Hackers are getting more and more brazen lately, hiding various trojans and keyloggers not only in random forum links, but in ad banners and even in electronic devices. Even common sense avoidance of suspicious links and websites doesn't always seem to work anymore. Luckily, there are other tools you can use, such as the Noscript extension for the Firefox browser. Lifehacker reported on a new one yesterday as well: Anti Keylogger Shield for Windows.

This freeware program purports to work not by blocking installation of keyloggers, but by preventing them from logging your keys once installed. Lifehacker tested it by loading a keylogger and reported that it seemed to work, at least in that case, as the keylogger's log file was completely empty.

Of course, you probably shouldn't just install this program and go off clicking strange links willy nilly, but it does look like it could be one more line of defense in the ever escalating battle to protect your computer and your account from those who would steal it. Plus, it's free, so that's even better.

[Thanks for the forward, DrDiesel!]

You'll want to be a bit more cautious when looking up information on the game today. World of Raids reports that an unknown ad banner appearing on Wowhead, Thottbot, and Allakhazam has an embedded keylogger trojan. You don't even need to click on the banner, apparently, simply mousing over it will be enough. Wowhead says that all they know for sure is that it originates from "ad.yieldmanager.com", and will produce a redirect to "xpantivirus.com." They're working at isolating it.

The issue is known, and all parties involved are tracking it down, so it should hopefully be resolved soon. In the meantime, if you're looking for a quick way to protect yourself, I would follow the recommendation of World of Raids, and try out the Firefox web browser and the No Script extension. As long as you keep the scripts blocked, it should prevent the banner in question from forcing itself on you. This should also provide you with some protection if you accidentally click on the wrong link elsewhere, such as on the WoW general forums.

Edit: Apparently, the virus in question is not an actual keylogger, but it still does a number on your system, which is reason enough to try to avoid it.

Frequent visitors to the official WoW forums will no doubt be familiar with the Forum Interceptor that Blizzard has in place for your "protection." Briefly, any time you click a link in a forum thread that doesn't lead to a Blizzard-owned domain, a bit of JavaScript loads an Interceptor page that tells you to be wary of keyloggers and things, and that the internet is a dangerous place. Possibly useful to people under the age of ten; otherwise, it gets old fast.

Fortunately, there are ways around it. Opening a link in a new tab (middle-click) works in most browsers. But what if you don't want to think about it all the time? Shouldn't links in the forums work just like links everywhere else on the freaking internet? Yes, they should. And that's why we have Greasemonkey.

Greasemonkey is a Firefox plug-in that lets users install userscripts that do things to websites. If that sounds vague, it is; userscripts can perform all sorts of tricks. The script we're interested in, called Shelter from a Blizzard, does precisely one thing: makes links on the WoW forums point directly to their destinations, skipping the interceptor page.

If you're running Firefox, and want this magic in your very own browser, here's what you do:

1. Install Greasemonkey, if you don't already have it. Once you're done installing, restart your browser.
2. Go to Shelter from a Blizzard's page, and click the "Install This Script" button at the right.
3. That's it! From now on all WoW forum pages you load will be de-intercepted.

Blizzard has added two new updates to the WoW Armory. One of them is the Search Engine plugin we talked about earlier, though it isn't just for Firefox -- it also includes IE 7 and Opera. They have a very simple installation for adding the Armory search plugin to your browser.

They have also added an Arena calculator which is actually three calculators in one. Choose one of the calculators to determine:

• The number of arena points earned in a week
• The average rating to get a desired arena reward
• How long it will take to get that reward

If you have pinned your profile, the calculator will automatically fill up with your current arena statistics, as long as you aren't using the Opera or Safari browsers.

The Arena Calculator seems to be a good way to get the Season 2 gear before the Season 3 starts with its new rating restrictions for gear.

Do you think the new Armory updates are useful?

CM Drysc announced on the WoW General Forum that they are developing a Firefox add-on for searching the Armory.

