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Protect Your WoW Account
March 3, 2009 by Zuggy
Are you doing everything you could be to protect your account?
If you’re like most then the answer is probably not. Having your WoW account hacked can be one of the most frustrating and demoralizing experiences in online gaming. In a matter of moments a hacker can destroy months or years of work, work that may or may not be appropriately restored through the game master support system. That said, with just a few simple steps you can effectively put a Fort Knox of security on top of your account.
Secure Your Internet Browser
One of the most common ways a hacker can gain access to your account is through a small program called a key logger. As you might expect a key logger simply records all of your key strokes and notifies the 3rd party about your information…ie, your account name and password. These key loggers are often embedded directly into web pages, and you may or may not even be aware you’ve picked up one.
How can you avoid picking up a key logger?
- Don’t click on suspicious links or websites. One of the most common types of links used in these schemes are faked images. Ex. domain.com/wow_screenshot.jpg.html.
- Don’t use Internet Explorer. IE is notorious for its gaping security holes that are frequently exploited by these malicious scripts. If you absolutely must use IE I highly recommend using the most recent version and checking early and often for updates.
- If you’re a Mozila Firefox user (which you should be!) you should consider downloading the addon NoScript. This small addon will block a litany of scripts, both malicious and non-malcious, preventing virtually any chance of picking up a key logger or virius via server scripts. You can white-list websites you visit that you can trust…like ZugGaming.com!
Clean Out Your Computer
Think you might already have a keylogger? Well, don’t panic…there’s hope for you yet.
- Download Spybot Search and Destroy. This free and powerful utility will scan your entire hard drive, locating, removing and immunizing your computer from malicious files, trojans, key loggers, spyware, malware and other programs and files it deems malicious. This utility can take some time to run, so be patient with it.
Improve Your Password
A few weeks ago one of the world’s most trafficked sites, Twitter.com, was hacked into and attacked. This attack lead to a variety of non-so-malicious activities…namely posting ridiculous tweets under administrator’s name. So how was this site hit? Experience programmers with a vendetta? High level PHP calls? Security holes exploited?
…or, an administrator was using the password happiness?
A weak password is one of the fastest ways to send yourself down the road to hacksville.
- Don’t use common words in your passwords. Avoid any word you would find in a dictionary…even foreign dictionaries.
- Don’t use common information to you…IE, spouses name, pet’s name, phone numbers, address, etc.
- Avoid short passwords. The longer your password’s length the lower the chance you’ll become a victim.
- Use a combination of letters, symbols, and numbers.
- Change your password often.
Bad Passwords…
- Password
- Drowssap
- 123456
- admin
Good Passwords…
- p@55w0^d
- @dm!n
- zu66@m!n6
Blizzard Authenticator
Probably the most fool proof, 100%, virtually zero chance of ever getting hacked…buy a Blizzard Authenticator. This small electronic encryption device was developed by Blizzard to reduce the number of restorations the GM staff has to conduct and to save you all the headaches that go along with getting yourself hacked. The Blizzard authenticator generates a 6 digit number based on the UPC of your individual device and the current time (time brackets change every few seconds). You enter this code just like you would enter a second password when you log on.
This essentially prevents anyone from ever logging into your account unless they have your specific authenticator. The authenticators only cost $6.50 and include free shipping. I purchased mine a few weeks ago and I’m glad I did. While I know I could get most of my items restored if I ever got hacked…just thinking about the sheer amount of gold I would have lost just made me sick.
In any regard, $6.50 for that type of piece of mind is more than worth it.
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Hi thanks, It’s good
Its about time this got an article. I posted about the Blizzard Authenticator months ago as a suggestion for an article :)
Just to add a bit to it, multiple accounts can use the same authenticator. My wife and I share one, so if you have multiple accounts or several people in your family have accounts, you don’t have to pay for multiple authenticators.
However if your brother who is about to leave for college has an account, you might not want to share with him, since I am not sure of the reversibility of adding the authenticator to your account…
Cool, I’ll be changing my password to zu66@m!n6 right away, thanks for the great idea!
I was thinking something like d3@thkn1ght55uck
Nah, that’s way too easy to guess. That’s the first thing I type when I try to hack accounts.
I also purchased mine too, so glad I did it.. it getting much gold and more character and stuff.. if I got hacked, I woulda go rly MAD.. I’d say really pretty MAD. hehe.. good article anyho.
Funny how blizzard uses the fact that they can’t do shit against hackers and fully restore your account altogether to make money off your back. Sure, 6,50$ isn’t much, but picture, say, a milion players purchasing those?
blizzard isn’t making much if anything. Shipping alone would be $1.00-$1.50, add in the cost of packing materials…say $0.50-1.00 add the cost to manufacture the device. You really think they can make any real money when they have to keep materials and manufacturing expenses at around $4.00?
…oh, and special props to Erk. He was the first one that I was talking about the authenticator, took me a few weeks there after to finally get it, but good call on this one…it’s a must have.
Yes, but derek; Realize that we’re already overpaying for a game where you’re supposedly protected and able to recover the shit you lose. Clearly, this isn’t the case~ and they’re still making a tiny bit more out of their own incompetence. Flabergasting.
Perhaps…I never really felt like I was overpaying, considering the the sheer amount of time I’ve clocked.
I believe WoW is very competitively priced… You look at most of the other MMOs out there, and their subscription fees are at least as high as WoW’s (unless they are dying and begging for people to play them) AND you have to pay for each new content release. If WoW were any other MMO, we’d be paying 25 or 30 bucks for the 3.1 content, but instead, Blizzard patches all the content in for free.
Truth is, every MMO that gains popularity will have problem with account hackers. WoW is an anomaly only because of its popularity. Even games like LotRO, who only operate a few servers worth of clients have problems with people’s accounts being hacked. If you really want them to lock everything down and be unhackable, you can say goodbye to customizable UIs, and I’d rather pay $6.50 for peace of mind and he able to change the game to my liking than have a rigid game with more and more crap running in the background of the game to bog it down.
I was a little surprised that they didn’t include a blizz authenticator with the expansion though. The timing seemed right, and offering the game for 5 more dollars with an authenticator would have been attractive to a lot I am willing to bet.
I like Erk.
If blizzard did charge more $ for WoW I would deffenatly stop playing. In my mind $15 a month is already pushing it when there are other games that are $7 a month or less