World of WarCraft Security on a Keychain

[robwright]

Article by Kevin Parrish

Blizzard has announced a new layer of security for its games, dubbed the Blizzard Authenticator, which will give gamers a keychain with a six-digit code to protect their World of WarCraft accounts.

http://www.tomsgames.com/us/2008/06/27/wowsecurity_keychain/

 

[clay12340]

This is pure genius. They are already printing money, yet they come up with new ways. I'm guessing they are getting something like a $5 mark up on each of these little guys.

Though I think people will find these things more of a pain in the butt than they are worth. I've seen a number of software applications with this type of security measure and it is annoying and those little keychain passkey generators are prone to being misplaced. Then again who can put a price on knowing that your digital life is safe and sound?

 

[3Ball]

I think that it is a very idea (especially the part about you only having it if you want it). We use secureID here at work, which is very similar if not the same as what they will use. As many of my friends accounts there are that have been hacked I could see this adding value...if you value your time spent in that game that is. lol

Best,

3Ball

 

[Oh Snap]

What I don't get is why anyone would bother hacking an account when most of your gear is soulbound. Just to delete their ****?

 

[aziraphale]

^ Hack the account, transfer the gold and the goodies then sell the char?

 

[mothhive]

I agree with 3Ball, I think this is a very good idea and I don't see how anyone can fault Blizz for it. It's not like it's required, it's an optional extra (which is pretty cheap) to help secure your account against hackers, plus you get a neat little keychain thing.

As for why people would hack an account, there are a number of reasons. As aziraphale said, gold, goodies (disenchant the soulbound stuff) and selling the character are a few, but there are also vindictive people who will delete/control a char or equipment for revenge (neglected ex? lol), cheap thrills or just because they can.

 

[VerusX]

Blizzard has a security problem; new accounts on new computers that haven't surfed the web yet are being hacked. This is just a band aid to keep users paying their monthly fee and does not address the real problem. Blizzard has either been hacked or they have a internal security problem.

They may be quietly doing something behind the scenes and this will make people feel better as they try to deal with the real problem.

 

[steve_c10]

Has anyone here actually been hacked? I know loads of people that are just not idiot proof when it comes to internet security...but I'm guessing since you're all on this forum that you'd have some common sense not to surf certain sites, install anti-virus/spyware etc.

 

[infornography42]

I haven't been, but I have a friend who was. He isn't exactly an idiot either. He petitioned and got some of it back, but by no means all of it.

 

[Oh Snap]

Yeah the issue I have is that it's always a "friend" with an unclear story as to how they got hacked, or a friend of a friend, etc. I've never had any of my accounts hacked in any Blizzard game. None of my friends have either, only online acquaintances with "OMG I DON'T KNOW HOW IT HAPPENED!!"

I'd wager 999 / 1000 times it's:
1) Easy to guess/bruteforce password consisting of only letters/numbers and only a few characters in length
2) Browsed the wrong sites/downloaded the wrong file and picked up a keylogger/trojan
3) Registered on forums or other website with unencrypted passwords and used the same username/password as their account. How easy is it to hack an entire guild? Install phpBB and just remove the md5 function, and add in a "WoW account" field, or just bring it up while making small talk with people while you happen to collect their account names, and can easily use most likely their identical password tucked away in your forum database.
4) Gave the info to the wrong person who they felt they could trust.

I had a guy last night talking about he had been "hacked" 3 or 4 times in Diablo II. Can you say keylogger?

 

[infornography42]

I suspect he picked up a keylogger. He was big into mods though he did stick to large well known sites. He uses only a few mods now and it hasn't happened again.

 

[jamesgoddard]

This is a very very sound idea and will make account hijack near impossible.

 

[steve_c10]

Even the larger well known sites such as Curse-gaming and WoWAce has had an occasional dodgy virus/trojan.

 

[LazyGarfield]

The idea is nice but I dont see why they are not blocking IP´s who are trying to hack acc´s by brute force

How hard can it be to block an IP for an hour or even more when it got 5 wrong tries on account/pw names?

That way theyr Keychain would be useless... maybe that is why they dont give a ****?

 

[LazyGarfield]

(disenchant the soulbound stuff

You cant do that anymore unless you are skilling up enchanting

 

[rodney_ws]

What I don't get is why anyone would bother hacking an account when most of your gear is soulbound. Just to delete their ****?

Sounds like a good enough reason for me There really isn't anything funnier than a level 70 with no gear at all... well, in terms of WoW there isn't.

 

[cafuddled]

Could we be moving to a time where we are getting a breed of geeks so intelligent they’re getting intelligently stupid? All this would do is cost you more money and cause you more grief. For your digital safety you don’t need physical keys. Great moneymaking scheme however, think of it being like a car with only one set of car keys. If you loose your keys you have to pay £120 and wait 2 weeks to get a new set of keys, what about if you lock them in your car, well you have to smash the window in then pay £100 to get it fixed.

What if someone takes your key and then ruins your account, what you think you can take that to the police?

Intelligently Stupid Geek “Someone taken my WOW key chain and broke my account (sob sob)”

Police “Err sir please **** off”

If you ask me, which I know no one is, but anyway. Anyone that buys in to this rip off payday scheme is a plank, plain and simple.