Hail, travellers! I’m Milune, here with some info about how to keep your WoW account safe, as well as your credit information and a multitude of other private things! Each week I will go through a few simple steps to keep your info safe from those Chinese goldfarmers or how to get your stuff back from them. I’ll also cover things like how to make good GM reports, how Game Masters work, and what you can expect when you make a report. But first, we’re going to look at the simplest way of stopping hackers before they start.
The first step to a safe account is having good browsing habits. This means not clicking links you think might not be safe, not going to untrusted sites in the first place, and how to protect yourself if you do. I have actually clicked a forum keylogger by accident and probably would have been hacked, if not for NoScript and Firefox and the knowledge of how to react. Both programs are free to download.
Firefox is very user friendly, much faster than Internet Exploder (err, Explorer…), and it has a lot of customization plugins. The only catch I’ve found so far is a few (read: VERY FEW when considering the size of the internet) websites or website features were made for IE, so browsing those certain websites can be very difficult on Firefox. For the most part, these websites will say something like “best viewed on IE7″. Still, I recommend at least trying Firefox out, it has a lot of nifty safety measures that are completely customizable.
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/
One such safety plugin is NoScript. This little doo-dad puts a little bar at the bottom of each webpage asking if it can run scripts on the website. To break it down, scripts are what tells the webpage to run the video or put the pictures and other files onto your harddrive, and NoScript asks you which ones you want. This means if you do happen to go to a keylogger website, it will warn you, then ask you if you want to run it before it will let you see the page. This is what saved my computer. I admit it does get a bit tedious and annoying sometimes, and it is a bit more advanced than the regular Joe is used to but it’s saved countless accounts and will save many more.
http://noscript.net/
To use NoScript, all you have to do is when you visit a page, click the options button on the bar at the bottom and click what you want to allow. You can temporarily allow certain files so that the next time you visit the page they won’t be active (handy for seeing things you think might not be 100% safe) or allow it every time by clicking the top option. Very easy to install, set up, and it only takes a second each time you visit a site.
A moment now might save you heartaches of a hacked account later! If you have any questions or concerns, always feel free to drop by the official WoW Customer Serivice Forums.
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/board.html?forumId=11112
My friend got the keyfob (SecureID) that Blizz offered, this seemed to work pretty slick so that even if you were keylogged there is no way they could actually log into your account without the keyfob as the number changes randomly every 60(?) seconds. This seemed to be a pretty good idea if you ask me. He likes it.
For a one time fee (I believe) this is something that will also help you in case you accidentally get a keylogger.
Aye, many of my friends have the authenticator. It does stop keylogging on your WoW account, but what I have found is that keyloggers also go for your credit information. If you have such a logger, then while your account is safe, other info is not, and you may not respond as fast. I do still recommend it if you can get one, but the shipping to Canada here is over 50 dollars. I can always make a post about how those thingies work, they are the ultimate security device for WoW =)