I'm going live, what can I do to protect my account against unauthorized access?

Hi,

I’m about to go live and one thing I don’t feel comfortable about is the fact that there is no IP address protection. Basically, someone can possibly gain access to my account’s password and login into my account. What do y’all do to prevent this?

Which broker?

Are you afraid that people may trade with your account or steal your money? Normally brokers only deposit withdrawals to the bank account known by them, so perhaps it is wise that they know which bank account you want to use, so withdrawals go to your own bank account.

I’m talking about people logging into my trading platform and placing trades for the purpose of destroying my account. Thanks.

No https connection?

In my opinion that change is theoretical. Let us assume the following:
90% of the people don’t know how to do it.
90% of the people that do know don’t do it.
99% of the people that do it are not aware that your account is unprotected and take effort to find out.
99% of the people that do and find out are more interested in large accounts or understand that trading under your name don’t benefit them.
The latter is probably a nephew that is irritated by you and is with his trades probably more profitable than you.

So I advise you to teach your nephew how to abuse your unprotected connection and to inform him that you trade… :wink:

But more seriously, when you feel uncertain look for another broker. I wouldn’t worry about it for now if you just traded for a couple of months.

Great sense of humor! I believe my password to my account can be even more important than my social security number. At least I’m not liable to unauthorized purchases to a certain degree. Think about years of trading and living like you’re broke (not withdrawing and letting the money compound), you can have a 7-figure account and that can be your only source of income. That can be one’s retirement money and then they wake up only to see they account into ruins. If you’re living in the U.S., I’m sure you heard about a dating site getting hacked and the members of the site names were released. The only benefit for those hackers was someone else misery. So you have to be careful. :slight_smile:

Oh, I do understand. I am also a Corporate Security Officer. :slight_smile: And in my opinion such people don’t stick around to trade but to transfer funds. And that is made difficult for them because brokers normally only bankwire to known bank accounts. That is why I started with that.

Something that you can do is to find out if you have a https connection with your broker (that woulds show up in your browers in front of the name of the site. You would see 'https://forums.babypips.com. Another thing is to change your password weekly. When criminal steal login information the complexity of the password doesn’t matter a lot as they have it electronically and don’t have to type it.

You can also consider to use two brokers, but that is easier done when you are an automated trader.

There are any cases of online frauds but the best way to protect your account is with having a good antivirus and keep changing your account password regularly.

Bernwillchris,

What did you end up with???

Always scan your PC from Malware and Trojan. Some brokers do provide mobile apps authentication, but I believe yet happen in MT4.

You are right, always keep up to date your antiviruses definitions. Too many malware right now.

Yup. Remember, many hacker spreads viruses not because they want big money. Hacking is some point could be describe as an Art just like trading. Some hacker hack just try to improve their skills or challenge themselves.

Hi,

Sorry that I took so long to get back to your post. I’m not a very active user of this forum. Money clouds my mind, so I waited until after classes were over and now I’m active studying, backtesting, and doing all I can to put the probabilities on my side.

Perhaps you should change your password on a regular basis. Do you provide a personal e-mail linked to your account to your broker? If yes, then you could change the e-mail as well and need to have a good antivirus program. If your broker offers a mobile application, install it and set alerts on your account for certain actions and price levels. That way if someone tries to mess with your trades, you will be immediately notified and you can prevent it.

Unless its an ex-girlfriend (then just change your password) – -nobody is going to waste their time to trade and see if it hurts your accounts. Its a monumental waste of time… when they can just hack your bank account then … and you’d assume they would actually hurt your account – in poker, ive found when people dont have a clue… they win. Ignorance is bliss.

Not giving your passwords to websites such as MyFxbook/ForexFactory in terms of having a trade explorer. I am still skeptical about the trade explorer offered there as you’ll to expose your investor password over to the website.