Render Payment, the company website, company email distributions, company personnel, company Slack, company Social Media, or any other company communications will never ask for your private key, mnemonic phrase, or passwords. Do not, under any circumstance, reveal any of these to anyone claiming to be affiliated with Render Payment, or otherwise.
Render Payment, or their personnel will not “private message”, or otherwise solicit requests to send crypto currency to addresses other than what is on the company website, in written, and QR Code Format. Please make sure that you validate that the QR code and the written address match, prior to sending crypto.
When using an online service such as an exchange, enable 2-Factor Authentication wherever possible, preferably utilizing an external 2FA service, such as Google Authenticator.
Enable 2-Factor Authentication on your email that you use to enroll / sign-up for anything dealing with personal finances. If you supplied a “recovery” email address, enable 2-Factor Authentication on that address as well, if possible.
Make regular backups of your wallet(s). Do not email these backups to yourself. If you do email yourself a copy, store the copy in a secure location and clean up your sent / received email to avoid a loss, in the event of a breach of your email account.
Use strong passwords / passphrases. A minimum length of 15 mixed case, alphanumeric, and special characters is recommended to form a good password. See https://lastpass.com/generatepassword.php for a website that can generate one for you, and provide a free, encrypted password-management tool, if desired.
A phrase, consisting of 4-5 nonsensical, unrelated words that make up a fun sentence is a good password. Songs, pet names, friends, sports teams, or anything else that a bad actor could glean from your social media presence is a poor password choice.
Find a cold storage solution that works for you. If you plan on holding a quantity of crypto currency for any length of time, it’s a good practice to move them to “offline”, or “cold” storage. Essentially, this is removing them from your computer, and onto paper, or other offline storage medium. Some popular solutions are Trezor, Ledger Nano S, and KeepKey.
Use a combination of a reputable Antivirus and Malware scanning tools. No single solution will catch 100% of potential breaches 100% of the time. An example might be using Zone Alarm, in conjunction with Malwarebytes. A solution that scans for key-loggers, and root kits is suggested. Contrary to popular belief, MACs need protection as well, though are generally not as prevalent of a target as Windows machines.
Keep your PC / MAC updated with the latest security patches. The most recent ransomware infections could have been avoided with a months-old security patch from Microsoft. Patch software when updates are available – specifically, security-related patches / updates.
