Your security software of choice?Follow

AVG was just OK when I used it, although many folks use it with no problems.

I currently use Avast! and Malwarebyte's Anti-malware

I use ESET Smart Security 4 (includes firewall). As a paid app, for my 4 home computers, it's fairly economical. I set the firewall to interactive on my pc, so I get notice of any unknown outbound traffic.

I think an outbound firewall that notifies you of new activity is a missing piece in standard windows. If my anti-virus didn't have it, I'd be looking at zonealarm or some other firewall software that would provide it. The fact is that no anti-virus finds all malware, and most wont detect new malware the day it comes out. I strongly recommend improving your personal firewall as well.

I have nothing against free or open source alternatives. I look forward to what other people have found to be useful.

For cleanup, I reach for Malwarebytes as my first choice. ESET has a free Online Scan. HijackThis is also very useful.

Edited, Jun 7th 2010 6:05pm by dadanox

AVG isn't worth the time spent downloading it, not since sometime late last year. It's so easily spoofed that even if it says all is well, I wouldn't believe it. Use Avast or Avira for your antivirus, install Malwarebyte's Antimalware and run both frequently. If you don't use Firefox, install that and use No-Script and, just because it's handy, AdBlock Plus... but not on here, heh.

Install the very latest version of Flash Player which has some security flaws fixed up, and then delete Adobe Reader altogether and use a program called Sumatra to view any PDF documents instead. Get a good firewall program (mine is built in to the paid version of Avira) and set it to 'interactive', because it will send you alerts when something tries to send outbound traffic.

Finally, DO NOT USE SYSTEM RESTORE. Turn it off and don't turn it back on. The files in a System Restore point are "inactive" and are thus protected from access and manipulation by things like antivirus software. I've encountered several trojans that hide in there, so even if your antivirus software clears the infection elsewhere on the hard drive, it simply re-installs itself from the safety of the Restore Points. If your antivirus software is up to it, it might FIND the malicious code, but it will report that it cannot delete it - so don't use System Restore. I haven't used it in years.

Even all this won't necessarily protect you forever, because "poisoned websites" are becoming more widespread. These are legitimate websites that have malicious code inserted into them by hackers. The code injected on the websites scans the machine of any visiting Windows user to see if any one of a number of separate vulnerabilities are present. Examples of these vulnerabilities can be found in web browsers, instant messaging programs, document readers and media players, and in the last few months some Warcraft-related video clips have been uploaded that deliberately contain this malicious code. (Raolan referred to this in his post yesterday, in which he advised people to upgrade to the latest Adobe Flash Player)

The malicious code then installs a small trojan through any vulnerability it can find, then lies dormant until a user types in data that it is interested in, which could be anything from login details for online banks to games such as World of Warcraft. Unfortunately, these trojans are proving quite tricky to eradicate even if they're actually detected in the first place, and it doesn't help that the affected websites often stay infected for weeks, if not months. Virus-writers are constantly trying to stay ahead of the antivirus software companies, so even the best antivirus software could potentially be overcome by the latest virus.

In short, the days when you were safe simply by not opening email attachments or by not visiting "dodgy" websites are LONG gone. There is no "safe" computer any more, and it's largely a case of prevention and then, when (not "if") that fails, it's often a case of damage limitation before wiping the hard drives and reinstalling from scratch.

Edited, Jun 7th 2010 6:24pm by Krago

Bad old news.

The weakest link in security has always been between the keyboard and the chair.

Security software already attempts to do a lot to prevent security flaws that are users fault and not software fault.

But it's near impossible to have software that controls users. There's plenty of users who will disable their own security software if any given software requires them to disable it in order to function.

So my most honest advice to you and anyone concerned about their security is learn to not be the weakest link of your own security.

Any office with 200 employees has 400 weakest links... and half of them are completely outside reach. This makes someone's job a little frustrating.


Edited, Jun 7th 2010 6:28pm by xorq

Haha. I remember coding inventory programs in basic on MSDOS 1.0, when I wasn't doing Cobol. Wait, that was the 80's...

I use PC tools Spyware doctor free from google, AVG free, windows firewall, and a router firewall. I have been playing for 4 and a half years and I have never been hacked. My brother and I share our two accounts and he runs the same security as me on his laptop except he has windows washer and lime wire.

