I’m slightly bored while waiting for my karma appeal ticket to be resolved, and with the multitude of accounts being hacked going on, I figured I might share some things I do to keep my PC as well as my credentials safe.
Anti-Viruses – Get yourself an anti-virus and anti-malware program. You will be surprised at how many computers get infected just by not having something as simple as this. Ones I use (both free!) are Microsoft Security Essentials and Malwarebytes Anti-Malware. Conducting scans weekly (as well as keeping your anti-virus up to date) is a good way to go about things.
Additionally, you can try Spybot Search & Destroy or stuff like AVAST! but I’m a cheap person and if security is free, why pay for it? Also, McAfee is utter nonsense. Get rid of that.
Check First – Now you may have noticed that I linked you three links above. Did you instantly click on it? Well you shouldn’t have! The first thing you should do before clicking on any link is to check that the link actually points to where you want it to go. Typically, this will be displayed at the bottom left-hand corner of your browser when you hover over the link — do it and do yourself a favour by checking and double checking links!
Know your computer – It can be wise (if you know what you’re doing) to run msconfig as well as task manager and check the list of services and processes that start up when you boot your PC. See anything that’s suspicious? Google it which will usually return you the stuff you need to know about any process running.
Don’t take candy from strangers – It can be good practice to spend five minutes researching before you download anything — this includes torrents, installers as well as archive files. Read comments (if applicable), scan it first before you open it and if you’re still suspicious, just don’t install it at all.
Common Sense – The general consensus is that if you’re not visiting any shady parts of the internet or trying to download shady things, you’ll be generally safe. If you absolutely insist that you must visit said parts of the internet, then do so on a different PC and with different credentials (and I don’t mean coolguy1 and coolguy2).
Hosts File - This is an excellent thing to have. Every (Windows) computer comes with this (C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc). It allows you to dictate who can and can not connect to your computer (ala, blacklist). Dan Pollock (link) has an awesome compiled list which gets rid of most pop-ups, spyware sites and all that jazz; having that will make your internet browsing experience a whole lot safer and fun.
Google Chrome – If you’re still using Internet Explorer, shame on you. Get Chrome now, and get Adblock Plus while you’re at it.
Passwords and Accounts – Don’t toss around your credentials on every single website or gaming forum you come across. Keep them relatively separate cause chances are, if one gets compromised, someone’s going to try them on other things. Here’s a comic by xkcd which explains to you exactly what’s happening to many of the hacked accounts right now: http://xkcd.com/792/
Pair all of this with the advice posted by Regina (courtesy of Jee) and you shouldn’t go wrong really.
That’s probably all I can think of for now, I’ll try to update this in the near future.
Cheers,
-A.
P.S: The forum text formatting is whack out. I need to get used to it..
+10 to firefox/chrome with Adblockplus.
Also, the NoScript addon is very valuable for the same reason. It won’t allow scripts attached to websites to run without your express permission.
I can add to this, for the truly paranoid:
Sandboxed browsing. http://www.sandboxie.com/ – for info and download. This program is free and will enable you to use your default browser in a sanitary ‘box’. Emptying the sandbox deletes everything that was running in it. That can mean browsing history, or stealth-installed addons or browser-based virus infections…all that. Everything goes back to the state it was in before you started the browser.
Reference# 120828-00307
Date Created: 08/27/2012 RESOLVED 9/9, 3:32pm
I have used spybot S&D before, but since I recently bought a new computer I had not thought of installing it.
When I saw your post I figured I would install spybot again, but Instead of clicking any links I did a search for spybot and used that to get to the right site and got the software
To be honest it never even crossed my mind to click any of the links you provided, I just went ad searched for it instead.
I have used spybot S&D before, but since I recently bought a new computer I had not thought of installing it.
When I saw your post I figured I would install spybot again, but Instead of clicking any links I did a search for spybot and used that to get to the right site and got the software
To be honest it never even crossed my mind to click any of the links you provided, I just went ad searched for it instead.
Some people are lazy, so I just included the links to the appropriate websites — and lazy people usually don’t give it a second thought haha.
I have used spybot S&D before, but since I recently bought a new computer I had not thought of installing it.
When I saw your post I figured I would install spybot again, but Instead of clicking any links I did a search for spybot and used that to get to the right site and got the software
To be honest it never even crossed my mind to click any of the links you provided, I just went ad searched for it instead.
Some people are lazy, so I just included the links to the appropriate websites — and lazy people usually don’t give it a second thought haha.
Well I have over the years been hearing allot about people getting their accounts hacked as well has had my share of phising in my inbox.
It has left me a little paranoid when it comes to clicking links, but I think thats just a good thing.
If I’m not sure about a link I just do a search for it instead.
As for phising mails I usually read them, but can usually spot them a mile away, and even if I think they are genuine I do it the safe way and dont click any links.
I have used spybot S&D before, but since I recently bought a new computer I had not thought of installing it.
When I saw your post I figured I would install spybot again, but Instead of clicking any links I did a search for spybot and used that to get to the right site and got the software
To be honest it never even crossed my mind to click any of the links you provided, I just went ad searched for it instead.
Some people are lazy, so I just included the links to the appropriate websites — and lazy people usually don’t give it a second thought haha.
Well I have over the years been hearing allot about people getting their accounts hacked as well has had my share of phising in my inbox.
It has left me a little paranoid when it comes to clicking links, but I think thats just a good thing.
If I’m not sure about a link I just do a search for it instead.
As for phising mails I usually read them, but can usually spot them a mile away, and even if I think they are genuine I do it the safe way and dont click any links.
That’s actually very good practice I don’t click links for the most part too, never hurts to be safe!
Going to hit the sack for now, not sure how I managed to stay up till 7am. Hope this thread has, in some measure, helped people.
Be careful about searching. Sometimes the most obvious entry isn’t the proper one. Diablo III ended up with a phishing link at the top of Google when you searched for “Diablo 3 Forum” at it’s launch.
I’m slightly bored while waiting for my karma appeal ticket to be resolved, and with the multitude of accounts being hacked going on, I figured I might share some things I do to keep my PC as well as my credentials safe.
Anti-Viruses – Get yourself an anti-virus and anti-malware program. You will be surprised at how many computers get infected just by not having something as simple as this. Ones I use (both free!) are Microsoft Security Essentials and Malwarebytes Anti-Malware. Conducting scans weekly (as well as keeping your anti-virus up to date) is a good way to go about things.
Additionally, you can try Spybot Search & Destroy or stuff like AVAST! but I’m a cheap person and if security is free, why pay for it? Also, McAfee is utter nonsense. Get rid of that.
I would like to add a program to your list. This program is amazing and I have been using it for two years now to protect my account security for several different things. It is called KeyScrambler. It scrambles keyboard inputs as you type them for supported programs. The free version covers Internet Explorer and Firefox. The premium versions do not yet support GW2 logins but I am sure they will in the future as they cover most other games. Just the Internet Exlorer and Firefox protection alone will thwart at least 90% of all keylogging attempts. Think of where you type in almost all of your sensitive information, it is usually in a web browser.
Click the Free Download button but not the Free trial pay option unless you want that.
I decided to try this program two years ago when my own account security for another game was compromised. I have never had another issue since installing this amazing tool.
I don’t click links for the most part too, never hurts to be safe!