This thread just re-assures me that getting authenticators for all of our family Blizzard accounts was a very good idea. I did this especially since we were leaving the game, either temporarily or possibly permanently....we don't know yet. Regardless, we've all invested tons of time over the past 5 years, and I wanted to protect that investment, even if we weren't going to be playing.
I know it seems kind of nuts to have to invest $6.50 per account (for 3 accounts) that we're not using...but it just seemed a small price to pay for some peace of mind during our absence, regardless of how long that absence might continue. We MAY want to return for Cataclysm. We've not decided for sure yet, so....yeah, I'm glad we did this.
I guess we'll find out if the authenticators were a worthwhile investment, if and when we play again. But...at least I know we've done everything we can to protect the accounts, and I would think, that when it comes to returning stuff IF you get hacked...that Blizzard would consider that. I don't know though....it hasn't happened yet. I hope I don't have to go through the hassle of ever finding out on that one. heh
I may be wrong, but I think you can link multiple accounts to one authenticator
I think you may be right, but we got three. Seemed kind of a pain in the ass to do it all with one, because then...if we wanted to play together, we'd have to run around to each room of the house with ONE authenticator to get the number to sign in....lol.
And....since the accounts are in 3 different names (even though we share an address, we all have our own computers and email addresses, etc, that we registered with)...I'm not sure we could have put it all on one anyway.....
This thread just re-assures me that getting authenticators for all of our family Blizzard accounts was a very good idea. I did this especially since we were leaving the game, either temporarily or possibly permanently....we don't know yet. Regardless, we've all invested tons of time over the past 5 years, and I wanted to protect that investment, even if we weren't going to be playing.
I know it seems kind of nuts to have to invest $6.50 per account (for 3 accounts) that we're not using...but it just seemed a small price to pay for some peace of mind during our absence, regardless of how long that absence might continue. We MAY want to return for Cataclysm. We've not decided for sure yet, so....yeah, I'm glad we did this.
I guess we'll find out if the authenticators were a worthwhile investment, if and when we play again. But...at least I know we've done everything we can to protect the accounts, and I would think, that when it comes to returning stuff IF you get hacked...that Blizzard would consider that. I don't know though....it hasn't happened yet. I hope I don't have to go through the hassle of ever finding out on that one. heh
I may be wrong, but I think you can link multiple accounts to one authenticator
I think you may be right, but we got three. Seemed kind of a pain in the ass to do it all with one, because then...if we wanted to play together, we'd have to run around to each room of the house with ONE authenticator to get the number to sign in....lol.
And....since the accounts are in 3 different names (even though we share an address, we all have our own computers and email addresses, etc, that we registered with)...I'm not sure we could have put it all on one anyway.....
Gotcha, but in my place we have a separate floor for social activities. Everything except outdoor games are there. The computers are there.
I know that my own account was compromised when a fake armory site was googlebombed to #1 and I clicked it. I then entered my info on the next page which looked legit, due to beer goggles and assumptions about higher level blizz security being installed. LOL.
It happens, most of the latest round are phishing hacks. No installation necessary, you give them the info. Be very careful what URL's say.
My account wasn't hacked but after a year of innactivity, Blizzard seem to have deactivated my account. I had to phone them up and they promptly reactivated the account. I asked them why, but wasn't given a real answer.
My account wasn't hacked but after a year of innactivity, Blizzard seem to have deactivated my account. I had to phone them up and they promptly reactivated the account. I asked them why, but wasn't given a real answer.
yep politician response is never a satifying response espacially when it come from a mmo maker like blizzard!
Be sure to clean up your files after you visit all those shady porn sites~
Doing that is often the problem, visit www.manboobs,com then clear your cache & cookies, then go to GMail and type your email address (cus ya cleared cookies) then log into wow and type ya password (which you always have to do).. but what you did not know was that www.manboobs,com keylogged ya ... now the hackers possibly have your bnet login info... that they can test out at their lesiure the next day or in 6 months. etc.
And the keylogger might be instructed to remove its self after a reboot or x amount of hours to avoid detection but by then it could be too late.
Easy aint it, even the best anti-virus wont catch all hacks, especialy 0day hacks.
Be sure to clean up your files after you visit all those shady porn sites~
Doing that is often the problem, visit www.manboobs,com then clear your cache & cookies, then go to GMail and type your email address (cus ya cleared cookies) then log into wow and type ya password (which you always have to do).. but what you did not know was that www.manboobs,com keylogged ya ... now the hackers possibly have your bnet login info... that they can test out at their lesiure the next day or in 6 months. etc.
And the keylogger might be instructed to remove its self after a reboot or x amount of hours to avoid detection but by then it could be too late.
