Written by Christian

Too often the poker forums are floated with posts about hacked accounts, and in most cases it can be prevented with some simple but necessary steps. I will guide you through these steps in this article.

Password protection

One of the most basic mistakes people make is to have simple passwords to their accounts and in some cases even the same password to almost everything. Choose different passwords too ALL of your accounts and they have to be RANDOM! Now this might seem like overkill and downright impossible to remember. No worries though, there’s a program that can do all of this for you and it’s free:  KeePass (http://keepass.info/). This program provides you with a completely random password for every account you have, and will include capital letters, numbers etc. in the passwords. Here’s a quick guide to use the program:

1: Go to the website and download the latest version.

2: Install the program. – I prefer to have the program installed on my USB stick which enables me to carry my passwords with me wherever I go. Choose the master password wisely.

3: Right click on “Internet” –  “Add Group” and name your new group for example “Poker”:

Now right click on “Poker” and “Add Group” for example “Pokerstars”. Left click (don’t double click) on “Pokerstars” then click on the key image in the toolbar (right next to the “save” disc image) and “Add Entry”. This makes KeePass generate a new password for you:

If you click the key icon on the right side just below the 3 dots and “Open Password Generator” the options for the password opens. In here you can choose if you want to include numbers, decide the length of the password, and a lot more.

4: Add groups to all of your accounts. This includes email accounts, Neteller, Moneybookers, poker accounts etc. Change all of the passwords to these new passwords. And you’re done.

Change your poker related email

Hotmail and other popular email services are a lot easier to hack than people might be aware of. Hushmail is a free alternative and is encrypted and spam/virus scanned.

Go to http://www.hushmail.com/ and open a new email account. Change your email information to this address for all your poker related accounts (poker rooms, Neteller, Moneybookers etc.).

Use Firefox instead of Internet Explorer

Go to http://www.mozilla.com and download the browser. Mozilla Firefox is much faster and safer than the commonly used Internet Explorer. Besides the fact that it’s generally safer, Firefox enables you to use some very functional add-ons. One of the most important add-ons when speaking of security is NoScript (http://noscript.net). This add-on automatically blocks malicious JavaScript, Java, Flash and other suspicious behaviour at a given website.  AdBlock is an add-on that blocks banners and ads on the various websites (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1865). The last security related add-on I will recommend is Keyscrambler: (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3383). This add-on encrypts your keystrokes to protect your information from key-loggers.

Chat clients and emails

Don’t click on links or receive files (both via emails and chat clients) without verifying that the persons who sent them are who they claim to be. Don’t open emails when you don’t know the sender, just delete them straight away. And finally don’t open emails sent from friends when the subject does not sound like it was actually sent from your friend. Emails with subjects that start with “FW”, “Re” or says something like “hey I just discovered this awesome site”, “I shop at xxx and get massive discounts” or “Hey I just saw your picture at xxx is it really you?” etc. should be deleted without opening them.

Online behavior

If you are using torrent sites to download movies, music, software etc. your computer will inevitably get infected at some point. If you want to keep downloading pirated content, you should be doing it on your secondary computer such as your laptop. Don’t download pirated stuff on the same computer you use for grinding.

Some of the pirated software is not even necessary to download via torrents. There are many open source alternatives to the various programs you want to use. Check out sites like Sourceforge (http://sourceforge.net/) and Osalt (http://www.osalt.com/) for free alternatives to programs like Adobe.

Antivirus programs and Anti-Spyware programs

There are still many people who use free antivirus programs such as AVG. A few years ago this would have been sufficient and an ok alternative to the products you pay for. However the times have changed and the free antivirus programs are no longer sufficient. This is especially true when we are talking about securing large sums of online $$$. Kaspersky, Eset Smart Security and Bullguard are all excellent Antivirus solutions. In addition to the antivirus program you should purchase an anti-spyware program: Webroot Spy Sweeper and SuperAntiSpyware are some of the best available on the market at the moment.

That concludes my article on securing your computer and bankroll. If you follow the recommendations in this article, your computer will not be 100% secure (which is impossible) but as close to 100% secure as you can get. Good luck at the tables!