Keyloggers and Security

[BabalonRose]

Hello.
I've been playing an online game for over a year now. Somehow someone broke into my account. Friends said I probably have a keylogger on my PC. Now, my PC technical understanding goes as far as updating drivers and running maintenance wizard and virus scan. I do have McAffee Clinic, Zone Alarm, and Spybot installed. However, I don't understand how a keylogger gets onto your PC, nor how to prevent one from getting there. How do I know if there's one on there, and do I need to wipe my harddrive if there is? If I need to wipe my hard drive to get rid of it, what is the best recommended method(s) of preventing it from happenning again? I have no idea how any of this happens--I don't even have the foggiest what a keylogger is.

Thanks ahead for any help.

PS My McAffee went down and I have been also unable to get into my yahoo email account, so something strange is indeed going on. I have reinstalled McAffee clinic however.

[BipolarBill]

Uninstall McAfee and install AVG - free:

www.grisoft.com

It's lighter and it works great.

See if you have Admin privileges by creating another Admin account. If you can't, you've been demoted. That does not require a keylogger. If you had a ill-advised password and had not changed the username from Administrator, you're a target.

Spybot must be updated and run to be effective and cannot protect you from worms and trojans. Scan for them with AVG. Try Moosoft's Cleaner too:

http://www.moosoft.com