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Afraid of your soul being stolen are you, youngling? Nay, I'll not steal it, but there are those who will, yes, those who will ...
Is it still paranoia if they really are out to get you?
The first thing to remember in all of this: It is unlikely that anyone will truly try to hack you, or anyone, in the sense of an attack through Nexon's servers. If they do, risking a felony conviction, they'll be after something more worthwhile than your game characters: credit card numbers, business information to sell to Nexon's competitors, or whatever. But not your characters or their stuff. What people call "hacking"in Nexus might better be called "password theft". Nearly all of it takes place because someone is conned into giving their character passwords to someone else.
However, there are some people who will take a technical approach, such as trying to persuade or trick you into installing a so-called "trojan horse" program, to get by stealth what you will not give them. This is a threat anywhere, not just in regard to Nexus, so taking some care to avoid it is well worth your while. $30 for a trojan sniffer or $40 for an anti-virus program might seem extreme, but how much would you pay to get your data back after some jerk trashed your system?
Some of the precautions people have suggested, such as not going to any websites at all, for any reason, are extreme. Sure, barricading yourself in your basement will generally keep you from getting mugged, but do you want to live that way? The solution isn't to walk down the street in the bad part of town flashing a roll of hundreds, nor cower in your basement for the rest of your life, but take sensible precautions without giving way to hysteria. You CAN avoid these creeps. It takes a bit of common sense and some common software.
First of all, things you MUST HAVE:
- A good anti-virus program. I use Norton's. Yes, go pay for it! Update it at least once a month, once a week is better. No, anti-virus programs won't catch all trojans, but they do nab the common ones.
- A trojan scanner. Go to www.moosoft.com and download The Cleaner. It has a 30 day free trial, $29.95 to register. If this saves your multi-year, multi-hundred-dollar investment in your Nexus character (remember Law 33: getting hacked is a crime) it's cheap insurance.
- A firewall. Go to www.zonelabs.com and download the free version of ZoneAlarm. Yes, it's free for personal use, as a promo for their bigger, better, fancier business version. It's also a very highly rated firewall.
Next, some things you MUST DO:
- Turn OFF the "Hide file extensions for known file types" option. This can be changed in Windows Explorer (NOT Internet Explorer) under View | Folder Options, on the View tab. ON is the default setting, which makes it easy for people to send you something.jpg.exe and slip you a trojan without you knowing it.
- Turn OFF file & printer sharing unless there is some essential reason why you absolutely must leave it on. This is even more important if you are on a cable connection -- that's basically a LAN, and you probably don't want to share your computer with a few hundred of your neighbors.
- Turn OFF auto-install, auto-download, auto-backscratch, etc. in your Web browser. Do not let it download or run anything without getting your permission first.
- Turn OFF Java support in your Web browser. (JavaScript is ok) If you absolutely need Java for a particular website, turn it on, and back off when you're done. It has some major security holes, especially in Internet Explorer.
- Use non-Microsoft email software. Outlook and Outlook Express are especially vulnerable to macro virii, such as the "I love you" virus of recent memory. Eudora Lite is good, fast, and free.
- Set the default application for .DOC files to WordPad instead of Word. WordPad has no scripting capabilities, so it's safe from macro virii.
One big thing you MUST NOT DO:
- Never, ever, ever use the same password for your Nexus characters that you do for anything else. Don't use the same password for your email account that you do for anything else. Don't use the same password for any two of your characters either. That way, if one password is compromised, the rest are still safe.
Finally, things you MUST REMEMBER:
- Nexon will never ask for your password. It is truly mind-blowing, the number of people who still fall for that scam. Nexon absolutely positively does not ever need your password to do anything they want to. Nexon owns the servers. The root user is God!
- If something sounds too good to be true, it is. Random strangers don't give away something for nothing. ("Come here, little girl, I have some candy for you...") There is no software, anywhere, that can level you, make you rich, etc.
- Remember what they taught you in health class? When you have sex with someone, you're having sex with everyone they've ever been with. Computer security is the same way: When you trust someone, you are trusting everyone they have ever trusted. If one of those people's security was compromised, yours is too. Many of the victims of trojans have been sent to the hostile website or given the trojan itself by hacked friends.
It's a long list, but most of it can be done in just a few minutes. Don't be paranoid -- but be safe.
Useful websites:
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