Your private keys stay locked on the device—that's the whole design. When you sign a transaction with a hardware wallet, everything happens inside a secure chip. Your computer never gets access to those keys, which means malware can't steal them even if your system is compromised.

This is exactly why hardware wallets matter for anyone holding crypto over the long haul. You can rest easy knowing that no amount of malicious software running on your everyday devices can drain your funds. The separation between your signing device and the internet-connected world is the real security layer.