Cryptocurrency holders frequently fall prey to cyber theft, as seen in the recent high-profile hack of Mark Cuban. By following three core guidelines, investors can drastically improve protection.

First, it's essential to understand the threat landscape, including hacking groups like North Korea's sophisticated, state-sponsored Lazarus Group. Active since at least 2009, Lazarus has stolen over $1.75 billion by targeting exchanges, platforms, and investors.

While hacking is often romanticized as brute force attacks, most cybercrime involves social engineering - manipulating human psychology. Phishing, baiting, impersonation, and other tricks are used to exploit people's trust, curiosity, or greed.

Fortunately, the right precautions limit vulnerability significantly:

1. Use hardware wallets for long-term, offline storage, keeping private keys away from internet access.

2. Enable two-factor authentication across all accounts for an extra security layer.

3. Exercise extreme caution around unsolicited links in messages to avoid malware.

With crypto's increased mainstream adoption, investors must implement basic security best practices to protect against ever-more-capable hackers. But following these three steps can help neutralize even sophisticated criminal groups like Lazarus.