heroknight
10-30-2007, 05:08 PM
With the recent spurt of account hackings and such, I've decided to open up a thread for people to post various safety tips to keep your accounts safe.
(This is NOT a thread to complaint about your account getting hacked, this is a thread with tips to prevent your account from getting hacked.)
Here's a few that I can think of:
• Change your password regularly. Don't keep the same password around, and change it on a somewhat regular basis.
• Keep up-to-date Anti-Virus and anti-spyware programs. My vouch is on AVG Free Edition and Ad-Aware. Everybody has their preferences, and those are mine.
• Avoid Porn sites. God only knows what these can put on your computer. So just be safe and stay away from them.
• Scan addons for WoW with an anti-virus after downloading and after you've installed it. Also, scan the entire computer as well, just to be on the safe side.
• Don't give your login information to guildies/friends - Lord knows where in the wide world of web browsing they have been visiting.
• Ensure that your password is at least ten characters long, with a mixture of letters and numbers. It won't protect you from keyloggers, but you'd be amazed how many people lose their accounts to stupidity as well, i.e. using their husband's first name as their password.
• Regardless of the browser you choose (not stepping into the IE vs. Firefox debate here), block pop-ups, banner ads, and anything else that you don't absolutely need.
• Consider installing a firewall or security suite such as ZoneAlarm (just one option) that warns you of any program on your system that's attempting to log your keystrokes and allows you to deny it from doing so. If you do get a keylogger on your system, that should let you stop it in its tracks and remove it before it steals your account information, or your credit card information.
• Reinstall your OS frequently. It clears up all the junk that you don't need laying around and gets rid of just about any crap you have accumulated from all of your.....downloads.
• Use image backup software. Backup your drive(s) weekly.
• Only use MS Internet Explorer for those very important and secure sites that don't allow the use of Firefox
• Use Firefox and have the 'NoScript' add-on installed
• create a virtual machine instance, install only a browser on that instance and only use it for browsing. You can google "free virtual machine" for free virtual machine software...
• If you can afford it, I'd get two computers and have one dedicated to games. The other one can browse and anything else. The game machine's internet browsers are all blocked via Zonealarm or whatever firewall software you're using. I also recommend that you get a router with a firewall instead of connecting your computer directly to the DSL/Cable modem.
• make sure your Account name is different from your main, or any other character's name. I'm sure a lot of people setting up their first account may have thought they were choosing their character name and ended up choosing the same name for their first character. This makes it easier for hackers to try to brute force crack thru your passwords if they think they know your account name.
These are just a few things that I can think of. If people know of unruly sites and the works, and could post 'em that'd be great as well. Also, if someone has a list of trustworthy and untrustworthy addon sites, that'd also help.
If the Mods could sticky this, it might help as well.
(This is NOT a thread to complaint about your account getting hacked, this is a thread with tips to prevent your account from getting hacked.)
Here's a few that I can think of:
• Change your password regularly. Don't keep the same password around, and change it on a somewhat regular basis.
• Keep up-to-date Anti-Virus and anti-spyware programs. My vouch is on AVG Free Edition and Ad-Aware. Everybody has their preferences, and those are mine.
• Avoid Porn sites. God only knows what these can put on your computer. So just be safe and stay away from them.
• Scan addons for WoW with an anti-virus after downloading and after you've installed it. Also, scan the entire computer as well, just to be on the safe side.
• Don't give your login information to guildies/friends - Lord knows where in the wide world of web browsing they have been visiting.
• Ensure that your password is at least ten characters long, with a mixture of letters and numbers. It won't protect you from keyloggers, but you'd be amazed how many people lose their accounts to stupidity as well, i.e. using their husband's first name as their password.
• Regardless of the browser you choose (not stepping into the IE vs. Firefox debate here), block pop-ups, banner ads, and anything else that you don't absolutely need.
• Consider installing a firewall or security suite such as ZoneAlarm (just one option) that warns you of any program on your system that's attempting to log your keystrokes and allows you to deny it from doing so. If you do get a keylogger on your system, that should let you stop it in its tracks and remove it before it steals your account information, or your credit card information.
• Reinstall your OS frequently. It clears up all the junk that you don't need laying around and gets rid of just about any crap you have accumulated from all of your.....downloads.
• Use image backup software. Backup your drive(s) weekly.
• Only use MS Internet Explorer for those very important and secure sites that don't allow the use of Firefox
• Use Firefox and have the 'NoScript' add-on installed
• create a virtual machine instance, install only a browser on that instance and only use it for browsing. You can google "free virtual machine" for free virtual machine software...
• If you can afford it, I'd get two computers and have one dedicated to games. The other one can browse and anything else. The game machine's internet browsers are all blocked via Zonealarm or whatever firewall software you're using. I also recommend that you get a router with a firewall instead of connecting your computer directly to the DSL/Cable modem.
• make sure your Account name is different from your main, or any other character's name. I'm sure a lot of people setting up their first account may have thought they were choosing their character name and ended up choosing the same name for their first character. This makes it easier for hackers to try to brute force crack thru your passwords if they think they know your account name.
These are just a few things that I can think of. If people know of unruly sites and the works, and could post 'em that'd be great as well. Also, if someone has a list of trustworthy and untrustworthy addon sites, that'd also help.
If the Mods could sticky this, it might help as well.