How To Protect Yourself ?

[Kasal]

I have been reading with some interest the recent posts regarding account hacking, and it seems that fake URL's and keyloggers are the two main threats to the casual online gamer. Whereas I understand that fake URL's are somewhat easily avoided (just don't click on a link from an untrusted poster or source), I'm a little unclear on this whole issue of keyloggers, in particular:

1) how keyloggers work
2) how to protect myself from them, and
3) how to know when I have one and how to get rid of it

This might be a good time to discuss the issue for gamers like myself who worry about this. Any feeedback, folks ?

[Twoflower]

1 : they record the keys you press when you login somewhere, therefore they get your password.

3 : You need a antivir program and a firewall. Windows XP firewall is enugh for me. You notice you have one when all your WoW chars are gone, your bank acount is empty or when whatever - you - do - online - which - requires - a - password does not work any more :)

2 : the hard part ^^

i'd say you just have to be aware that these things exist, and check what pages you browse, what you download, which programs you execute and where you tipe your passwords. But that s just general advise. I consider myself experienced whit the tricks the frauds use and i guess i wouldnt fall for them. But i have no idea how to teach this, some one else take over please ^^

also, read the new sticky about the Wotlk beta on top of the forum.

[DrScience]

As someone who has recently been hacked, i feel that i should share my newfound knowledge with the community...

1. Keyloggers are programs that install themselves and run in the background of your operating system. they are usually disguised as a system process. they record EVERY keystroke that you make on your computer. so that means passwords, forum posts, instant messages - everything you type. They can also be injected into wow mods or addons - they can record your login IDs, passwords, items in bags, messages in game, and even record how much gold your characters have. When sufficient data has been collected the keylogger will usually open a port on your computer and shunt the data that it has collected off to some random server for retrieval by the person or persons that created it.

2. To protect yourself from these threats, it is ABSOLUTELY NECCESSARY to have a decent, updated antivirus/security program such as norton internet security or mcafee internet security. These programs cost money and have subscription fees, but trust me, they pay for themselves over the long haul. Security suites often have firewall protection built in which could potentially stop the keylogger from broadcasting the data it has collected from your computer. Another way to protect yourself (i had to find this one out the hard way) is to avoid linking to pages from forums that require your account id or password. I was fooled by a link to a HYPER REALISTIC recreation of the WoW account administration log-in page. If you need to check or alter anything with your account, make sure you do it by linking directly to it from the offical world of warcraft homepage. never from a link provided ANYWHERE else.

3. The only way you're going to know if you have one is if you're doing regular system scans with your antivirus/anti-spyware/anti-phishing programs. Most of the programs can spot a keylogger from a mile away because they are generally bad at covering their tracks. When your antivirus program finds something - DELETE THE FILE IT FOUND!!!! It doesen't matter how important the file is, just get rid of it post-haste. If its an important mod or UI addon, you may need to reinstall it from a trusted source. Also, a lot of security comes from common sense. if something looks suspicious, its probably worthy of suspicion.

Be careful out there. Hope this helps.


EDIT: IN BEFORE "BUY A MAC"

[Xlorep DarkHelm]

Keyloggers are like viruses, trojans, etc. You have to install them, and they simply read your keypresses, in particular, the keypresses you made for an account name & password. You do *have* to install them, unless Internet Explorer still has the annoying install trick it used to be able to pull where it could install things on your computer without your knowledge or consent, and if that still works, then don't use IE, ever.
Don't install questionable software. Pretty much goes without saying. UI Mods are OK, but UI Mods which also have another program that connects to the internet for something... anything... those should be questioned. Only use the ones which are 100% trusted, if you can't 100% be certain, don't use them.
Many of them pop up in a number of different antivirus/malware detectors. Unfortunately, there is no 100% guaranteed method to detect all of them. The best way to completely avoid them is to not use Windows, but for many people, that isn't an option.

[Azori]

I'm not sure whether keyloggers are caught by regular antivirus checks, but doing them or buying anti-spyware software and doing regular checks would be a good way of finding/preventing them.

[Xlorep DarkHelm]

I'm not sure whether keyloggers are caught by regular antivirus checks, but doing them or buying anti-spyware software and doing regular checks would be a good way of finding/preventing them.

Some are, but like with everything else, no one anti-virus program is perfect. Each gets only whatever they know to look for, and they only know what to look for the things that the people managing the virus database have put into the virus database. Antivirus/antispyware/antimalware software is all only as good as the databases they each have are.

There is really only one 100% certain method to completely rid yourself of viruses, don't use Windows. The Unix-like platforms that Mac, Linux, *BSD, etc uses makes the development/deployment of viruses a bit more difficult to accomplish, plus... Microsoft is the regular target for disgruntled employees, developers, etc; and... Microsoft made it actually very easy to write such things and for applications to freely access everything on the computer (some of these things that *still* work in Vista, have worked since Windows 3 and the first versions of NT).

The problem with this is multifold -- most people don't want to change -- their computers came with Windows, and there is a level of "why bother", as well as the fear of change in general. Most applications people are familiar with run in Windows (including games), so why change away from the platform most software people are familiar with are using also comes up. And in the case of Macs... the prices is a bit steeper for a Mac than a PC, while in the case of Linux... it really isn't designed for the average person (you have to be at least passingly familiar with how a computer works on some level -- but that's getting better). Price, familiarity, level of knowledge, and software support are the big reasons people don't change from Windows, even if switching to something else will protect their computers better than any Anti-Virus/etc. software package ever could.

