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Before 60: World of
Warcraft Tips
This is Part One of keeping your Online Gaming
Accounts safe. This entry applies to everything
online that requires a password to gain access - not
just games. Email accounts, Online Gambling
accounts, Online Banking accounts - anything you log
into over the Internet can be subject to attack by
hackers. The more you know about the scams in place,
the safer you and your online accounts are.
Spyware, Keylogging trojan programs on your computer
and even your own wish to fast track your
advancement are serious threats when it comes to the
privacy of your personal information, and security
of your online gaming characters.
The three major ways youll find your online accounts
hacked into include:
Visiting a rogue website that exploits flaws in
Internet Explorer and plants a keylogger or password
sniffer on your computer without your awareness
(note, anyone who uses your computer could do this
unknowingly).
Having your trust abused by unscrupulous individuals
who claim to work for the company providing the
online service and then demand your username and
password with a threat of banishment
Purposely giving out your account information
(username and password) with the hopes of being able
to hack the system yourself, usually to gain virtual
items, money or levels without following the usual
route.
Avoid Known Browser Exploits - Use Firefox, Not
Internet Explorer
Download Firefox by clicking the Firefox/Google
graphic at the top right of this blog.
Internet Explorer is the worlds most popular browser
for those who use Microsoft Windows as their
operating system, specifically because Internet
Explorer comes installed with Windows computers, and
most users (especially novice ones) wont think to
replace or even upgrade it. Unfortunately, because
IE is so popular, and because so few users keep
their software up-to-date, many hackers have focused
their time developing programs and websites to
exploit Internet Explorers known flaws. There are a
LOT of browser exploits out there.
While all Windows users should visit
WindowsUpdate.com once a month to catch up on
Microsofts various security updates for the entire
Operating System, Internet Surfers who wish to
protect their online information should strongly
consider moving away from Internet Explorer.
Scan For Spyware And Keyloggers Regularly
While replacing a highly-targetted-for-hacking
browser with one less focused on is an important
first step, its also important to acknowledge that
hackers are constantly releasing new software and
websites and trying new tricks to steal your online
accounts from you. For this reason, you should be
scanning your computer on a regular basis (at least
once a month) to detect and remove spyware, data
harvesters and keyloggers from your Windows PC.
Download Lavasofts Ad Aware SE (for your home
computer, theres a free version). Then, make sure
all aspects of it are updated (when you first
download it, there may still be updates you need to
download immediately after installation) and then
let it scan your drives. This may take a while if
you, like me, have large drives. Its worth the wait
but you might want to let it scan overnight if youve
never scanned before. Remove *ALL* of the things
that Ad Aware SE finds. You may have to right-click
the list and choose select all before proceeding if
you have a long list. I had a friend with over 700
items in this list the first time we cleaned his
computer up, and once they were all removed, his
browsing sped up tremendously again.
Download Spyware Search & Destroy (these can both be
found in Tucows directory) and do the same things as
were done for Ad Aware in the previous paragraph. I
find that these two programs work nicely together to
keep my drive clean, with my doing weekly scans.
Never PURPOSELY Share Your Account Information Or
Password
Any web link you get from an email that brings you
to a page where youre supposed to enter sensitive
information like your credit card, bank info or
passwords, dont do it! Banks and other service
providers would NEVER contact you that way.
Any instructions you receive about sending an email
with specific details enclosed (usually under the
guise of I can upgrade your stats/equipment/cash if
you just follow these instructions), examine the
information carefully - if youre sending out your
username and password, theyre stealing your account!
Even just giving out your username can encourage
hacking of your account at times. If your username
is not already visible to others, dont give it to
anyone, as they may try to crack your password with
brute force (ie: a program that has a list of
dictionary words it uses as passwords in login
attempts).
Be Careful What Addons And Hacks You Download
While some online games allow for third-party
software to be added on to improve your enjoyment of
the game, some games do not. RuneScape, for example,
has no legitimate addons which do not violate the
Terms of Service you agreed upon when signing up,
and very often any addons youll download are
actually keyloggers that enable someone else to
steal your account entirely.
Games like World of Warcraft, however, have a
thriving UI Mod/Addons community and many advanced
users download and install .LUA scripts which work
with WoW to change launch bars, introduce in-game
schedulers, track information while gaming, etc. In
this case, the general rule is this:
If the Addon youre downloading contains an
executable file (in the form of a .bat file or a
.exe or .com file), be very careful about running
it. Executable files can easily contain keyloggers
specifically added to steal your account
information.
Keep Your Virus Checker Up To Date
And finally, as is standard these days, get a virus
scanner that runs on your machine all the time its
on, and make sure the virus scanner keeps up to
date. I personally use Norton with its LiveUpdate
feature, but you may prefer something else, or your
computer may prefer something else ;) Ive had virus
programs severely slow down my machines performance
and even crash it, while on other machines that
virus program works just fine. Do what works, and
what doesnt cause you headaches, and then make sure
it scans at least once a month.
Keep your computer clean. Its an important step in
protecting your personal, private information from
those of unscrupulous internet users!..
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