It has been reported by different users around Steemit that how they had found different private keys.
I mean if they wanted to hijack that particular account or transfer all the SBD's or Steem to their accounts then they could easily do it by having your private keys, which are leaked by the users itself.
How can one share his private key with others?
Many users while doing transactions just paste their private keys in the memo field and then confirming the transaction, ultimately leaks their private key to all, because transactions are all exposed to everybody here on Steemit. Anybody can hijack your private key from you transaction.
Like as you can see here
This is shared by @noisy, luckily he is good enough not to hijack it, because as he said we are the good guys. This was just one account, he actually shared a lot more which had worth of thousands of Steem and SBD.
Must watch that memo field while you are making your transaction. People sometimes paste their private keys in there, mentioned by @noisy.
Here is what I do now, after doing my research to keep my keys safe.
I save all my keys offline by saving it in my text document and also in drafts of my gmail account.
Yes you need to save it in two or three places in order to not lose your keys.
You have four keys if you go to @aftabkhan10/permissions, replacing username with yours and you will see this window.
Opposite to your key number, you will see tab stating show private key, just copy it from there and save it offline, copy the other three keys too and save it.
When ever you want to login to your account just try to login with your posting key, and when making transactions just give your active key.
Do not use your private key everywhere because you need to keep it offline as much as you can to have your privacy.
If other keys are compromised you can change them with your master key, but if your master key is compromised you may loose your account.
So from now on, try to be more smart by keeping your privacy hard for others.
If you like the post, do let me know by Upvoting and sharing it with your friends.
Thanks
Good Reads
King and His Poets
Watch Out for ID Thieves, avoid Plagiarism and Spamming
What You Should Post Daily
Not Earning on Your Posts?