosy roommate, maybe you work in an environment, where security is a concern, the reasons might be different for everyone.

Samourai wallet to the rescue. Samourai has some sexy stealth features, amongst which is the cool feature of hiding the wallet app from the home screen of your phone, apps list, or recent apps. The app cannot be hidden from the installed apps list, however. At least for now. But this little trick might be just enough to hide it from the quick glance of the person checking yuor phone.

_{In-app screenshot from setting the Stealth feature ON}

But how would one get access to the app? Cool spy-tactics help us here as well. You need to set a pin-code, when setting up the app and when the stealth feature is switched on, all you need to do is head to you phone and dial the code you have previously set up.

_{Launching Samourai in stealth mode}

NB! Samourai Wallet is still in dev phase. While it has many cool security features as it prides itself for being a security-focused Bitcoin wallet app, using it for now might carry some risk.

But people are already liking what they do - someone gave the developers a boost in the form of 1 Bitcoin.

_{Via Twitter}

Head on to Samourai homepage to see all the neat features https://samouraiwallet.com

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_{Via businessinsider.com}

More and more reports of violent cryptocurrency related crimes come out. As the game goes mainstream, stealing from exchanges is not the biggest threat anymore. As the filthy-rich cryptogeneration tends to show off their riches here and there, lower forms of criminals emerge. No need to have these sophisticated skills of hacking a PC or a wallet, criminals rather just go for the source.

According to a report in The New York Times, just in January, an unsuspecting victim was held captive in his own apartment, until he transferred $100 000 worth of Bitcoins to the criminals wallet under threats of death.

A few weeks earlier, a high-ranking Ukraine crypto-exchange official was kidnapped and released only after the company paid a ransom of $1 million in Bitcoins.

_{Via Reuters}

These reports are only a few of what's happening out there and it could get a lot worse, as criminals start understanding the anonymity provided by cryptocurrency wallets. The only way to find the criminals are for authorities to track the location of the IP address, which accessed the wallet and hope for the Big Brother cameras to have some information.

Suggestions from the community feature multisigning, where multiple parties are needed to confirm a transfer or "durress wallets", which can be secretly swapped at the time of the transfer.

What can you do about your security? Don't flaunt your money. Diversify your portfolio. Be smart about how you behave online. And support services that take security seriously, like Samourai Wallet.

Thanks to the original article here at Business Insider

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_{Title image from pixabay}

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