What with all the Keyloggers

[Etherin]

As some people may know there's an ever increasing amount of keyloggers/Trojans/Spyware wizzing around the Wow-Eu Turalyon forums.

With this in mind I'd thought it would be a good Idea to help some of the members who aren't so up to the Techie Standards to post a thread to help Prevent/Detect any of the above and more, preventing anyone hopefully getting hacked.

One thing you need to be aware of is that Microsoft Internet Explorer is very succeptable to Malware/Spyware and other nasties that you dont really want snopping around your computer, so a way around this is to use another means to surf the net.

One of the most common browsers is Mozilla Firefox, this is the same in virtually every way to Internet Explorer other than the fact that its not so succeptable to attack, Its free and very easy to install. (link to follow).

Windows 2000/2003 server/XP/Vista all come with a built in Firewall, Make sure that this is turned on at "ALL" times unless you have another better one installed, Microsofts isn't great but its better than none at all.

Also on Firewalls most Modems/Routers now come with some form of Firewall, If you know how to connect to the modem/router make sure this is turned on (Refer to your user manual as each type of modem/router's vary)

Anti virus is a must for anyone connected to the Internet as this will be a good way to detect any nasties trying to get onto your computer.

There are many "Free" Anti-Virus applications about, and most of them now come with some little added features like watching your computer and alerting you when something is doing something you dont want it to.

(Links to Free anti-virus to follow).

Ad-aware is a free programme again and is very good for detecting Malware/Spyware run once every 2 weeks theres not much that'll will cause you problems.(Link to follow)

Spy-Bot S&D is a very good programme that detects things that Ad-awarre doesn't, mainly Key loggers and runs in the background of windows and also alerts you to any unwanted activity, especially windows registry requests.(Link to follow)

I'm sure all the other Techies(Nerds) will post adding more applications to use, This for simple quick protection.

Stay away from opening any link on the wow forums unless you know for 100% certainty its safe, mainly dont open the ones "looking for ingame BF/GF or My hot Teacher" and have image links to their pictures, these are keyloggers and are very nasty.

As for Wow a GM told me once that if you remove the Net connection from your computer so you know nothings transmitting any nasties, type your Wow user name and password into Notebook and save it to your desktop, connect to the net and start Wow now just highlight your User name and Copy and paste it to your Wow login user name and check Remember user name do than copy and paste your password over, all you need to do then is copy and paste your password every time you log in, it may take 1-2 mins more but rather that then lose years of grinding your toon to be taken by a hacker.

[Dust]

There are some basic rules everyone should follow:

- Do NOT download and execute programs you are sure that they are legitimate. On the do-not list are programs that are sent by e-mail, downloaded from pages linked to by e-mail or offered on a page without request. Also remember: Addons NEVER require executables, if you download an addon that contains a program, just delete it, it's useless.

- Always surf as user, never as administrator. Surfing with a different user account or computer/vm would be even better. But that's probably paranoid. (Having a dedicated computer for banking might be a good idea though)

- Disable JavaScript. This prevents a whole host of potential bugs. On Firefox this is easy with no-script.

- Remember: Every software has bugs. Update them when an update is released. This includes firefox!

- Backup, backup, backup! And then backup some more. And check that the backups work :) I've read of people who found out after their main disk failed that their backup tape was broken since months.

I personaly don't see the point of a spyware/adware/virus scanner. If you use your brain you can defend against most of those. They mostly just tend to eat cpu time and give false security.

Also, don't rely on "Personal Firewalls", an application that is installed on your system can easily circumvent those. External firewall hardware such as in many routers are much better for defense against outside. Against inside they are just as worthless as local application firewalls.

[Dust]

As for Wow a GM told me once that if you remove the Net connection from your computer so you know nothings transmitting any nasties, type your Wow user name and password into Notebook and save it to your desktop, connect to the net and start Wow now just highlight your User name and Copy and paste it to your Wow login user name and check Remember user name do than copy and paste your password over, all you need to do then is copy and paste your password every time you log in, it may take 1-2 mins more but rather that then lose years of grinding your toon to be taken by a hacker.

That GM was an idiot.
Modern key loggers make screenshots, record key and mouse input and copy the clipboard and other memory locations. Some also sniff network traffic and steal files (including those containing passwords :)

[Cyberia]

One thing you need to be aware of is that Microsoft Internet Explorer is very succeptable to Malware/Spyware and other nasties that you dont really want snopping around your computer, so a way around this is to use another means to surf the net.
One of the most common browsers is Mozilla Firefox, this is the same in virtually every way to Internet Explorer other than the fact that its not so succeptable to attack, Its free and very easy to install. (link to follow).

This isn't accurate either... Firefox is succeptable in the majority of the same ways that IE is.

[Etherin]

One thing you need to be aware of is that Microsoft Internet Explorer is very succeptable to Malware/Spyware and other nasties that you dont really want snopping around your computer, so a way around this is to use another means to surf the net.
One of the most common browsers is Mozilla Firefox, this is the same in virtually every way to Internet Explorer other than the fact that its not so succeptable to attack, Its free and very easy to install. (link to follow).

This isn't accurate either... Firefox is succeptable in the majority of the same ways that IE is.

I didn't say it was 100% crack proof, I did say its not So succeptable to attack, as nowadays IE comes with windows and new computers come with Windows pre installed IE is the most attacked as hackers know full well there's plenty of opportunity's MS forget to cover.

Like when Vista came out, there was a link that was posted on the net that took control of your computer if the Voice recognition software was running by loading a page that had a soundclip, and if your mic was near your speakers basically it gave full commands on opening up a remote desktop connection to the hackers computer.

Mozilla found this out and put a stop onto the Active X file of this type automatically being run with out 1st warning the user to allow the content to run, Microsoft didn't and as far as i know still haven't.

Taken from here under the pie graph
No spyware/adware software can automatically install in Firefox just by a user’s visit to a web site.

[MindyMcfly]

They should find and publicly hang all people who write spyware or virus's.

I lost an entire drive once to a virus, luckily I did back-up but it wont happen again to me. Hardware firewalls and although its a system hog, Nortons has been effective.

I also run ad-aware and Spybot s&d every month.