So, you just got home from work or school and are ready to login and run Kara, or TK w. your guild. Something does not seem right though. Your password says it does not work, or it says you are already logged in. Or you do get in and find your toon looks different. And then you realize, you’ve been hacked. All your epics are gone, maybe you have to explain some things to friends and guildmates. Or maybe your toon has been deleted. Either way you’ve just lost a lot of time and play that you’ve spent building up that toon. Now you have to begin the long process of getting Blizzard to restore your character, but it will never be the same as it was. There are ways to protect your account from this sort of thing. Many of them are simple steps really. Read on for some ways to protect your account.
The Evil Hacker At Work!
Password Security
The password is the basic way one secures their wow account. There are a few things any password should be. The first is not something easily guessed. This includes common words, phrases, and related to personal information. If your dog is named Fido then Fido123 is a bad password. Your birthday, your kids, or your SOs birthdays are also bad ones to choose. Also, no password should be so complex that you have to write it down. A good password is a string of numbers and letters that you can easily commit to muscle memory. The ideal is something you can type quickly without thinking. Also, you should periodically change your password. Myself? I change it every few months.
Account Sharing
Besides being against the TOS it can open up your account to being hacked. I am not saying that your friends or loved ones are out to get you. But you cannot control their computers. You are in effect relying on anyone that you share your account with to be secure and aware of possible risks. This is not something you should do as it puts them, and you, in a potentially awkward position. So simply put, don’t share an account with someone.
Mods and Add-Ons
We all use them, we all need them. Some are required for raiding, some make game play easier, and some are juts fun. But “Caveat emptor” applies here. Only get your mods from trusted sources. I use Curse Gaming, and Wow Ace selectively, to download all my mods. Curse tries hard to make sure any mod you download from them is clean. Also the user feedback can help you decide if it is good to use that mod.
What bad things can a mod do? Well it could install a keylogger and grab your password. It can be infected with a virus itself that can be spread to your computer. It can also steal other information potentially. Just be sure of what you are downloading and installing. A final rule I live by: If I don’t feel comfortable getting that mod then I do without it.
Manage Your Computer
This one is very important. Time and again this basic concept could have stopped many things. It does not matter if you use a Windows PC, or a Mac there are always basic steps one should take. On Windows, this means running Anti-Virus software and making sure it is kept up-to-date. On all computers, this means making sure you have the latest security updates. This also means protecting your system with a firewall - either a software one on the computer or at your internet router/cable modem/dsl modem/whatever. This is important for not just playing WoW.
Safeguard Your Account Information
This means not sharing information with others. While letting people know your toon names is pretty obvious, the account name should be different. Don’t give out your account name, or the password. Don’t have your account name share the name of a toon. Don’t let anyone your billing information that you use. This is information you should treat as confidential.
Surf Responsibly
This is one you’d not think affects WoW but it does. Blizzard uses a web-based account management system. This means what you do in your browser can touch this if you are not careful. Follow safe web use practices and you should be fine. Be aware of what websites you are visiting. Also don’t save your account password in your browser. Since this password is used for many things in WoW keep it safe.
Get the Blizzard Authenticator
I have one, and for $6.50 USD it’s a cheap way to help safeguard your account. It’s a keychain fob that you use whenever you want to log into the game or the account management website. Whenever you login it will ask for a second password. This is a one time password generated at random by pressing a key. The password is only good for a short time and one use. This makes it nearly impossible to hack into your account. Each fob is tied to a specific set of accounts that your key it to. So unless someone gets your authenticator, it’s hard for them to crack this password.
The other nice thing about this is if you have multiple accounts you can tie them all to this. Also this does not work for the forum logins. If you frequent the forums it won’t be tied to this.
Be Informed
The gaming community at large, as well as Blizzard itself, are the best sources of information on keeping yourself up-to-date on the happenings with the game. This includes things like security concerns, bad mods, and common scams. The community knows a lot, rely on it to help with stuff like this.
It’s Not Just For You
For your enjoyment, as well as others I recommend you follow at least the first six of these recommendations. They are simple to follow and don’t take much to implement. I’d love to see Blizzard include the Authenticator as a standard piece of the game. If anyone has any other ideas or stories about securing a WoW installation/account please let me know.
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