I agree the Blizzard authenticators are the best thing Blizzard has come up with since creating WOW. There are a few other things you can do to increase account security, authenticator added or not, to help you sleep a little better at night.
1. Use Long passwords that alternate between letter and number (1a2b3c4d) and change it often (I change it once a week). That is the one of the hardest passwords to crack.
2. To get around key loggers, open your typing program (MS Word, Word Perfect, etc) and type your password only, save the file to your desktop and just Copy/Paste the password on the login screen. Most key loggers record what letters are typed when a certain program is loaded (WOW, Everquest, etc).
3. Don't get sloppy even if you have an authenticator. There have been a lot of people on the servers that I play on that have had there accounts hacked and they all had authenticators attached. The authenticators (in hand, not Ipod apps) have a fixed number of codes that are on a fixed loop. I have seen the same numbers pop up on mine several times and I'm betting the key loggers can keep track of that too, all you have to do is enter the next number in the sequence and your in.
4. If the address doesn't have blizzard.com or Battle.net, IGNORE IT!
Most people see something like that and think its real. Ask yourself one thing, would a blizzard employee send me a message from a yahoo.com or hotmail.com account? Would Blizzard send me a message in game telling me to go to any other site other than Blizzard.com? Everything WOW is on worldofwarcraft.com and everything Blizzard is on Blizzard.com or Battle.net.
Hope this helps, I have been hacked and know how painful it is to find everything you worked long and hard for be destroyed by a greedy little... (insert expletive here). Good luck to all.
1. Use Long passwords that alternate between letter and number (1a2b3c4d) and change it often (I change it once a week). That is the one of the hardest passwords to crack.
2. To get around key loggers, open your typing program (MS Word, Word Perfect, etc) and type your password only, save the file to your desktop and just Copy/Paste the password on the login screen. Most key loggers record what letters are typed when a certain program is loaded (WOW, Everquest, etc).
3. Don't get sloppy even if you have an authenticator. There have been a lot of people on the servers that I play on that have had there accounts hacked and they all had authenticators attached. The authenticators (in hand, not Ipod apps) have a fixed number of codes that are on a fixed loop. I have seen the same numbers pop up on mine several times and I'm betting the key loggers can keep track of that too, all you have to do is enter the next number in the sequence and your in.
4. If the address doesn't have blizzard.com or Battle.net, IGNORE IT!
Most people see something like that and think its real. Ask yourself one thing, would a blizzard employee send me a message from a yahoo.com or hotmail.com account? Would Blizzard send me a message in game telling me to go to any other site other than Blizzard.com? Everything WOW is on worldofwarcraft.com and everything Blizzard is on Blizzard.com or Battle.net.
Hope this helps, I have been hacked and know how painful it is to find everything you worked long and hard for be destroyed by a greedy little... (insert expletive here). Good luck to all.
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