Joel Comm, most known for his NYT best-selling book The AdSense Code, was at a conference in D.C. this past weekend. He also likes to play World of Warcraft to unwind.
Says Joel:
Late Friday night, I was enjoying a session of World of Warcraft in my hotel room. The conference had ended for the day and I connected my laptop to the wireless network for some fun before heading to bed.
I awoke Saturday morning and spent the day in the conference room and meeting with my associates.
I came back to my room around 5 pm EST and decided to login to my WoW account.
That's when I was stunned to find myself the victim of a terrible and heinous crime.
My primary character, Riathamus, had been robbed blind.
He was virtually naked.
All his armor and weaponry had been stripped from his body and sold, the gold undoubtedly in the hands of unscrupulous people.
His bank account had been wiped out, save those items which could not be sold, and over 1300 gold was removed from his person.
That was gold that would soon pay for the flying mount Ria would've attained at level 70, which was just hours within his grasp.
All gone.
A further glance revealed that my other characters had also been stripped of their goods and robbed of their bankroll.
All told, I had lost nearly 2000 gold in cash and items.
What happened?
Joel believes that some hackers found his laptop on its wireless connection while he was sleeping and gone for the day, and controlled it remotely to access his game characters and steal from him in this virtual world.
He said:
Someone in the hotel must have been using a packet sniffer or keylogger to detect my login and password over the unsecured open network.
Frankly, if this is the case, and it's likely that it is, he is in a lot more trouble than he thinks. I am sure he has already changed all his passwords to his accounts, and called his banks, and so on...a lot like the same routine that you go through when you lose your wallet...
Regardless of packet snifing (which really only allows you to read packets that you send out to the network, and even then only if it's plain text), it's the keylogger he should be concerned with. And perhaps, more than that, HOW THE KEYLOGGER GOT THERE! Keyloggers and RAT (Remote Access Software) are installed on machines with vulnerabilities and virtually turn the PC into a Zombie.
Joel has far bigger problems than being 2000 gold pieces down in a game. Can you imagine what Joel would have written about if his PayPal account was left naked and penniless instead? Maybe he would be so embarrassed by it he would not have said anything about it at all!
He ends his blog post:
I am blogging this entry from my hotel room, but I've since purchased a virtual private network (VPN) service that protects me from further victimization.
Will Blizzard respond by restoring Riathamus and my other characters to their previous state? I don't know.
Regardless, I learned an important lesson about securing my computer. Since it could have been much worse, I think it was a small price to pay.
What do you think? Did I have it coming or are you sympathetic? Your kind words are always appreciated. And if you want to help me feel better, Comfort food always helps. [This is a link to buyjoeldessert.com where you can buy a backlink for the price of a after dinner treat.]
His post never addresses the REAL SOLUTION, though. He talks about encrypting his packets using PPTP (Point to Point Tunneling Protocol) so packet sniffers can't read his packets, meaning any passwords, etc., that he might be sending in clear text across the network. He doesn't talk about the malware he probably got from MySpace surfing, or spyware from a network attack because he isn't properly patched. He doesn't talk about anti-spyware or a bi-directional firewall to keep RATs and keyloggers off his system in the first place!
He never even address if he found a keylogger on his system, or not. And if he found one, did he get rid of it?
This would have been the perfect...PERFECT...scenario for a free call to INVISUS support to have the problem identified and eradicated. Perhaps more importantly, he would have very likely not had this problem in the first place with INVISUS Direct Managed PC Security Solution...and his cost for that? $15 a month.
'Nuff said. 