Easy aint it, even the best anti-virus wont catch all hacks, especialy 0day hacks.
Who on Earth would WANT to go to a site called "manboobs.com?" I mean....really. I don't even know any gay guys that would be attracted to a site with a name like that.....
They don't keep your Antivirus software patched and up to date.
They don't keep your home network secure.
They don't keep your system's bios, firmware, or drivers up to date.
They can't stop you from you giving your user info to 1 of your friends, who may in turn, share it with someone else... and then so on.
They can't stop you from using the same user name and password for their game that you do on every other game (and/or website).
They can make sure that your information is as safe as it possibly can be once you send it to them. Once they have the information on their side... yes, that's their responsibility.
If they have had an intrustion and someone has stolen your account information from them... that's on them, indeed.
...
There is no pre-req to owning a PC and using it. It doesn't take any level of certification or degree. You just have to have enough money to make the purchase. In many instances, there are some people that just shouldn't own or operate a PC. They don't know enough about taking care of their PC or their OS to keep them running well, secure, and they are, in general, in a constant state of 'need' for PC assistance.
"I don't know how that got on there..."
"I didn't install it... I just clicked on the e-mail..."
"free antivirus sounded good because I didn't have any..."
"PORN!"
"I didn't do anything... it just stopped working"....
Love it when friends and family ask for help with their PC's.
Blizz can't manage your PC for you. They don't keep your OS patched and up to date. They don't keep your Antivirus software patched and up to date. They don't keep your home network secure. They don't keep your system's bios, firmware, or drivers up to date. They can't stop you from you giving your user info to 1 of your friends, who may in turn, share it with someone else... and then so on. They can't stop you from using the same user name and password for their game that you do on every other game (and/or website). They can make sure that your information is as safe as it possibly can be once you send it to them. Once they have the information on their side... yes, that's their responsibility. If they have had an intrustion and someone has stolen your account information from them... that's on them, indeed. ...
There is no pre-req to owning a PC and using it. It doesn't take any level of certification or degree. You just have to have enough money to make the purchase. In many instances, there are some people that just shouldn't own or operate a PC. They don't know enough about taking care of their PC or their OS to keep them running well, secure, and they are, in general, in a constant state of 'need' for PC assistance. "I don't know how that got on there..." "I didn't install it... I just clicked on the e-mail..." "free antivirus sounded good because I didn't have any..." "PORN!" "I didn't do anything... it just stopped working".... Love it when friends and family ask for help with their PC's.
Blizz can't manage your PC for you. They don't keep your OS patched and up to date. They don't keep your Antivirus software patched and up to date. They don't keep your home network secure. They don't keep your system's bios, firmware, or drivers up to date. They can't stop you from you giving your user info to 1 of your friends, who may in turn, share it with someone else... and then so on. They can't stop you from using the same user name and password for their game that you do on every other game (and/or website). They can make sure that your information is as safe as it possibly can be once you send it to them. Once they have the information on their side... yes, that's their responsibility. If they have had an intrustion and someone has stolen your account information from them... that's on them, indeed. ...
There is no pre-req to owning a PC and using it. It doesn't take any level of certification or degree. You just have to have enough money to make the purchase. In many instances, there are some people that just shouldn't own or operate a PC. They don't know enough about taking care of their PC or their OS to keep them running well, secure, and they are, in general, in a constant state of 'need' for PC assistance. "I don't know how that got on there..." "I didn't install it... I just clicked on the e-mail..." "free antivirus sounded good because I didn't have any..." "PORN!" "I didn't do anything... it just stopped working".... Love it when friends and family ask for help with their PC's.
Thank you, BlackWatch, for restoring my faith in the idea that there is intelligent life in the internet universe.
"You are obviously confusing a mature rating with actual maturity." -Asherman
Maybe MMO is not your genre, go play Modern Warfare...or something you can be all twitchy...and rank up all night. This is seriously getting tired. -Ranyr
The BIGGEST cause for the increase in hacks lately has been due to "ADDON's".. YES.. I received this info directly from the mouth of Blizz ON THE phone.. If you are using WoWmatrix or Curse.com, or any 3rd party site to install addons you are open to being hacked.. It has NOTHING to do about not running anti viruses.. In fact I was told by Blizz that such key logging viruses will go undetected by most scan, unless you have a WoW window open that triggers the virus to run..
Lets not jump to conclusions that all hacks victems are careless.. even Blizz employees get hacked.. FACT.. Because of the promotion and use of addons, Blizz came out with the authenticator to combat this problem.. Addon viruses = get an authenticator..
Funny you say this...The exact same thing happened to me. Been playing since Beta and never had any problems. I switch over to Bnet like they required and let my account go inactive for a month then wham it gets hacked almost immediatly.
