Electronic communication and transactions are an inevitable part of using both the internet and mobile devices, and are naturally a key part of any crypto-currency ecosystem. As people generally appreciate, online activities inevitably come with a risk of fraud: individuals claiming to be someone they are not, emails “pretending” to arrive from trusted sources, etc., all aim to obtain sensitive and personal information. Electroneum Academy, just like most providers of online services, is committed to your security—however, we need to work together: you need to be alert and responsible for your own actions, too.

The methods online fraudsters may use to obtain your information is constantly changing, yet the main area of focus remains the stealing of identities or online access details. Please do everything you can to ensure that any identifiers you use (e.g. your email address and login password) to access Electroenum Academy and/or our courses, or indeed when interacting with all other parts of the electroneum ecosystem, are always kept secure and where appropriate regularly updated. You should never divulge your online login details to anyone and never share—via email or chatrooms, etc.—any sensitive information, which will obviously include, e.g., the “Private View Keys” and “Private Spend Keys” of your electroneum wallet(s).

Phishing is an attempt by persons with malicious intent to ‘fish’ for personal information such as your passwords, log-in details, PINs and any other security measures. For instance, you may receive an email that appears to come from your bank or an organisation you have registered with (e.g. Amazon, PayPal or your mobile provider, etc.), or you may receive an email warning you that your account has been hacked. You may also receive an email offering you trading secrets, inviting you to join a trading group or to sign-up or enter a competition to receive free ctypto-currency “coins” (as part of what is known as an ‘airdrop’). Such emails then tend to ask you to click on a link and/or to confirm your username, password and/or PIN—and in the process your details get stolen. Phishing emails can look very authentic and at times it may be hard to gauge whether an email is real or fake. Fraudsters may even mask email addresses so that the email address under the ‘from’ section in the email header looks genuine. All in all, it is both right and important to be suspicious of unsolicited emails—even if they look like they are from a trusted source.

Electroneum Academy will never ask you to disclose any personal or sensitive, wallets or payments related information by email. If you have any doubt at all that an email you’ve received is genuienly from Electroneum Academy, do not follow any of its links, open any of its attachments, or respond to it. Instead, please forward any such emails to [email protected] then delete them.

• Login details
  Keep your login details for all websites and services you use secure. Do not write them down or tell anyone what they are.
• Passwords
  Use strong passwords. Remember to make them unique so they cannot be easily guessed by someone else or ‘brute forced’ by an algoryhtm. Passwords should always contain a mix of letters and numbers. Ideally, you should use a long, unique phrase or sentence and avoid using common phrases or anything obvious like your name or date of birth. Change your password regularly; the recommendation is that you do this at least once every three months.
• Anti-virus software
  Make sure your computer has up-to-date anti-virus and anti-spyware software, allowing it to check the contents of the files on your computer against the information it holds about known viruses.
• Personal firewall and secure wireless network
  Make sure any computer which connects to the internet has appropriate firewall protection to block any unauthorised connections being made. If you are using a wireless network, ensure it is secure.
• Update your web browser
  Always use the most up to date version of your preferred web browser— this could significantly reduce your chances of falling victim to online phishing scams by displaying messages to alert you.
• Keep your operating system up to date
  Make sure you download and install updates regularly.
• Mobile Devices
  Security for mobile devices is just as important as for your home computer. Whenever you are using mobile devices to communicate with Electroneum Academy—or the electroneum ecosystem—make sure that you use appropriate anti-virus software relevant to that device. Whenever possible check other applications running in the background and learn about the security/privacy settings in force. When out and about, remember that it is generally safer to use the data-network of your mobile provider than wireless networks (wifi).
• Social Networking
  Please think carefully about the details you provide when social networking. Disclosing sensitive personal information online is akin to providing anyone “listening” with your home address, your keys and the dates and times when “nobody will be around”.
• Sensitive information
  
Never enter sensitive information such as account/login details, private keys, PINs or passwords via a website link within an email.
• Secure websites
  Ensure websites are secure—always check for the prefix ‘https’ and a locked padlock or unbroken key symbol. Check the authenticity of a secure website by double clicking on the symbol.
• Attachments and emails
  Beware of attachments and emails—even if they appear innocent, they could contain a virus designed to steal your personal information.
• Bogus websites
  Type the full address of secure websites into your browser, rather than searching for it—this helps avoid being misdirected to a bogus site.

With regard to using the official websites and services provided at electroneum.com and my.electroneum.com, please read the ‘Best Practices’ guide published by Electroneum here.

The key general points of the official guide are as follows:

• Official Apps by Electroneum
  Make sure you download your Electroneum app via the link on the official website electroneum.com and not by searching for Electroneum or through websites claiming to be Electroneum. You should never enter your account and or personal details into unofficial apps or websites. Similarly to the phishing emails mentioned above, unofficial sites and apps are phishing attempts aiming to gather your information to access your account.
• Securing your email account
  In addition to the above considerations, Electroneum recommends that you ‘use a strong password for your email account and if available set up 2 factor authentication (2FA) which could be adding a secondary email address, adding a PIN number, linking to an authenticator app such as Google Authenticator etc.’ This adds another level of security to your account and will help prevent other people being able to access your account maliciously. Ensure that the password you use to protect your email account is unique and has never been used by you anywhere else (see note below about using the same password on multiple sites).
• Securing your Electroneum Account
  When creating/using/logging in to your Electroneum account, you will be required to complete multiple steps of security checks. The process is easy and only requires a couple of clicks, etc. Use a strong unique password that you don’t use anywhere else for your Electroneum Account. If other websites and services you use/have used in the past with the same email address and password get hacked, your information will be compromised!

If you are already using or will be using offline wallets, it is vital that you also study and heed the relevant advice provided in the above ‘Best Practices’. If you haven’t yet, please head over to electroneum.com right now to read the official guidelines!