Just because we publish cutting edge articles about new content, doesn’t mean we can forget about the basics. There is something within World of Warcraft that is more important to you than even the Sword of a Thousand Truths. That thing is your User Name and Password and more recently your email address and password. All of your weapons, armor and loot and all of your gold mean nothing if someone can steal it from you. That is why your account security should be the most absolutely important thing to you. I would like to stop seeing “I’ve been hacked” forever and I am sure you would like to stay safe as well.

1000truths

The basic principle of account security is this:  the ne’er do well individuals want what is inside of your account and they don’t want to go through all the trouble of getting it. Often times their plans are extremely transparent and its up to you to stop them in their tracks. With a few various added practices you can prevent most every form of account security problems. You can’t prevent them all though and this guide can’t act as a complete shield for them all but you can make the chance so small you cant see it.

Account security comes in three phases. Your primary line of defense is your Email and Password. Second is your security question and making sure your Email account and your WoW account passwords are not the same really helps.  Third is your CD key and any other information that can be used to verify its your account.

If you do get hacked though Blizzard’s top notch customer service is there to help out. They can restore your account and give you a new password. They can even restore any goods stolen. ( see more on this later). Although, its best never to let someone up to no good get that far in the first place.

A secure email/password combo starts with having a unique email address and password.

The following is from Microsoft and can greatly benefit your password security.

6 steps to build a strong password

The strongest passwords look like a random string of characters to attackers. But random strings of characters are hard to remember.

Make a random string of characters based on a sentence that is memorable to you but is difficult for others to guess.

  1. Think of a sentence that you will remember
    Example: “My son Aiden is three years old.”
  2. Turn your sentence into a password
    Use the first letter of each word of your memorable sentence to create a string, in this case: “msaityo”.
  3. Add complexity to your password or pass phrase
    Mix uppercase and lowercase letters and numbers. Introduce intentional misspellings.
    For example, in the sentence above, you might substitute the number 3 for the word “three”, so a password might be “MsAi3yo”.
  4. Substitute some special characters
    Use symbols that look like letters, combine words, or replace letters with numbers to make the password complex.
    Using these strategies, you might end up with the password “M$8ni3y0.”
  5. Test your new password with Password Checker
    Microsoft Password Checker evaluates your password’s strength as you type.
  6. Keep your password a secret
    Treat your passwords with as much care as the information that they protect.

Blizzard to the rescue: Blizzard Authenticator.

The Battle.net Authenticator is (but shouldn’t be) an optional tool that offers Battle.net account users an additional layer of security to help prevent unauthorized account access. This includes World of Warcraft players who log in to the game using a Battle.net account.  The Authenticator application itself is a small program that you install and access on your cell phone or mobile device. For the complete Q&A go to the  Official Blizzard Q&A.

Speaking from personal experience here, having this little thing on my accounts (yes, plural) I can certainly vouch for the security. As a matter of fact it’s a pain in the glutius maximus (anatomical body part) to have to re-type the randomly changing numbers whenever you get disconnected from the server. But if it’s that big of a pain for you, think of how much of a pain it’s going to be for the “hacker”

The concept is really sound, most companies actually force their users to go through some similar hoops, RSA security cards etc. The Blizzard (Mobile) Authenticator uses much the same technology.

Blizzard Authenticator

Blizzard Authenticator

The Mobile Authenticator can be downloaded Here for your iPhone or other hand held device follow the link for the list of supported units. and is free (I am certain it’s free for iPhone and iPod touch, not sure about other versions)

The Key-chain Authenticator can be purchased from these Official Blizzard web sites:

  • Here (US only)
  • Here (Canada, Australia, NZ and Latin America)
  • Here (Europe)
  • Here (Korea)

Certainly a worth while investment if you’re still willing to pay a monthly fee to play the game, paying a fraction of that montly fee one-time to protect all you’ve acomplished sounds like a no-brainer to me

Another problem these days are the people who go to websites spammed in trade chat. These include gold buying sites and “your a winner of a new mount from Blizzard.” Don’t fall for these things as you can be hacked very easily by doing so. So if you want to protect your toons, like your 10k DPS specialist or the Tank that can’t be killed follow simple common sense practices and enjoy your new found security.