• Ask the community now
  • Publish
Ad

News

Does a "World of Warcraft" EULA compliance mechanism count as spyware?

An anti-cheating mechanism deployed by Blizzard Software for use by players of their popular game, World of Warcraft, has been discovered to collect information about gamers' running Windows environment, and report that back to the server. If gamers were warned in advance - albeit with very fine print - does that make it exempt from privacy concerns? Read more

A chat with a World of Warcraft bot programmer

Every day, millions of people trade their real-life personas for virtual characters in World of Warcraft. Instead of spending countless hours controlling virtual counterparts to gain experience and power, some have started using bot programs to autonomously control their characters. We took a close look into one such 'bot" program and chatted with its developer. Read more

Rootkits coming to your motherboard

The recent media attention on rootkits has been focused on installed software, but according to some security professionals at the Black Hat Federal security conference, these kits could be installed on your motheboard's BIOS chip in the near future. Often running a programming language of their own, these chips store the basic command and control functions of the computer. In an article written by Robert Lemos of SecurityFocus, security researchers say that rootkits could take advantage of this language and are the "next logical step". Read more

Gaming heaven for Southern California residents - Howie's Game Shack

Gaming cafes have been popping up around the country, but they are often small and don't last very long. Howie's Game Shack located inside the Kaleidoscope mall in Mission Viejo, Calif. is trying to buck the trend. Despite its small sounding name, this "Shack" is actually a huge gaming center with 200 computers and 45 Xbox consoles. Read more

Latest Reviews & Articles

Hard Drives, Yesterday And Today: From 500 GB To 1.5 TB

Hard Drives, Yesterday And Today: From 500 GB To 1.5 TB

Hard drive capacities have increased in large increments over the last few years, while trends indicate reduced spindle speeds of 5,400 RPM instead of 7,200. We looked at three generations of Samsung hard drives to analyze the performance ramifications. Read more

Best Graphics Cards For The Money: June '09

Best Graphics Cards For The Money: June '09

This month, ATI's new Radeon HD 4770 is missing in action, since online stores are not only unable to keep it in stock, but also de-listing it completely. With violent movements in pricing, though, it'd have been taken off the recommended list anyway. Read more

Editor's Corner: Nvidia’s Ion Revisited, 7.1 Ch. LPCM Fixed

Editor's Corner: Nvidia’s Ion Revisited, 7.1 Ch. LPCM Fixed

Nvidia's Ion for the do-it-yourselfer launched last month in the form of Zotac's mini-ITX motherboard. Though sexy in principle, the platform had some teething pains right out of the gate. Chris Angelini revisits those issues and uses Ion as a real HTPC. Read more

Core i7 Memory Scaling: From DDR3-800 to DDR3-1600

Core i7 Memory Scaling: From DDR3-800 to DDR3-1600

Do you want a quick Core i7 system, but don’t feel confident sticking to Intel's spec and using the DDR3-1066 memory supported by the processor? We benchmark the most relevant memory speed and timing combinations to check the benefit of going faster. Read more

All the Reviews & Articles
Tom's Hardware > Forum > Games General > Games General Discussions > World of WarCraft Security on a Keychain

World of WarCraft Security on a Keychain

Tom's Hardware: Over 1.4 million members in 6 different countries available to answer all your high-tech questions. Sign up now! Its free!
Word :    Username :           
 

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/2008/0 [...] _keychain/

------------------------------ "Would you qualify that as a launch problem or a design problem?"
--Chris Knight

 

Sponsored Links
Register or log in to remove.

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?

Reply to clay12340
- -1 +

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

------------------------------ ASUS P5Q Pro P45 Motherboard
Intel C2Q Q9550 @ 3.40ghz w/ (8.5x400mhz, 1.20v, Zalman 9500 & 24+ Hours Prime95 Stable)
6gb G. Skill DDR2 6400 @ 800mhz w/ (5-5-5-15: 2T, 2.04v)
EVGA 8800GTS 512MB @ 745mhz/1825mhz/2010mhz
Reply to 3Ball
- -1 +

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

------------------------------ Intel Core 2 Quad q6600 @ 3.0ghz // 8GB PC8500 RAM @ 1066
2x WD Velociraptors 10k rpm RAID 0
3x (Tri-SLI) BFG NVidia GeForce 8800 GTX OC 768MB
3x 30" Dell 3007WFP Monitors
Reply to Oh Snap

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

Reply to aziraphale

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. :D

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.

Reply to mothhive
- 0 +

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.

Reply to VerusX

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.

------------------------------ Telecom3 / Tigercom / Voicestream Group
Reply to steve_c10

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.

Reply to infornography42
- 0 +

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?

------------------------------ Intel Core 2 Quad q6600 @ 3.0ghz // 8GB PC8500 RAM @ 1066
2x WD Velociraptors 10k rpm RAID 0
3x (Tri-SLI) BFG NVidia GeForce 8800 GTX OC 768MB
3x 30" Dell 3007WFP Monitors
Reply to Oh Snap

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.

Reply to infornography42

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

Reply to jamesgoddard

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

Reply to steve_c10

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 :heink:

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 ****?

Reply to LazyGarfield

mothhive wrote :

(disenchant the soulbound stuff


You cant do that anymore unless you are skilling up enchanting :kaola:

Reply to LazyGarfield

Oh Snap wrote :

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.

Reply to rodney_ws

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.

------------------------------ "Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence."
Reply to cafuddled
Tom's Hardware > Forum > Games General > Games General Discussions > World of WarCraft Security on a Keychain
Go to:

There are 1077 identified and unidentified users. To see the list of identified users, Click here.

Please mind

You are about to answer a thread that has been inactive for more than 6 months.
If you still wish to proceed, please ensure that your posting is original and does not duplicate or overlap any prior responses to this thread.

Add a reply Cancel
Sponsored links