Absolution

Gamers want to game, that’s what we do for fun. We enjoy the challenge of going head to head against other gamers. Massively multiplayer online role playing games (MMORPG’s) are extremely popular these days with World of Warcraft (WoW) being the undisputed top dog with approximately 11 million active accounts worldwide. Like the real world, virtual worlds have currency as well. In WoW the currency is gold and just like its real world counterpart it is used to purchase all manner of things that improve your in-game character. However there is the dark side to gold as well…

Gold, just like money, corrupts. There are companies in China where people play around the clock taking shifts to earn as much gold as possible to sell for US dollars. This may seem ridiculous but it is a thriving global business across every MMORPG earning millions of dollars annually. Unfortunately there are those that would rather take gold, than earn it and this is where the real danger to online gamers lies.

In online gaming your gaming account holds your characters and all their possessions that you have collected. It is protected by a Username and a Password both of which the gamer chooses. If someone can get hold of these details they can log into your account and strip your characters of all their equipment, gold, even delete the characters themselves once they are finished. Obviously this is devastating to the gamer leaving them feeling helpless and violated as often it can be years of hardwork gone in only a few minutes while they sleep.

I myself have experienced this however I was extremely lucky and realised what was happening because I was being logged out continuously as someone was accessing my account elsewhere. I quickly used another computer to change my password as I knew that my computer had been compromised. From personal experience, panic, fear, dread, anger were all running rampant and I had to slow myself down and think logically and quickly to avert a disaster. Fortunately I’ve been working with computers all my life and have a good knowledge of keeping yourself safe on the internet. So without further delay, here is how to save yourself from losing everything!

1. Antivirus Software is Essential

Every computer connected to the internet or a network should have antivirus software installed on it with real time scanning capabilities. There are several free solutions such as AVG or Antivir however the free versions are limited in their protection. Avoid Norton Antivirus in my personal opinion, Norton unfortunately slows your computer down way to much to the point of a brand new computer running like a slug. Also Norton is the Microsoft of Antivirus, virus makers design viruses to infect Microsoft machines and shutdown Norton as it is one of the most popular antivirus products.

2. Install a Firewall

There are 2 basic types of firewalls, software or hardware. Many routers come with hardware firewalls that should be enabled. Software firewalls mostly come with antivirus software these days. So if you are shopping for antivirus software I would recommend getting one with an integrated firewall. Windows XP Service Pack 2 and later has an integrated firewall that can be turned on. If you have no other firewall software and plan on using a free antivirus product then turn this on immediately. You can find it in Start -> Control Panel -> Windows Firewall.

3. Protect youself from Spyware

Again spyware removal often comes bundled with antivirus software these days. There are 2 free options that spring to mind, Spybot S&D and Adaware. I personally use Spybot myself and have for years.

4. Internet Explorer? More like Internet Exploder

Internet Explorer, the web browser that comes with every modern version of Microsoft Windows is garbage. No matter how much the Microsoft marketing department try to dress it up, it’s a horribly insecure, vulnerability infested, pig of a browser. Even if you do all the steps above, you could still get a keylogger installed on your computer invisibly just because you were using Internet Explorer.

5. Get a real Browser

So we cant use Internet Explorer, what can we use instead? Again 2 browsers immediately spring to mind Firefox and Opera. Both are considerably safer than Internet Explorer, most even offer superior functionality than Internet Explorer. Again I personally use Firefox with the NoScript addon which is pretty much as secure as a browser can get. NoScript isnt for everyone, its annoyingly restrictive and slows down your web browsing as it doesnt trust anything or anyone by default. The up side is that nothing will ever run on a web site that you havent allowed which obviously makes it very secure.

6. Strong Passwords are Strong!

Passwords are extremely important, the weaker they are, the easier they can be brute forced. A brute force attack is where a program keeps trying combinations of letters and numbers to try and “guess” your password. They often use dictionaries to try all english words so as you may have guessed a password that is a mixture of numbers and letters is much more secure than the name of your dog. While s5ghtr42 is a reasonably strong password you can make even stronger still by using special characters such as .@#$% etc. A password like s.5g#htr$42 is extremely strong and would take an insanely long time to try and brute force. My last piece of advice is make you gaming account password different to all you other passwords. Make it unique.

7. Common Sense

If you go digging around gold seller web sites, leveling guides,  and addon sites pay particular attention to the URL of the site. Generally only use well known sites if you are going to use them at all. Dodgy web sites are the most common way to get your account hacked.

8. Beware of Addons (for WoW)

If a site has a .exe addon installer, don’t touch it with a 10′ barge pole. Addons should come as .zip packages generally which you unzip and copy into your /interface/addons/ directory. Always virus scan the zip files before unzipping them.

Well that concludes my little post on Internet Security. This applies to everyone really, not just gamers. The internet is extremely dangerous for the naive. If this saves only 1 person from being hacked then I’m glad I could help. If I think of anything else I’ll add it to this article. Happy gaming and be safe on the interwebz!

I woke up this morning to quickly check my email and the first thing I noticed was replies to all of my posts thus far. I’m sure that managing blog spam is going to be just another part of daily life soon.

I was quietly impressed though, not even a week from starting this blog, I havent even got a design online yet, I have no content of any value but the mighty spam gods are already hitting me. Fortunately WordPress makes it easy with its moderation system.

I’m curious to hear other peoples experiences, especially with more established blogs to hear some horror stories of comment spam.