Protection Against Account Hacking

[hawkeye_pike]

How do you hack an account?
You need the account name and password.

Those can be acquired by various illegal methods (phishing, trojans), but you can efficiently protect yourself if you follow a few basic rules:

• NEVER EVER accept any tools/files from ANYBODY unless you're 100% sure that the file is not infected and unless you scanned it with a virus scanner first. Best would be to not accept any executable files from other people at all.
• NEVER EVER open/double-click/install any programs of unknown origin on your computer. Don't accept software sent to you by e-mail or ICQ or other communication method. Don't use software you downloaded from peer-to-peer networks (they often contain trojans). Only use software you downloaded from the vendor's official homepage, and even then you should be careful.
• NEVER EVER give your account name or password to anybody, even if they claim to be EA employees.
• Delete and DO NOT ANSWER messages of unknown origin, especially in chat tools like ICQ. Do not open any e-mails of unknown origin that contain attachments.
• Make sure your computer always has the latest security patches installed.
• A router with packet filter or firewall is recommended. Additionally, you can use a personal firewall on your computer to block any packet that is being sent to the internet without your admission.

If you have been hacked, you violated at least one of the rules above.

 

[Tomas_Bryce]

You forgot a very important rule:

NEVER EVER give out your account bound email. Make a brand new email per account and don't use it for anything again. Write it down in a notebook at home, if you need to remember it.

 

[Ceridwen]

And also:
NEVER EVER use the same accountname/password for your account as for other sites/games or anything else AT ALL. Some sites might look ok and safe, but have huge security flaws.

And I'm not writing this because I want to be funny or something, some people really do that.

 

[Nenime]

According to the statistics (wherever these may arise from), the majority of 'hacks' are related to the physical access to your very own PC, like family members or workmates.

Everytime a friend or family member has a computer problem and asks me to look at it, I find hair-rising security settings on their firewalls or virus scanners. Asking how this could happen, their answer is more or less always the same: "I didn't touch anything. It just happened.". Uh-huh, sure...

 

[Ashlen]

I have never personally been hacked but the people that
I know that have been hacked and it personally affected me,
it was through there email accts that were attached to
their uo accts and used on forum boards or used in other
ways then for just their UO accts.

The comments are all very helpful but I think the most
one is never give out your email that is attached to your
UO acct, make sure it used for that acct only and if you have
more than one acct have one for each acct as Thomas said.
With your email address they can hack into that these days
and acquire anything they want through EA.

If you have never been hacked and think your an expert
you might want to step back start becoming an expert
in something else.

 

[CatLord]

and last...

USE THE SECURITY QUESTION!

 

[Gellor]

I'm surprised I haven't seen "choose an appropriate password" as well as "change your password frequently".

 

[Hemisphere]

Yup, choose a really convoluted mix of several meaningful numbers and letter combinations in your life.

For example if your phone number is 01463 424929 and your address is 45 somethington road, somewhere, someplace, and the name of your first pet was Mr Biggles you could use the password: Mr01463somethington424somewhereBiggles929. Ridiculously long, pretty much uncrackable, and totally unguessable, and that's quite a poor example anyway, there are much more private pieces of information you could use, or a combination of other passwords you've used in the past.

 

[Gellor]

Yup, choose a really convoluted mix of several meaningful numbers and letter combinations in your life.

For example if your phone number is 01463 424929 and your address is 45 somethington road, somewhere, someplace, and the name of your first pet was Mr Biggles you could use the password: Mr01463somethington424somewhereBiggles929. Ridiculously long, pretty much uncrackable, and totally unguessable, and that's quite a poor example anyway, there are much more private pieces of information you could use, or a combination of other passwords you've used in the past.

The only problem with the super long password is not everything supports super long passwords... and some fake you into thinking they do support super long passwords.

As an example, old unix allowed users to select arbitrarily long in actuality, they only used the first 8(or was it 12) characters. So in fact while "alongpassword" is different than "alongpas", they will both get you into a unix account having either as a password(assuming 8 char and not 12 char)

My old networking professor had some of the best advice concerning passwords. If any part of your password can be found in a dictionary, it is NOT a good password

 

[Lady Michelle]

Keep passwords simple by making short made up sentences like
isaw2rats
thedogate4bugs
and also add numbers if you want
isaw2rats530
thedogate4bugs908

Be wary of others who claim to be someone you know on a character you never seen them on. make them get on a character that you know is theirs.
or have them get in vent or teamspeak if you both can get on the same server.
If they keep giving excuses tell them no. Do not let the person mislead you into giving in. If they are the person who they claim to be they will understand, and do what you ask.

Emails use different email services one for uo and the other one for web sites you signed up for. make the user names different never the same. also different passwords. never the same passwords for any site you use.

 

[Petra Fyde]

There is actually a sticky at the top of the board regarding protecting your account.
For secure passwords I like to use the initial letters of a sentence. It makes a nice jumbled up sequence but is easy to remember, it can even be safely written down somewhere.
eg: fsp1l2ut1l0as = for secure passwords I like to use the initial letters of a sentence.

And no, that won't get you into my account
you won't find my real name on any board, nor my real name email. I always register as 'Petra Fyde'.

 

[Harlequin]

Plus be mindful what you post on boards, facebook blogs, icq etc.

Includes screenies, pics, personal info like real name/account name/address.

It takes just 1 leak. You'd be suprised how much info you can google up.