I would be shocked if they made them mandatory. They arent even mandatory for online poker sites where millions of dollars fly around.
Hacking somebody in online poker most likely means hacking his credit card info, which in this case, gets into criminal jurisdiction, compared to stealing gold and a character from a user account in a video game...
I just hope the practice catches on for the rest of the MMO industry.
I should hope not. Having little dongles for every game would become rather perverse and would drive the industry farther from main stream appeal.
Ultimately it comes down to risk vs. risk tolerence of the individual person. While their may be a small subset of the MMO playerbase that is so concerned about the security of their toons that they may want to invest in one of these, I would dare challenge that the majority of the MMO playerbase and the VAST majority of non-MMO gamers would reject the concept of additional dongles and trinkets to protect accounts which take 5 days to restore. Particulary when you factor in that a lot of those people would have 5 day GAPS in playtimes. Thus the risk to this group is very close to nil and thus additional "hoops" could very well detract current casuals/potential new players.
For the group of gamers that are on every day, who have the best gear and are in progession content, they could derive value in this trinket, particularly if they precieve some risk in a few days off from the game. However, if they are unconerned with a short vacation, their risk tolerance may be higher and they may feel these devices are unneeded.
So should these devices be mandatory? Only if you wish to limit your market or create obstacles to entry for new players in the MMO scene. Should these devices be available for anyone who wishes? absolutely!
with values so obscure I cannot possibly be hacked. On the downside it takes a lot of trials to log in an getting everything right.
You are spreading misinformation here. The complexity of your password only makes it difficult for certain types of hacking to occur, but that is not how wow accounts are being hacked.
For example a keylogger has no trouble strealing a password regardless of its complexity. A phishing scam has no trouble with complex passwords.
It is similar to people thinking they are safe, because they have a firewall and anti-virus software and not realizing just how vulnerable they really are.
as much as i hate to say it i got the game less than 2 weeks after it launched and used the same account info (till the Battle.net thing came out) to this day and have never had any issues with my account. The problem is most people that get hacked clicked on somthing they shouldnt have and unknowingly screwed themsleves. I think the authinticator is nice and all but I wouldnt be happy if it was forced on me. Either way when FF14 lauches it wont matter anyway as im hoping that i will finally find somthing good enough so i can finally hit that unsubscribe button and put that old dog to sleep.
It is similar to people thinking they are safe, because they have a firewall and anti-virus software and not realizing just how vulnerable they really are.
Well, MSE, No-Script and Common Sense 2010 Internet Security Suite is pretty much the way to go.
At the end of the day, it's important to prevent. Any decent malware will probably ignore your anti-virus/firewall so prevention is the only safe way.
People go as far as blaming Blizzard because they trade accounts with the goldsellers, but that's not the case when you got 3-4 porn sites in your bookmarks and actually think that you've won an in-game contest and must follow the link from the shaddy whisper.
Agree with the point raised that most of this hacking - if not all, is the result of either downloading a keylogger - some so called addons for WOW are infected with malware, or using powerlevelling services etc.
if you scan any and all downloaded software, and only use software from reputable sites, you should be able to avoid the first, though i'd still recommend using a program that blocks/removes spy/malware anyway, there are enough free ones around that it shouldnt be hard to do. and secondly, avoid companies that promote illegal activities, if their willing to break the law in game, their probably willing to do it outside of it too.
Same here. Used the same username /password until the battlenet change over and never had a problem.
I would love to see some data on the number of accounts hacked. How many vs total # of players? I'd wager it would be a surprisingly small percentage.
What would it be equivalent to? Being stuck by lightning? Being in a car accident? Plane accident? Getting cancer? Funny thing is, the chance of these events happening are modified by your behavior, just like getting hacked.
Anybody know a site with info on accounts getting hi-jacked? It would be neat if an MMORPG site did a study on it....
with values so obscure I cannot possibly be hacked. On the downside it takes a lot of trials to log in an getting everything right.
You are spreading misinformation here. The complexity of your password only makes it difficult for certain types of hacking to occur, but that is not how wow accounts are being hacked.
I would love to see some data on the number of accounts hacked. How many vs total # of players? I'd wager it would be a surprisingly small percentage.
I think you would be shocked. While I'm sure that it's a fairly small percentage, it's a bigger problem than you think. The whole reason that Blizzard is considering this is because they can't keep up with the number of users that are having this problem on a day to day basis. Their customer support is so backed up that Blizzard started a policy to give complimentary items (Gold etc) to customers in lieu of a full account recovery. It's a big problem and Blizzard is looking for a solution and the authenticators seem to be the best bet.
