What's 'Hacking?'
As defined in the dictionary,
hacking is "to use one's skill in computer programming to gain unauthorized access
to a file or network." If someone gets your account password, and they might take
all of your stuff on your character, or possibly even your character itself.
What Bad Things are out There?
There are several ways someone
can get your password to your account. Most can also do some bad things.
1. Trojans, Trojan Horses - These are malicious programs
pretending to be a regular program. They can destroy data and send info back to
the owner, such as passwords. The main difference between them and computer viruses
is that they do not replicate.
2. Viruses - Bad programs made by people to (usually) do bad things to
computers. They can be disguised as games, pictures, or regular programs. When
executed they could destroy information.
3. Key Loggers - these are programs much like Trojans, but usually they
don't destroy data. They keep track of every keystroke made, and then sends it
back to the owner.
4. Worms - Worms are viruses that sit in the computer's memory, duplicating
themselves. They can be sent to other computers through an email program, or IRC
(internet relay chat), destroying data.
5. Spyware, Adware - Usually these come from programs with bundled software,
like file sharing utilities. Both will track what sites you visit and what you
do on them.
6. Guessing Passwords - although unlikely, if you have an easy password,
someone could guess it, or -- automated scripts with common words dictionaries
embedded can "break" your easy-to-figure password too! |
How Can A Person Get These?
With exception to #6, all the programs above can be gotten from a computer
program. Sometimes they can be sent by email, a downloaded program, or a website.
But, usually you will not find any of these things unless you're looking for a
cheat to the game, or doing other... bad things.
Instant Messengers
If someone asks you to be their friend, and then tries
to send you a file, reject it. Especially files with a .exe, .cmd, .bat, or .scr
extension. Even if they want to send you a picture of them self, I would advise
not to accept it unless you absolutely trust the person.
How Not to Get Them?
There
are lots of ways to be sure not to get any of the bad things mentioned earlier.
Using your common sense is a good start!
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1. Don't download anything questionable, like character
modifiers, add-on Tibia programs, or toolkits, unless its from a trusted fan site.
Both tibianews and Tibia.de are run by official Tibia Gamemasters (Excessus and
Ralgar respectively).
2. Never play Tibia from any computer than yours.
3. Never open an attachment from an email offering something in Tibia.
It could be a dangerous program that I discussed above.
4. Remember that CIP will never send an attachment to you via email,
and they will never have a clickable link in an email.
5. More importantly, CIP will never send you an e-mail! Ignore any
message that claims to be from them, even if it says it's urgent, because it isn't
from CIP. Common subjects of these fake e-mails are: "Tibia Poll", "Your Tibia
Account", "Your Tibia Membership".
6. Make sure to have all updates for your Operating System (Windows,
Mac OS, Linux, etc.)
7. Scan your computer for viruses using an antivirus program such
as one of these:
• McAfee - can be bought in stores or online.
• Norton - can be bought in most computer stores or online.
• Trend Micro - a really good online virus scan.
8. Scan for Spyware using any popular program such
as:
• Ad-Aware - an excellent program that will get
rid of adware and spyware, along with other harmful programs.
• Spybot Search & Destroy - another great program to find and 'destroy' all
those pesky programs, from browser hijackers to spyware and Trojans.
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Guessing?
Here are some tips to make your password almost un-guessable!
• Make sure you have a password of around 8-10
characters or even more.
• Don't use words from a dictionary. Instead, mix words together that don't
make a real word, or even use a number or 2.
• Don't use your name or phone number for a password. don't use words that
a friend could think of using (if you and a friend play Diablo, don't use 'diablo'
for a password).
• Never give out your password - not even to a friend. Your 'friend' could
turn out to be someone you don't know at all.
Myths & Facts
Here are a few common myths about
these things.
Myth: CIP or a Gamemaster needs my Account Number or Password
Fact: CipSoft will never ask you for your password,
they do not need it. Nor a Gamemaster will do. Or a Counsellor. Or a Tutor.
Myth: Music files can have viruses in them.
Fact: Since music (mp3's, wma's) don't have executable code in them, they
generally don't. But, you should be careful of files with strange file names,
extensions like .exe, or unusual file sizes (extremely big or small).
Myth: I can't trust any websites anymore!
Fact: Not all sites are bad, and about 99.8% of the ones you can find are
good, and want to help you out. Unless you want to find a cheat or something,
you won't find the other .2%.
Myth: Having antivirus software and a firewall makes me invincible
to bad stuff!
Fact: Although it does help a lot, you should still be careful.
Myth: If you get a virus, you need to buy a new computer.
Fact: Absolutely not! There's a number of things you can do to fix it.
For one, try getting a program mentioned above, such as Ad-Aware and try scanning.
If that doesn't work, you could always choose the 'road less traveled by' and
reformat, but sometimes it takes awhile.
Myth: There are item duplicators.
Fact: If you read any post from people saying they have an item duplicator,
or they contact you in-game saying they can duplicate your items, it's a guaranteed
scam.
Myth: There are magical start editing hacks!
Fact: That's a nonsense. All they want is your password or keylog
you.
How keyloggers work
There are lots of keylogging
programs out there today. I've seen lots, and I mean lots. But, the people here
tend to use 2 types of keyloggers. Sc-Keylog and BlazingTools Perfect Keylogger(or
BPK for short).
1. Sc-Keylog: How this works; It is a file by itself, usually and .EXE. When you
open it, you will see that nothing happens. Usually this means that the file is
running in the background, and you can ALT+CTRL+DEL to find it in the 'Processes'
tab.
2. BPK: This program works by binding to another program, say tibia.exe. The program
will run fine, but what you dont know is that it secretly installed BPK into your
system. BPK will either send it to a person's e-mail or upload it to an FTP. In
order for this to work, you need to supply a User+Pass for the e-mail or the website
which you are uploading to. There are programs out that will decrypt the infected
file, and will find their User+Pass that the provided. Payback! :)
Despite everything.... "I am hacked!"
We are
sorry to hear you have been hacked. Before you can get your account back there
are certain things that you must take care of. If you do not remove your security
problem first you risk being hacked again.