Obviously some serious security flaws in the system somewhere...
Funny you say this...The exact same thing happened to me. Been playing since Beta and never had any problems. I switch over to Bnet like they required and let my account go inactive for a month then wham it gets hacked almost immediatly. Obviously some serious security flaws in the system somewhere...
yup probably on your end
You probably got key logged a while back they go your email address and wow password, did not get your account login as you dont have to type that all the time, then you switch to bnet that needs your email address and wow password. They wait for the account to go inactive and pounce thinking the person would not care as it inactive.
Nods. Got jacked when BattleNet merge happened, at the time my account was inactive. Then again earlier this month that resulted in a ban. Now again this week account is jacked, password changed and suspended.
Its real easy to check if the emails are real or not... LOG INTO THE GAME. When the game says you are suspended, password error, banned... its real.
Blizz is making it real easy to keep playing EQ2.
But for the key log crowd... how does one log a password to an account that is inactive? Wouldn't someone have to oh I don't know, type it in? =P
Nods. Got jacked when BattleNet merge happened, at the time my account was inactive. Then again earlier this month that resulted in a ban. Now again this week account is jacked, password changed and suspended. Its real easy to check if the emails are real or not... LOG INTO THE GAME. When the game says you are suspended, password error, banned... its real. Blizz is making it real easy to keep playing EQ2. But for the key log crowd... how does one log a password to an account that is inactive? Wouldn't someone have to oh I don't know, type it in? =P
They could of logged your info months and months ago when you did type it in, just cus you get hacked on Friday does not mean you got key logged you on the Thursday.
Nods. Got jacked when BattleNet merge happened, at the time my account was inactive. Then again earlier this month that resulted in a ban. Now again this week account is jacked, password changed and suspended. Its real easy to check if the emails are real or not... LOG INTO THE GAME. When the game says you are suspended, password error, banned... its real. Blizz is making it real easy to keep playing EQ2. But for the key log crowd... how does one log a password to an account that is inactive? Wouldn't someone have to oh I don't know, type it in? =P
They could of logged your info months and months ago when you did type it in, just cus you get hacked on Friday does not mean you got key logged you on the Thursday.
Oh really? They logged people a year ago and just waited until they cancel? And then wait another few months to steal it? Please.
Nods. Got jacked when BattleNet merge happened, at the time my account was inactive. Then again earlier this month that resulted in a ban. Now again this week account is jacked, password changed and suspended. Its real easy to check if the emails are real or not... LOG INTO THE GAME. When the game says you are suspended, password error, banned... its real. Blizz is making it real easy to keep playing EQ2. But for the key log crowd... how does one log a password to an account that is inactive? Wouldn't someone have to oh I don't know, type it in? =P
They could of logged your info months and months ago when you did type it in, just cus you get hacked on Friday does not mean you got key logged you on the Thursday.
Oh really? They logged people a year ago and just waited until they cancel? And then wait another few months to steal it? Please.
Yup.. spammers keep email address for years, keeping wow account info is no different.. the information (even if its incomplete) is a commodity to be bought and sold.
If you want to live under a rock with ya tin foil hat on thinking ya safe behind your software firewall and anti-virus then so be it.
I had a similar thing happen to me, but I think it ended on a positive note. My account had been inactive since the end of October, and I think I did the Battle.net account switch a few weeks before that. Anyhow, after almost 3 months of inactivity, I get an email last week from Blizzard saying my password had been changed.
My immediate reaction was that I got hacked, since I hadn't logged into the game or my account page for months, and I didn't initiate the password change. However, the time from when the email was sent to the time I checked my email was only a few hours, so I thought there was a chance that they hadn't changed the email address yet. Sure enough, I was able to use the "Forgot Password" option, entered in the answer to my security question (which they didn't change as well) and was able to reset my password, after which I immediately downloaded the authenticator to my Ipod and linked it to my account to hopefully prevent this from happening again, even though I don't plan on playing.
So, I was able to take my account back, and looking at the payment history, the weird thing was that the account had been activated 5 days before they finally changed the password. Either they failed hacker school, or they thought since it was an inactive account, they had all the time in the world.
Now here's the kicker: All my epics and gold across all my toons are still there, one toon was used to farm leather cause his bags are full of it, and only my mats were sold on the AH, so I logged on to a mailbox full of succesful auctions! On top of that, a recurring subscription is set up now on their credit card, so I guess free WoW time? Not sure what to do about this.
