Recent Hackings and Steps to Ensure Account Safety.

[Airenn]

[rydiu]

3) Stop typing your password into POL. Also, do not save your password into the POL.
3b) Make a .txt file for now, somewhere on your comp with your FFXI Password in it. Every time you need to log on, copy/paste your password into POL.

wut?

[Airenn]

3) Stop typing your password into POL. Also, do not save your password into the POL.
3b) Make a .txt file for now, somewhere on your comp with your FFXI Password in it. Every time you need to log on, copy/paste your password into POL.

wut?

When you log into POL it saves your User ID, and makes you type in your password. Stop doing that.

Some people have it automatically stored, need to stop that, too.

The only way I can think of being safe is by making a .txt file on your computer somewhere and every time you log into FFXI, just copy/pasting your password form that text file into the password field in POL.

[Doc]

Hmm or maybe ... write it down somewhere?

[Airenn]

Hmm or maybe ... write it down somewhere?

. . . You would still be typing it into POL each time. That's how RMT are getting password is because you are TYPING it and they have a KEYLOGGER.

Also they are possibly pulling said info from people who saved their password in those .info files. Which is why I said to just copy/paste. That way your password is NOT in an .info file somewhere, nor are your typing it into POL for a possible keylogger to pick up.

[rydiu]

because getting hacked means you have a keylogger on your system....and if you have your password stored in POL, their keylogger will obviously download that file and decrypt it

:ashira:

[Rescue]

Hmm or maybe ... write it down somewhere?

The point is to stop typing it so the keylogger can't record it.....

[Keston]

Hmm or maybe ... write it down somewhere?

I think the point (seems u got whooshed), is to making unlikely for your password to be logged via the keys you hit if you are essentially copying/pasting it in (Control-C/V).

That said, keeping your password in an unencrypted text file on your computer isnt the smartest thing in the world, nor is it something I would recommend.

[Chastiti]

Edit: Okay, beaten like 10 times. - -

[rydiu]

There is only one way to not get hacked:

http://acm.wwu.edu/~nick/img/virus.jpg

[Fhqwghads]

I'd recommend against putting your password in a .txt file, they look too interesting to nosy people if there's someone with a compromised box. If anything, store it in a plain text file, but with no extension, and some garbage name that is not on your desktop. Desktop = first place some script kiddie will look, because most people put the juiciest stuff there. Place a shortcut to notepad.exe on your desktop, and drag & drop the file containing your password on that instead. Or, you can double-click on the plain text file, and create an association with notepad. Associations are local to your machine, so if someone compromised it and browsed your files, I'm fairly certain they wouldn't see it associated with notepad. Name the file something obscure like "gfsfilsys" for instance, or just random characters. No extension. There's so many files like that on your machine that the chance it will look appealing to someone browsing your system is fairly low.

Also, this approach assumes the keylogger is too stupid to realize ctrl+v was pressed, and/or doesn't monitor the contents of the clipboard, which is trivial to do.

Just my 2 cents, anyway. Other than that, the steps Airenn has are good ones from what I can tell.

[Seditedi]

lol... I thought most FFXI players on PC would at least have some idea how a keylogger works.
If its copy and pasted the keylogger will not pick up the password as you are entering it. >.>

[Airenn]

Hmm or maybe ... write it down somewhere?

I think the point (seems u got whooshed), is to making unlikely for your password to be logged via the keys you hit if you are essentially copying/pasting it in (Control-C/V).

That said, keeping your password in an unencrypted text file on your computer isnt the smartest thing in the world, nor is it something I would recommend.

It's not, but at this point in time, I think it's the safest bet. The keylogger is probably not going to be looking for something in a text file. Here's to hoping it's only geared toward FFXI/WoW/the Password-store file only. :/


But yea, Keston is right, if we get back to a safe-FFXI community thing, we won't have to do that either. :3


EDIT: Thanks Keston and Fqh, I'll put that in there so people don't just save to desktop.

EDIT: Adding your links now Charlotte.

[CharlotteW]

Keyloggers record every stroke you make on your keyboard. The copy/paste method surpasses that.

However, if you are already infected, simply typing in the .txt file will not guarantee your safety. I suggest you log it on a different PC, if available, save it to your disc of choice (floppy, CDR, Flash drive), and use that instead. (I recommend you DON'T save it to your harddrive, incase your harddrive gets infiltrated in the future.)

Also, for those that do not want to use Firefox, you can always use Opera. I hear that's an excellent browser as well.

I also recommend ProcessGuard and CCleaner to be added to the list.

[rydiu]

the odds of a script kiddie who isn't a relatively skilled ffxi hacker knowing where to find POL's stored login information and being able to decrypt it are kinda lol....if they were found out by using keyloggers, it's 99% because they use the same password for everything

and as for people who don't want to use firefox....better lay off the acid so those delusions of granger go away

[Seditedi]

IE7 probably just as good as Firefox for security. Alot of people don't like firefox because its a memory hog which is actually true. I haven't had any problems with firefox though, so stuck with it.

[rydiu]

if you don't have 2 GB of memory then you might want to check newegg.com and upgrade sine ram prices are cheaper than ever now...firefox does have memory issues but its still far more secure than IE when used properly; its not like it will use all your memory the way netscape did back in the day.

IE is a memory hog as well....that's just what web browsers do

[CharlotteW]

if you don't have 2 GB of memory then you might want to check newegg.com and upgrade sine ram prices are cheaper than ever now...firefox does have memory issues but its still far more secure than IE when used properly; its not like it will use all your memory the way netscape did back in the day.

IE is a memory hog as well....that's just what web browsers do

I don't have 2GB of memory. In fact, I have very little memory, but I experience little-to-no problems with anything. The only exception is at 8am every morning when my virus scanner runs its daily scan.

[Seditedi]

I only have 1 GB RAM and its fine for Firefox and multitasking.

[rydiu]

if you have less than 512 MB memory and you use your computer for anything besides web browsing you are going to experience some thrashing....and your computer could be running faster

1 GB is pushing it...2 GB is really the comfort zone for most people