Okay, so I have a problem, and this being the most tech savvy forum I am signed up on I figured this would be a good place to start. I play WoW, and in the past month, my account has been hacked, twice. The first time I didn't notice until a few days, then I had to wait a bit before I could get my account back. No big deal, I ran a virus scan (Avg Virus free) before I recovered my account and everything was fine, for a while. Healed all the infections as necessary and all that stuff. Was fine for a week or so. Now it happened again, and I'm kind of annoyed. I haven't downloaded any programs recently, I'm using noscript and when I ran a virus scan and it read there were no errors. But I was booted off my live server and someone had changed my password. Luckily I was able to recover my password before they had time to change my e-mail. The second time, they changed the e-mail first then the password so I can't get back into the account. They're probably disenchanting all my stuff about now. Can't call blizzard til monday, so that's out of my hands for the moment. I'm sure there's something I can do, but that's not why I'm here asking for help. Besides noscript and AVG, are there any other programs I can use that are free that will keep me safe? Since I didn't detect any key loggers, or virus' are they just guessing my password, which is fairly safe (not my name, or any variation thereof, has #s in it, etc.) or does AVG just suck? Any help would be appreciated. (p.s. why can't I have any line breaks in my posts?)

 

Do you have an easy to guess password recovery question?

 

It's ridiculous, not rediculous.

Update AVG. Deep-scan everything. Download another virus scanner. Deep-scan everything. Download and run Spybot and Adaware. Open up the Processes tab of ctrl-alt-delete and put every program you don't recognise into Google. Download a firewall that watches the outgoing shit and install that. Double-check any add-ons you have for Warcraft are reputable and legit.

If none of that turns up anything, then you're an idiot that either uses the same password for everything, you told someone it, or, as Immolo said, your password recovery question is pants-on-head retarded.

And that you think NoScript - a Firefox addon - is going to keep your fucking World of Warcraft password safe pretty much proves that you're on the ign'ant side of computer security, by the way.

 

It's not always about your account password. Sometimes, a lot of the time, it's about your email account password. Change your secret question for your email, or better yet, change your email address entirely once you get your WoW account recovered.

Don't rely on just one virus scanner, since they don't catch everything. Use two or more. I recommend Malwarebyte's Anti-Malware scanner as a backup scanner, which you can Google and find on Download.com.

 

Addons on the game/UI are the most likely culprit. Or you use the same pass on a emulator server as the real one, or someone has your CD key, or.

Could be a ton of things. Hook up to trendmicro housecall and scan everything, scan everything before you open it, do a total clean install, everything you'd normally do, assume the whole PC is toxic.

 

I suggest deleting all addons and starting over with sites you know are reliable.

Do you run any third party program to help with WoW? that may be it too.

AVG won't detect everything. A simple keylogger may escape notice.

 

No idea about the WoW but I had the same problem with line breaks, you just need to allow DLP with NoScript.

 

Thansk for all of the responses guys, Tehan is right I am a complete computer security idiot. I did not think that Noscript would keep my WoW password safe, so much as thought it might keep a few keyloggers or trojans out.

@Immolo, I'd guess it was a little obvious, so that could be it. I'll be sure to change it, thanks for the advice.

@Tehan:Ops my mistake on the spelling. AVG was already the top version, so no go there. Not sure what you mean by "deep scan" but for AVG I told it to scan the entire computer. In the process of downloading Malwarebytes, Adaware, and spybot. If I get any programs I don't recognize show up from the google search, what should I do?

@Midknight:What's a 'clean install'? I dont access any emulator servers, and the password for my e-mail and account were completely different.

@Kai Shek: I download my add ons from curse, so I'd hope that's a reputable source. I do scan the addons, and I use fairly well known ones but I'll start over from scratch again just in case.

 

To the first comment. Search the programs in Google. Figure out what they are. If Google says they are bad programs, find out how you can remove it.

Clean installs is to delete everything related to what you are doing, then install the bare minimum to do what you need to do.

 

Varies from program to program, but by deep scan I mean 'full scan' or 'scan entire computer' or similar.

As for the program list, let's go for an example. Picking something at random off my Processes list, we have ctfmon.exe. Punching exactly that, .exe and all, into Google gives you at least ten pages - probably more, but no need to go beyond the first page of results - that all say that it's part of XP's little add-on that lets me type in moon runes when the mood strikes me. So, harmless.

If you find something that's less than harmless, then you've found a problem. Not going to be so optimistic as to say THE problem, but you're a step in the right direction.

 

I did, in fact check them all anyway. They were all from programs I know I installed myself. I figured as much, but considering I know just about nothing beyond "don't download if you aren't sure it's reputable" and "If you aren't sure it's a safe link, don't click it" kind of stuff, I wanted to be sure.

 

Lol. A clean install is a format of the hard drive, reinstallation of windows, and then virus scan, using a known good, clean virus installation, to scan the shit out of every single item you install back.

The fact that you had to ask means you probably can't do it, and should ask someone IRL for help rofl.

Something you could probably do is download HijackThis! and run it and see what it tells you you have running in the background.

 

Might want to think twice before going the slash-and-burn route. If none of the various programs find a single thing off, then the whole thing could very well be a PEBKAC error. He could've got the password scammed out of him or just guessed, or the password recovery questions were overly simple.

If anything else is using the same password as your WoW accounts, you might want to start changing them.

 

Well, I thought you meant a normal and less insane clean install.
Computer wise, reformatting is a bit hardcore for all but the most evil of virus.

A good idea if you want to use a common password but still be different is to add a number and letter for what the site is. While it isn't as secure as 'lol' random passwords, it is quite good.
Good example would be a common password of lulululz.
dglulululz, the d is for the first letter of DLP and then g is for the color green.
I use that method.

 

Uh it's standard practice for anyone I know that has one that keeps coming back and they don't know how/why.

Then again I format and reinstall windows every few months to keep the pc totally clean and running fast as possible.

 

Agreed on that point, all my windows machines get cleaned out about every 3 months or so and formatted. My main machine is a dual boot windows/linux, as I do everything non-gaming on my linux partition, I don't need to do that. (That would be my suggestion for those truly paranoid about attacks)

Also, you may want to look into who could possibly get your pass, repeated attacks on your account shows a personal interest rather than a attack-of-the moment. Do you have any online "friends" or "guild members" (or whatever they're called, I don't do wow) that you tell your info? 99% of the time the simplest answer is correct, just because it's on the computer doesn't mean someone's hacking ur dudez.

If someone knows you, they may just be guessing your password if you're using personal things. Try something completely random, then write it down. For example, one of my older passwords on a game was "I1Was3Like2What9". Try something overly complicated that no one would possibly guess, even if they've known you forever.

 

Also, Create a new e-mail account specifically for WoW, then forward everything to your common source. Change all security measures. Don't overlap password. Cycle through it, then change it. Keep paper with old passwords, if it makes you more comfortable.