With the rash of account-investigation requests we've received from players recently, we wanted to provide another reminder on some of the measures you can take to maintain account security.
As discussed within the past few weeks (
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=74479337&sid=1), sharing login and password information with other people or companies, such as for trading accounts or using "power-leveling services," is one of the leading causes of accounts being compromised. That's one of the main reasons why this type of activity is against the game's Terms of Use.
Another important means of protecting your account information is keeping your system up to date. For instance, installing the latest Windows security patch is a good way to avoid exploits designed to steal your login and password details:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=86717953&sid=1
Using the Blizzard Launcher (
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/misc/launcher.html) to start World of Warcraft is also a good idea, as in addition to providing links to the latest news and other interesting info, the Launcher performs a scan designed to alert you of any harmful programs that might be present on your machine.
To provide another resource for players to learn more about what happens when an account is compromised, how this type of situation generally occurs, how to avoid it, and what to do if it happens to you, the support team recently posted a brief overview here:
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/securityupdate.html
Please take a few moments to read that. The page also contains links to more in-depth information on keylogging scams and other account-security topics. This is information that every World of Warcraft player should be aware of, so please help spread the word.