Also beware of electronically storing your information if you use P2P software or bit torrents. I remember jokingly I searched Knight Online (Free MMO I used to play) on lime wire and got like 3 text documents with emails, accounts, and passwords.

Also, try changing your password every 2 to 3 months. I was i was phished once with false WotLK beta promises, I just opted in for the beta the next day someone in game refered me to a youtube video displaying a website of a sure-fired way to get into the beta. Well it wasn't, I quickly asked about the site on the O-boards after I submitted my account and password, after a speedy response by an admin I changed my pass very fast. I hope this helps you friend. :D

I stick with Avast, Ad-Aware and Spybot. I also use No-script.

I used to like AVG, but I got tired of virus scans taking a day and a half, getting an annoying administrator privilege message whenever I tried to remove tracking cookies (Seriously...tracking cookies?! I'll take the annoying messages from a virus trying to desperately save it's own life, but come on!), and then not finding anything.

On the other hand, Avast is doing better at finding stuff. I very much prefer it.

I have MS Security Essentials actively running, and AVG and Avast configured for scan-only, and Malwarebytes. Firewall (Windows on one box, evaluating a demoware product on the other) set to interactive so that I can see new incoming or outgoing connection requests. Firefox with multiple blockers (ads, scripts, flash, pdf). And another thing that I haven't seen mentioned - if I'm connected to the intertubes, I'm logged on as a user that does not have administrator privelege. I'm getting an authenticator in addition, as soon as I'm done procrastinating...

I use Kaspersky which I've been very satisfied with thus far along with Noscript which isn't too hard to deal with.

No. Rule is, if you don't trust the access point you don't use any identity data or you risk identity theft.

There are methods to prevent AP phishing/spoofing/sniffing and so on but it gets advanced and you really don't teach people that because you'd have to spend 18 months teaching them the other things they'd need to know to be able to understand it.

As for the rest of your post, pretty accurrate, it's good.

About the only way you can really beat a bank's encryption is through ARP table spoofing, which would require admin access to the router. Otherwise, even if you intercept all traffic, it isn't readable. Worrying about something this rare is about as silly as running around worrying a meteor will hit you. It can happen, it just isn't worth your time worrying about it.

FREAK YES!!!!!!! May I recommend Malware Bytes for a 50th time. I got hacked yesterday morning and both AVG free and avast ensured me I was safe. Got my account back last night and woke up to find they had taken my email and account again. Just changed my email, changed my email pass, and change my in game pass all from a safe computer. Downloaded Malware Bytes and it found 3 trojans on a quick scan, ka-WOOTz!!!!

*queue X Files theme music*

No one is safe.

I recommend purchasing an authenticator whether you have been hacked in the past or never before. Just a word of warning first to anyone else that is in the OPs situation.

My back story first:
I have played this game since Vanilla and thought I was safe enough. I thought hacked accounts only happened to people that didn't update their Internet security and checked out gnome pron on the interwebz. I keep an up to date Security system and manaully sweep for keyloggers etc with a separate scanner too, both have been mentioned in other posts already. I thought I was relatively safe until I was hacked about a week ago. The hacker pillaged my brother's WoW account and my one too. We had separate WoW accounts that were linked through the one email address. It had never posed as a problem until the transition from WoW account logins to battlenet account logins came into effect thereby merging our linked accounts under the one login name and password. I never owned an authenticator and once the hacker realized I had been online when they tried to infiltrate my account said hacker put his own authenticator on my account to prevent me from stopping him or at least slowing him down. Long story short I am now waiting for all my gear (My pally has nothing but pvp gear since he can, conveniently for the hacker, disenchant gear that cannot be vendored) to be returned by a GM.

Made me chuckle that the hacker inadvertantly helped me reach the 50 pet achievement by adding the core hound pet to my collection, but I suppose it was the least he could do while he went about skimming my accounts...

Back on the topic at hand. The funny thing is I went to the BlizzardStore website to buy an authenticator online (I own a Nokia that isn't listed as authenticator-worthy >_<) and stopped myself. I came to the realization that I may have in fact played right into the their hands. Credit Card in my hand I was about to input my details into the very same computer who's entire security system had been rendered useless only a week earlier.

Stop and think for a minute about what else may have been compromised before going about updating your Security system online after being the victim of a hacked account. My two copper!