Basic Recommendations to Keep your Accounts Secure

• Scammers may pretend to be support staff but Splinterlands will only use official channels to respond to your inquiries and never initiate contact first. If you receive an unsolicited direct message from someone claiming to be from Splinterlands or support staff report them in the official channel.

Use unique passwords on every website/login

• Never reuse passwords between different sites or email addresses. Hackers will retry stolen passwords in multiple places.  If you use the same password multiple times and it is cracked, it will also give access all the other sites where it was used.
• Do not reuse old passwords.  Hackers often buy masses of passwords/logins from hacked sites.
• It is often helpful to use a password manager to track and manage the multiple passwords.
• Create unique and specific login/email addresses for Splinterlands, crypto wallets and other important sites.
• Try not to reveal your email addresses or personal information to anyone in public places especially if its linked to accounts with significant value like crypto wallets and Splinterlands.
• Consider using a password manager to store and manage all your various passwords and logins

• Hackers can use software to try to log in or crack passwords. They can automate attempts from a lists of 1000's of passwords. They can also use algorithms to guess variations or try and crack passwords. So password length and complexity is key: Strong passwords are:
  • At least 12 characters long
  • Use capitals and lowercase characters
  • Use at least one numeral
  • Use at least one special character (!@#$% etc.)
  • Don’t use your name or birthday, or names from family members

Never reveal your password to anyone, no matter what are the circumstances

• Trust nobody when it comes to sharing passwords!
• Never reveal any of your keys
• Never put your keys in a memo
• Never use your keys on websites/logins that you don’t know
• If it sounds too good to be true it is.
• If you are having doubts ask the Splinterlands Support Staff for help.
• Did we already say - trust nobody when it comes to sharing passwords?
  
  

• Use password protection and encryption, or special hardware crypto wallets.
• Make an offline copy of your keys, wallets and master passwords
• Be sure you can access the keys when you need them. In the future you most likely will need them and after a few weeks you will not remember them. 

Keep your systems, phone and applications up to date

• Do not ignore messages from Security software or your system
• Install Operating System (like Windows, Linux, Android, Apple) updates as soon as possible
• Security updates will patch known security vulnerabilities which hackers can easily use
  
  

• Illegal software and cracks often contain backdoors/viruses/malware/etc. which are a primary access point for hackers access to your system

Do not use public internet/wifi (Internet café’s, shops, etc.)

• Traffic including passwords can be read over insecure public wifi by a system in the middle of you and the internet

Use security software

• Antivirus and antimalware software will increase your chance of identifying if something suspicious is on your systems. Ensure Windows Defender is active or use a trustworthy well-known software/brand.

Only visit trusted websites

• In case of doubt, just don’t visit that website.
• Use an old device which does not access your crypto or Splinterlands to visit websites in case you feel you really need to visit that website and see if it's safe. Also searching the internet and asking communities can give you a better idea if an website is secure.
• Use a sandboxed browser and a program like Deep Freeze to sandbox the rest of your system sound like a good plan, but there are still security risks.
• Do not authorize browser extension wallets on sites you aren't familiar with or are trusted by the community.  Authorizing a site on MetaMask gives them access to interact with your wallet, including moving crypto.