Blizzard reminds us to be careful of keyloggers
by Elizabeth Harper 
Mar 24th 2007 at 6:24PM
According to CM Nethaera, there's a recent outbreak of posts on the forums linking to hostile programs (keyloggers). What's a keylogger, you ask? Well, it's a piece of software that gets installed on your computer -- either because you've installed something without knowing what it was or because the program has exploited a vulnerability on your computer and installed itself without your knowledge -- that tracks everything you type and reports the information back to someone, somewhere. Often, it's used to to steal valuable information like account passwords, credit card numbers, banking information, and the like. But in the case of World of Warcraft, it's often used to steal your account name and password -- which can then be stripped for items and gold to be resold for cash. Certainly not something any of us would like to happen to our accounts -- so it's probably a good idea to heed Blizzard's warnings. Specifically, we're warned against links to a file named tonydanza.a11net with the extension .html. So if you see something like this linked from the forums? Pay attention to Blizzard's warning page that you're visiting a non-Blizzard site and don't click it!
And if you're interested in what you can do to keep your computer secure, Blizzard has some general advice on their support site. And for more specific advice, forum poster Semoravene has provided us all with more specific details on keeping your computer safe from viruses and other harmful programs (that means keyloggers!). And if you think your account may have already been compromised, the next step is to contact Account and Billing services -- but be warned, getting your account back can sometimes be a bumpy ride.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Zach Mar 24th 2007 6:47PM
If you're interested, I made a post the other day on my site regarding my experience of someone hacking my account, getting banned and then having my account reenabled to find that all my items were sold. I'm still trying to figure out how it happened, but since I've loaded WoW on a new partition and have made a more secure password.
You can find it at http://www.vgblogger.com/?p=666.
Pzychotix Mar 24th 2007 7:56PM
KEYLOGGER!
Qix Mar 24th 2007 11:25PM
Another thing most people dont realize, is that you wont necessarily get your stuff replaced. after losing my 200+ FR set, my (used for one day)Ebon Hand,etc, etc, i tried tog et it all back. Nope. All i got was a month of waiting for a set of random greens including a nice shiny dagger of fiery wrath as the weapon for my rogue. Only reason i did not quit, it was a couple weeks before Burning Crusade, and getting better stuff was not that hard...
JA Mar 25th 2007 3:19AM
Minimizing your account being hacked is easily done. The problem is that people do not follow safe computing practices. Run a anti-virus software that scans for trojan horses and malicious software regularly. Update that software's definitions on a regular basis. Use a strong password even though it can be a pain...letters, numbers, symbols and make sure its more then a few characters long. Change your password every month or so. Update your operating system on a regular basis. Do not download mods..hard to do I know.
A interesting fact found by security experts is that in about 90% of all breaches it was lack of the users doing those things.
Does that make you immune to having something like your account hacked ... no but it brings it down to a much lower possibility.
Jones Mar 25th 2007 3:54AM
Ugg... I was keylogged a few months ago, it was horrible. I reported the issue, my account got closed for investigation, I was told 10 days or so it would take, but it ended up being an entire month before I got everything back. Just to let you know, that is NOT FUN, at all going through that, especially after you just finshed your Tier 2 set. Anyways, scan for viruses, dont open suspicious emails/links, no more porn/powerlevel/goldfarm sites and DONT give out your password, ever. They could use your info on a dirty computer full of trojans and worms and they wouldnt even know. Its against the ToS for a reason you know!