Comments
I would be shocked if they made them mandatory. They arent even mandatory for online poker sites where millions of dollars fly around.
----ITS A TRAP!!!----
Hacking somebody in online poker most likely means hacking his credit card info, which in this case, gets into criminal jurisdiction, compared to stealing gold and a character from a user account in a video game...
I think this would be a good move on their part, especially if they include it on the Cat expansion box.
Yes it might cost them a few million, but surely that is offset by the cost of hiring people to sort stolen account information.
not everyone pays for data service on their phones.
not everyone pays for data service on their phones.
And not all cell phones support this service.
I should hope not. Having little dongles for every game would become rather perverse and would drive the industry farther from main stream appeal.
Ultimately it comes down to risk vs. risk tolerence of the individual person. While their may be a small subset of the MMO playerbase that is so concerned about the security of their toons that they may want to invest in one of these, I would dare challenge that the majority of the MMO playerbase and the VAST majority of non-MMO gamers would reject the concept of additional dongles and trinkets to protect accounts which take 5 days to restore. Particulary when you factor in that a lot of those people would have 5 day GAPS in playtimes. Thus the risk to this group is very close to nil and thus additional "hoops" could very well detract current casuals/potential new players.
For the group of gamers that are on every day, who have the best gear and are in progession content, they could derive value in this trinket, particularly if they precieve some risk in a few days off from the game. However, if they are unconerned with a short vacation, their risk tolerance may be higher and they may feel these devices are unneeded.
So should these devices be mandatory? Only if you wish to limit your market or create obstacles to entry for new players in the MMO scene. Should these devices be available for anyone who wishes? absolutely!
You are spreading misinformation here. The complexity of your password only makes it difficult for certain types of hacking to occur, but that is not how wow accounts are being hacked.
For example a keylogger has no trouble strealing a password regardless of its complexity. A phishing scam has no trouble with complex passwords.
It is similar to people thinking they are safe, because they have a firewall and anti-virus software and not realizing just how vulnerable they really are.
as much as i hate to say it i got the game less than 2 weeks after it launched and used the same account info (till the Battle.net thing came out) to this day and have never had any issues with my account. The problem is most people that get hacked clicked on somthing they shouldnt have and unknowingly screwed themsleves. I think the authinticator is nice and all but I wouldnt be happy if it was forced on me. Either way when FF14 lauches it wont matter anyway as im hoping that i will finally find somthing good enough so i can finally hit that unsubscribe button and put that old dog to sleep.
Well, MSE, No-Script and Common Sense 2010 Internet Security Suite is pretty much the way to go.
At the end of the day, it's important to prevent. Any decent malware will probably ignore your anti-virus/firewall so prevention is the only safe way.
People go as far as blaming Blizzard because they trade accounts with the goldsellers, but that's not the case when you got 3-4 porn sites in your bookmarks and actually think that you've won an in-game contest and must follow the link from the shaddy whisper.
Agree with the point raised that most of this hacking - if not all, is the result of either downloading a keylogger - some so called addons for WOW are infected with malware, or using powerlevelling services etc.
if you scan any and all downloaded software, and only use software from reputable sites, you should be able to avoid the first, though i'd still recommend using a program that blocks/removes spy/malware anyway, there are enough free ones around that it shouldnt be hard to do. and secondly, avoid companies that promote illegal activities, if their willing to break the law in game, their probably willing to do it outside of it too.
Same here. Used the same username /password until the battlenet change over and never had a problem.
I would love to see some data on the number of accounts hacked. How many vs total # of players? I'd wager it would be a surprisingly small percentage.
What would it be equivalent to? Being stuck by lightning? Being in a car accident? Plane accident? Getting cancer? Funny thing is, the chance of these events happening are modified by your behavior, just like getting hacked.
Anybody know a site with info on accounts getting hi-jacked? It would be neat if an MMORPG site did a study on it....
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You are spreading misinformation here. The complexity of your password only makes it difficult for certain types of hacking to occur, but that is not how wow accounts are being hacked.
He was being facetious.
I think you would be shocked. While I'm sure that it's a fairly small percentage, it's a bigger problem than you think. The whole reason that Blizzard is considering this is because they can't keep up with the number of users that are having this problem on a day to day basis. Their customer support is so backed up that Blizzard started a policy to give complimentary items (Gold etc) to customers in lieu of a full account recovery. It's a big problem and Blizzard is looking for a solution and the authenticators seem to be the best bet.