Lately, there have been a number of posts detailing account hack horrors, most notably BRK’s guild bank being cleared out twice in the same day and a similarly traumatic account hack incident for Gun Loving Dwarf Chick’s guild.

So in the spirit of new years resolutions and all that, it is probably a good time to highlight Altitis’ guide to improving your account security. I don’t fully agree with all of the points, but if you read the post and also the comments below and apply some common-sense all should be well with the world.

In particular, I’d expand on step 7, that installing addons is generally fine, so long as you download the .zip file and extract it to the addons directory (as per the Lords site addon instructions). Running .exe files or installers can be dangerous and you’re advised to be confident of the origin of the package before running these. People do use WowAce updater and I’ve suggested the use of WUU previously, but just be careful and apply some common sense.

Other points Altitis makes are essential for anyone who owns a PC connected to the internet regardless of whether they play World of Warcraft or not, most notably:

• Get a firewall e.g. Free ZoneAlarm
• Get antivirus software e.g. Free AVG
• Get an ad-ware cleaner e.g. Free Ad-Aware

I’ve been reading the World of Warcraft Blog by WoWGrrl. She has plenty of interesting articles covering things as varied from helping your tank maintain aggro to fishing. The article that grabbed my attention was this one about keeping your account secure from the world full of nasty people who want it.

This article is gives good advice that should be followed to protect your important data even if you don’t have a WoW account. The only part I wouldn’t necessarily agree with is the use of Firefox (I run Internet Explorer, Firefox and Opera browsers). Although there are security holes in Internet Explorer, Mozilla isn’t completely without its vulnerabilities either. Opera claims to be the most secure browser, but no browser guarantees you complete safety.

Have fun, but keep safe.