For those of you who are not familiar with Mozilla's Firefox, it is a browser that can be used on Macs or PCs (even Linux) and has a great dropdown search function for quick lookups on certain sites. Wowhead has one as does WoWwiki and so do we here at WoW Insider (link goes to add-on). You can go to the Firefox Search Engine page to install any of these add-ons onto your version of Firefox.

Drysc says to check in at the Armory over the next couple of days for the announcement that the search engine has been completed.

How many times a day do we all search Thottbot, Allakhazam, WoWWiki, Wowhead and others? It gets old really fast to type in the address or go dig it out of bookmarks every time right? About 50 of you are right now thinking, "geez ya noob, like thottbot is my homepage!"

Before you get all huffy and start chargin' your fireball, realize that there is a better way to look-up those [ACME Pauldrons of the Whale]. Think of them as WoW UI add-ons for Firefox. What? That's right, IRL WoW add-ons for your Firefox browser. Check out these search plug-ins that you may get some use out of if you look up things like a banshee. By the way, I've heard that Lady Sylvanas can Google stuff like nobody's business, but that is unconfirmed as of this writing.

Firefox search plug-ins for WoW
-WoW Armory (both US and EU versions)
-Allakhazam Quests
-Allakhazam Items
-Allakhazam Mobs
-Curse gaming add-ons
-WoW Official forums
-WoWWiki
-Wowhead
-Wowdirectory

The links to all of these search engines are at Mozilla's "mycroft" website, which lets users build their own search plug-ins for their favorite sites. For any of the search plug-ins, simply click the name of the site you wish to install, and Firefox does the rest.

Our very own search plug-in
Also, I am proud to introduce the official WoW Insider Firefox search plugin that you can now download for your WoW Insider perusing pleasure (without having to type the address or leave your browser). Please use this plug-in responsibly, no members of the Burning Legion are allowed to use this search. Enjoy

I saw this screen shot last night on the WoW LJ community, and I have to admit, it took me by surprise. This is the first time I've ever actually seen the World of Warcraft launcher/load screen come out and point-blank warn people about the presence of Trojans on their machines. As there are a lot of variants of this particular Trojan out in the wild, that specific name doesn't surprise me.

Considering the fact that two Blue accounts were recently compromised, it looks like it's a good time to once again make sure your systems are patched, your virus scanners are up to date, and that you've got some good lines of defense against these Trojans. (Personally, I'm a huge fan of FireFox and some of the browser extensions that have come out for it.) Or, as some of my friends have told me, I could just get a Mac, and not have to worry so much about these kinds of things either. I keep telling them I'll happily switch when they buy me one.

It's raid night. You've farmed your mats, topped off your repair fun and loaded up on pizza and cola. But for some reason you can't log on. You're sure you typed in the right password, but no go. You IM you guildie: "Are the servers down? I can't get in." His reply sends chills down your spine: "We just saw you at the bank. Why was your toon naked?"

Years of hard work gone. Someone else accessed your account and stripped your main of all his gold, bank items and tradable equipment. "But I don't give my password to anyone!" you wail. You don't have to, the keylogger program knows it anyway.

What's a keylogger? It's a small, virus-type program that can accidentally be installed on your computer. How might a keylogger be installed on your system?

• Visiting an untrustworthy web site. Some sites may have code in them that exploit your web browser and cause it to quietly install a keylogging application without your permission. (Note: even turstworthy sites can be hacked! The same hackers who are after your information can hack what you think of as trustworthy sites and add exploit code to them which could give you a keylogger.)
  
• Downloading addons (or other files) from an untrustworthy site. Any executable file you download could contain a keylogger or virus, so before you download a file, be sure you're downloading it from a source you trust!

Once a keylogger gets installed, it starts recording every keystroke you make. And when you type in your account name and password for your WoW account, it captures that, too. The next time you access the Internet, it sends your private information to the hackers who use it to log into WoW and strip all your characters of everything valuable leaving you with a penniless toon wearing nothing but his trousers.

This all sounds pretty scary, but don't worry -- there are ways to protect yourself from keylogging programs!