I got hacked ... (WoW+dead harddrive = fun evening)

by **poisonbl** » Wed Feb 07, 2007 5:36 pm

Ok, it's turning out to be a wonderful month :-x

... first all the problems with a system at work, then I come home to this ... I know for certain my WoW account was compromised, but I'm reluctant to think it was a game add-on that left me open ... because my harddrive completely died after a reboot (a reboot into a linux livecd at that!). :-?

I was running SAV, and even went so far as updating and running a full system scan just yesterday, with nothing found. I've managed to get my WoW account back (my more important gear still intact too) because my roommates are guildmates, and they realized *I* wasn't actually online, while my characters were. I'm working with Blizzard on taking care of their end of tracing back any accounts associated with the problem (my gear/gold had to go somewhere) ... but that's just WoW.

I've changed my passwords pretty much on all the accounts I've accessed in the past month or so, in case it was a keylogger, but I'm curious how many backdoors have a means of killing the harddrive.

What is particularly confusing, is that my system shutdown fine, then booted fine off a UBCD into INSERT (linux) ... and only about 5-10 mins after that, before I could get to pulling my data, the drive started making a strange, almost printer-like noise (kinda a whirr followed by a little click ... best I can describe it the morning after)

If it weren't for the drive dying, I had planned to completely zero the drive and reinstall windows ... basically a "just in case" measure.

Anyone have any clue what it could have been? I'd go through a list of the little things I've done lately ... but I'd have to look in a folder that I cant get to anymore to do that ... but I don't think I had installed anything in about a month other than stuff I did yesterday (a couple XP powertoys) ... and I hadn't been on WoW since I did any of that.

(edit: title)

by **Grav!ty** » Wed Feb 07, 2007 6:24 pm

Gosh but that's not a nice experience at all poisonbl :eek:

I can't imagine what could have caused the hard drive to keel over though. It could be anything from a slight power surge to mechanical failure.

Is the drive still recognized in your BIOS at all?

by **poisonbl** » Wed Feb 07, 2007 6:32 pm

when it's installed my bios gives up recognising any of my IDE drives

EDIT: ... also, I really hate the concept that the drive going could in any way be a coincidence ... Im not a really religious person, but that would be a simple sign of God hates me :whistle

by **JabbaPapa** » Wed Feb 07, 2007 6:49 pm

Oh no, God does NOT hate you ; to the contrary, He just loves you to bits

...

Sounds to me like a classic case of dead-hard-drive-itis ; IMO you need to learn about the signals that dying hard drives put out, so that when you see them you can prepare for the forthcoming funeral

by **poisonbl** » Wed Feb 07, 2007 8:56 pm

JabbaPapa wrote:Oh no, God does NOT hate you ; to the contrary, He just loves you to bits

...

Sounds to me like a classic case of dead-hard-drive-itis ; IMO you need to learn about the signals that dying hard drives put out, so that when you see them you can prepare for the forthcoming funeral

Well, something makes me think you didn't read most, or all of my original post here :lol:

... just dead harddrive I've learned to spot ... I've gone through a lot of drives between my 5 computers I have here, let alone the ones at work ... but to lose a harddrive (that showed absolutely *no* signs of problems ahead of time) the same night that my roommate informed me someone was logged onto my WoW account (and wasn't me) ... that's just a bit too much to think it was a coincidence ... unless God (or some other fate-affecting power) just really doesn't like me! :whistle

(yes, I'm in a "screw it, a LOT would have to happen to make things worse, so it can only get better from here" sort of mood today ^*^

)

by **mintt2** » Sat Mar 24, 2007 8:06 am

i would go for mechanical failure for dead hardrive

my smart toshiba hd has been reporting failure error for a year
but i can still using it after partition and left the bad sector unallocated
while my friend wd hd only 3 mth old and failed with no certain reason

by **Odinn** » Sat Mar 24, 2007 8:57 am

Try installing the disk as slave in another system and do a dignostic test. If that fails, you could always switch PCBs on the disk given you have a twin disk laying around. As for passwords, it is recommended that you change your passwords every month. No one does it really and that is why we aren't reminded so often but it should be done. With all the phishing and soying going on today, it is easy to log someone's password in secrecy or to use it to cause damage. One thing that could have happenede to your disk could also be a boot block virus. Let's just hope it's mechanical, less hassle.

by **poisonbl** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 3:38 am

Heh, almost 2 months now, I still have that old drive here, but I've got another, that was written off as "unreliable" at work, that has given me a good few weeks and is showing no signs of trouble. In the system it came out of, it was refusing to recognize, never getting to booting, so I brought it home to test it, zeroed and it came up clear of problems after a few long tests ... as for the old one, I've all but trashed it, it's sat here collecting dust since a couple days after it gave up.

As for WoW, I'm back and happy, and as I said in another post, Blizzard was great in helping, but very tight lipped ... but I have my gear! :lol:

and as for what killed the old one ... I don't wanna find out it really was a coincidence ... :rofl:

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I got hacked ... (WoW+dead harddrive = fun evening)

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