[Kalos]

The technical forum has had sticky threads advising people on how to help keep themself safe from keyloggers, offering protective and preventative software for many months. I'd advise anyone who hasn't seen it already to swing by there, and pickup things like: http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/
http://www.download.com/3000-2092-10039884.html

[Twoflower]

The problem with this is multifold -- most people don't want to change -- their computers came with Windows, and there is a level of "why bother", as well as the fear of change in general. Most applications people are familiar with run in Windows (including games), so why change away from the platform most software people are familiar with are using also comes up. And in the case of Macs... the prices is a bit steeper for a Mac than a PC, while in the case of Linux... it really isn't designed for the average person (you have to be at least passingly familiar with how a computer works on some level -- but that's getting better). Price, familiarity, level of knowledge, and software support are the big reasons people don't change from Windows, even if switching to something else will protect their computers better than any Anti-Virus/etc. software package ever could.

the point is, i use my PC only for gaming and gaming related stuff. for work, i have my pc at work.

so i want the standart because 1: it is just damn easy and i dont have to spend weeks setting up and getting to know my new OS and 2 : it is widely accepted. I had a mac between 1999 and 2002, and in that time there was not even Teamspeak for mac. Also, macs have about 5% of the games windows have published.

all in all, i work in macs and i play on windows.

[Xlorep DarkHelm]

the point is, i use my PC only for gaming and gaming related stuff. for work, i have my pc at work.

so i want the standart because 1: it is just damn easy and i dont have to spend weeks setting up and getting to know my new OS and 2 : it is widely accepted. I had a mac between 1999 and 2002, and in that time there was not even Teamspeak for mac. Also, macs have about 5% of the games windows have published.

all in all, i work in macs and i play on windows.

I work in Windows and play on Linux. But I've been working on Linux for a very, very long time. I've never liked Windows, it is kludgy, restrictive, and frustrating for me, personally. It is a *huge* security violation, in and of itself (and I've worked computer security in both the civilian and military worlds), and I just plain find it annoying. I've warmed up to Macs, got my mom an iMac recently which she loves, and I've liked some of the things they do, just don't have the money for one for myself yet.

But, like I said, for most people, there's a myriad of reasons to use Windows. Your reasoning is exactly what I was describing -- software support and learning curve.

[Shellar]

Don't play WoW and surf the Net from the same machine.

[theshard]

Keyloggers are like viruses, trojans, etc. You have to install them, and they simply read your keypresses, in particular, the keypresses you made for an account name & password. You do *have* to install them, unless Internet Explorer still has the annoying install trick it used to be able to pull where it could install things on your computer without your knowledge or consent, and if that still works, then don't use IE, ever.


On this note, I use Mozzilla over Internet Explorer at home. It is alot better but at work I can only use IE.

Edit: And it's free.

[DrScience]

Yes, Firefox is far superior. There is just no excuse to use Internet Explorer at home anymore.
(at work is different, but my company just switched over to Firefox :D)

[Dhoum]

Don't play WoW and surf the Net from the same machine.
Some of us only have one machine.:embarassed:

But I, too, use Firefox to browse ... except when testing one of my own sites ... and have addons that offer some level of protection outside of just not being Microsoft.

I also run regular anti-spyware scans.

[Burntmeat]

Yes, Firefox is far superior. There is just no excuse to use Internet Explorer at home anymore.
(at work is different, but my company just switched over to Firefox :D)

A reason for the advantage is the addons of wich i will highly recommend; NoScript (http://noscript.net/) and AdBlock Plus (https://addons.mozilla.org/da/firefox/addon/10)

[Aerath]

3 : You need a antivir program and a firewall. Windows XP firewall is enugh for me. You notice you have one when all your WoW chars are gone, your bank acount is empty or when whatever - you - do - online - which - requires - a - password does not work any more :)

Last I knew, the Windows XP Firewall missed one vital bit... It stops INCOMING connections, but happily allows OUTGOING ones. As in, that Keylogger that's trying to send the data it just captured...

There's a number of decent free Firewalls, which -will- alert you on outgoing connections.

[Dhoum]

There's a number of decent free Firewalls, which -will- alert you on outgoing connections.
Care to link some of them? Mine is good but getting on a bit and it might be time to upgrade.

[Aerath]

Newer doesn't necessarily mean better.

They only need to do one thing: alert you of any connection (incoming and/or outgoing) and ask for your permission. Long as they get that done, they're good.

I'm using an ancient one, that was completely fubar-ed in a make-over it received ages ago. As such, I haven't got any recent links or anything. I've stored this one on various places (including email) so I can always just reinstall it on any new computer/installation without any hassle. Can't even remember if this one originally was free or if I got a licensed one.

[Herald of Doom]

A reason for the advantage is the addons of wich i will highly recommend; NoScript (http://noscript.net/) and AdBlock Plus (https://addons.mozilla.org/da/firefox/addon/10)

Seconded. NoScript for Firefox is awesome.

If you only have one pc, make a dualboot (preferably Linux for surfing ;) ) Before I got my box running with a dualboot I temporarely used Knoppix. Just change your bootsequence in the BIOS, pop in the cd and kablammo, you got Linux. Granted, not everyone is intrested in getting Linux, but these days it really isn't hard to get it installed. Ofcourse you'll be stuck with fat32 partitions for the data you want to share between windows and linux but that's only a minor annoyance (and just pray you don't have to scandisk too often lol).. Maybe xlorep should write a guide for a dualboot setup! :afro:

HoD

[Kalos]

Care to link some of them? Mine is good but getting on a bit and it might be time to upgrade.
Use Google to find Zone Alarm. Also, the technical forum does have a sticky with a barrel load of security links with I am in the process of renovating.

As Aereth said, it's not the age that matters. I've known some six year old firewalls that could blow the products in use today out of the water, and vise versa.