Curse

free_fall · Aug 08, 2008, 09:05 PM // 21:05

So, this morning someone whose name I didn't recognize pm'd me to say he'd been hacked and asked, of course, if I could lend him some money.

I said that I was tapped out because I'd just bought 3 Tormented items, as as polite way of saying 'no'. After a minute, I thought to tell him that I had bought for a guildie and I was waiting for him to pay me back, but the guy had logged off already by then, which I thought was strange. I added him to my friends list but he hasn't been back on since.

Now, the fact that I didn't recognize him may not mean much - I send a lot of time helping strangers thru missions, some of whom pm me out of the blue weeks or months later and it might take a cpl mins conversation to jog my memory.

But I had visited all 4 AB areas in Factions this morning, not to participate in the AB but just to collect the quest rewards, and I got to thinking that a lot of people who've said they were hacked thought that it had something to do with being in AB when it happened.

I think the speculation was that somehow the hackers were sniffing the data streams to get the player's IP info. Is something like this possible, say just from a in-game chat exchange?

There does seem to be a lot of acct hacking going on recently and maybe I'm just being paranoid.

I've never shared my acct info with anyone. After the last round of hacking reports, I even changed my e-mail associated with the forums here to one not associated with my GW accounts, though it wasn't displayed it in my profile in the first place.

I've logged off and on a couple of times, just to make sure I can get in and that no one's changed the p/w on me and all seems ok so far.

I thought about giving my Tormenteds to a friend for safekeeping but then I figured that I have so much other good stuff that what would saving those really matter if everything else got taken.

It's sad to think that we have to worry about this sort of thing. It's sad, too, that Anet doesn't get your stuff back to you when you do get hacked. If they have logs showing every transaction between players, you'd think they could take it out of Player B's inventory and put it back in Player A's, since whoever hacks into A's acct transfers all the stuff to B.

Can someone change your p/w while you're logged into the game? So I should just never log out, leave the game running all the time?

Am I just being paranoid?

nekopowa · Aug 08, 2008, 09:35 PM // 21:35

You're being too paranoid. Just be smart, protect yourself and nothing will happen. People who get hacked brought it onto themselves either by stupidity or trusting wrong people.

Shadow Kurd · Aug 08, 2008, 09:40 PM // 21:40

A safe password and hard email will keep you safe most of the time:

http://www.passwordmeter.com/

O and stay away from programs you don't know are safe

sickle of carnage · Aug 08, 2008, 09:40 PM // 21:40

Virus scans are pro

Holy Smite · Aug 08, 2008, 09:41 PM // 21:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by nekopowa

Just be smart, protect yourself and nothing will happen.

sounds like a condom commercial.

Shakti · Aug 08, 2008, 09:43 PM // 21:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by Holy Smite

sounds like a condom commercial.

Same general idea isn't it? Protect yourself, don't indulge in unsafe practices and you too can be virus free

Holy Smite · Aug 08, 2008, 09:45 PM // 21:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shakti

Same general idea isn't it? Protect yourself, don't indulge in unsafe practices and you too can be virus free

lol. And indeed if u are unsure get a virus scan...might save your...pc

Age · Aug 08, 2008, 09:52 PM // 21:52

Keep your firewall on at all times and run spybot once day.

Lawliet Kira · Aug 08, 2008, 09:52 PM // 21:52

I actually just got hacked a couple days ago, made a thread...but it closed

Idk what happened...first...i didnt recognize some ppl in my friends list...then it said, there has been a problem with your internet router...and im like -_-...this is sounding familiar(remember the thread a while back called "I caught a hacker

" Well yea...then i tried 10-15 times with my pw trying to get into my account...no luck..so i just hit reset pw..got the email...got into my account..changed the pw to something else...I think the 2 ppl in my friends list that i didn't know were probably a friend of the hackers...so he can steal all of my stuff :S..so yea..luckily nothing was missing, did a full virus scan...nothing in my computer at all..so i have no idea how someone got into my account

-Flames

Shakti · Aug 08, 2008, 09:56 PM // 21:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by Holy Smite

lol. And indeed if u are unsure get a virus scan...might save your...pc

See?

Virus scan/spybot = blood test/physical exam. K...stopping before this degenerates into places we DON'T want to go...

FireFox · Aug 08, 2008, 10:02 PM // 22:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shadow Kurd

http://www.passwordmeter.com/

1234567890abcdef = very strong password imo

[Morkai] · Aug 08, 2008, 10:26 PM // 22:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by FireFox

1234567890abcdef = very strong password imo

Yeah anyone who's smart should use this password.

Accursed · Aug 08, 2008, 10:35 PM // 22:35

Your just paranoied.

Sigma Onkoron · Aug 08, 2008, 10:47 PM // 22:47

Just be safe. Don't give out account info. And change your pass regularly and your fine. Virus scans help to.

**cosyfiep** · Aug 08, 2008, 10:48 PM // 22:48

in this day and age you can never be tooo paranoid.....never trust anything!

that being said, well....nevermind.

DarkWasp · Aug 08, 2008, 10:50 PM // 22:50

Pretty simple, do not visit sites that include:

Porn, Illegal Downloads, Guild Wars based "hacks", or connections to gold buy/sell sites.

Do not click on banners or pop-ups

Don't share your account with a friend who is addicted to porn or downloading songs and programs illegaly. Or a friend that is gullible.

(They say don't share your account at all, but about 2% of players with good friends follow that one.)

(If you won't give up porn for GW, atleast don't explore new sites.)

If you can do these things along with the obvious, you should be completely safe.
-----
Oh yeah, if you visit a site and find that it's missing and replaced with a random search site... SCAN INSTANTLY.

And alot of viruses don't go away with the first attempt. Virus programers know about scanners and have learned to make dodgy trojans. If you can't get rid of it and can't look it up and delete it manually, format the computer.

Numa Pompilius · Aug 08, 2008, 11:04 PM // 23:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by free_fall

I think the speculation was that somehow the hackers were sniffing the data streams to get the player's IP info. Is something like this possible, say just from a in-game chat exchange?

No. In-game communication passes via the server, and even if they had your IP that'd do them absolutely no good.

What they need to hack you is your e-mail account name, and your password.

Using special e-mail accounts which you do not use anywhere else reduces the risk of them knowing your log-in name (your email), and using a strong password (ie a nine letter or longer password which is not a word or misspelling of any word which would ever show up in a dictionary, and make sure to use mixed case and some numerals) means that even if they do it does them no good.

When people get hacked they pretty much always get hacked because they've given out their email and password to someone, somehow. Most of the time they've probably given it out willingly, to someone they trusted, and some of the time they've run a trojan which contained a keylogger.

It is very rare that people get hacked by hackers testing passwords at random, and the few times it happens it's because they've been silly enough to use an easily guessable password (e.g their name) or a password which is a word which is found in dictionaries.

A note: leetspeek passwords are not safe. While "b4N4nA" may look safe enough, it's actually weak, because dictionary attacks try common misspellings of all the words, in this case Banana, in the dictionary.

bisurge · Aug 08, 2008, 11:15 PM // 23:15

Luxons hack. One time they couldn't be killed, and then everyone in the map's game froze up. Including the Luxons. And then after that they could be killed. My guild thinks ANet did something :P.

Proff · Aug 08, 2008, 11:21 PM // 23:21

:P

Lady Raenef · Aug 09, 2008, 12:20 AM // 00:20

Definitely strong paranoia. Also, even if your account is logged in, if someone else logs into the account, you're booted out. So, logging in over night won't do anything but increase your electricity bill.