Nods. Got jacked when BattleNet merge happened, at the time my account was inactive. Then again earlier this month that resulted in a ban. Now again this week account is jacked, password changed and suspended. Its real easy to check if the emails are real or not... LOG INTO THE GAME. When the game says you are suspended, password error, banned... its real. Blizz is making it real easy to keep playing EQ2. But for the key log crowd... how does one log a password to an account that is inactive? Wouldn't someone have to oh I don't know, type it in? =P
They could of logged your info months and months ago when you did type it in, just cus you get hacked on Friday does not mean you got key logged you on the Thursday.
Oh really? They logged people a year ago and just waited until they cancel? And then wait another few months to steal it? Please.
Yup.. spammers keep email address for years, keeping wow account info is no different.. the information (even if its incomplete) is a commodity to be bought and sold.
If you want to live under a rock with ya tin foil hat on thinking ya safe behind your software firewall and anti-virus then so be it.
As for myself I dont care either way, they can have my account if they want it. But is sure is odd that this is all happening at once. So either all the folks living under a rock quit the game at the same time or Blizz may have a security problem. I guess your tin foil hat theory may fit you as well. Yea, they have all this info for years and are just waiting to attack. I think I saw that movie on the creature feature years ago.
Of over roughly 12 years of playing online games, starting from Starsiege Tribes and Ultimate Online, I've not known a single person to be hacked. Over the course of the past few months, heck, few weeks in fact... I can name about two dozen different people -- and I rarely play nowadays.
These are some seriously paranoid people as well -- some of them, at least. Different emails, passwords, copy/paste, etc. I'm thinking a addon or something on a trusted site was infected as they were also almost all raiders.
Ever since it changed to an email log in, it seems quite widespread -- not saying that is to blame, but it is a signigicant starting point for 10x the hacks in recent months.
Nods. Got jacked when BattleNet merge happened, at the time my account was inactive. Then again earlier this month that resulted in a ban. Now again this week account is jacked, password changed and suspended. Its real easy to check if the emails are real or not... LOG INTO THE GAME. When the game says you are suspended, password error, banned... its real. Blizz is making it real easy to keep playing EQ2. But for the key log crowd... how does one log a password to an account that is inactive? Wouldn't someone have to oh I don't know, type it in? =P
They could of logged your info months and months ago when you did type it in, just cus you get hacked on Friday does not mean you got key logged you on the Thursday.
I was last active in WoW in 2006. Seems like an awful long time to sit on my info. Also the info changed when BNet hack happened and again last month. None of these hacks came from a key logger or phish email or add on. Unless of course you think NOD32 is pure garbage. Very tempted to get the BB authenticator just to stop the jacks. Little annoyed that there is a fee for it though given its to solve Blizz's security problems.
Nods. Got jacked when BattleNet merge happened, at the time my account was inactive. Then again earlier this month that resulted in a ban. Now again this week account is jacked, password changed and suspended. Its real easy to check if the emails are real or not... LOG INTO THE GAME. When the game says you are suspended, password error, banned... its real. Blizz is making it real easy to keep playing EQ2. But for the key log crowd... how does one log a password to an account that is inactive? Wouldn't someone have to oh I don't know, type it in? =P
They could of logged your info months and months ago when you did type it in, just cus you get hacked on Friday does not mean you got key logged you on the Thursday.
Oh really? They logged people a year ago and just waited until they cancel? And then wait another few months to steal it? Please.
Yup.. spammers keep email address for years, keeping wow account info is no different.. the information (even if its incomplete) is a commodity to be bought and sold.
If you want to live under a rock with ya tin foil hat on thinking ya safe behind your software firewall and anti-virus then so be it.
As for myself I dont care either way, they can have my account if they want it. But is sure is odd that this is all happening at once. So either all the folks living under a rock quit the game at the same time or Blizz may have a security problem. I guess your tin foil hat theory may fit you as well. Yea, they have all this info for years and are just waiting to attack. I think I saw that movie on the creature feature years ago.
This isn't "all happening at once". Why do you think blizzard introduced the authenticator in the first place? That wasn't something done in response to the battlenet changes, it was done long before that, because there was already a massive problem with people getting their accounts hacked and being stupid with their account information.
Which rock are you living under to not see all the effort blizzard has been doing to combat the account hacking long before battlenet? It has always been a widespread problem. This is not the first time people run to the forums claiming all manners of excuses and conspiracy in some attempt to place blame for their hacked accounts on anyone or anything but themselves.
Just listening to how many people in this thread think they are secure, because they run antivirus software is simply amazing. It is obvious how few people understand the various methods of hacking that can go on. From phishing, keylogging, dns poisoning to simple social engineering. Not to mention the people who share account information or log in at other locations.
The really funny part about all of this is how many people who post in this thread talk about wow being filled with only 12 years olds. Yet when it comes to account security those 12 year olds must be network engineers and blizzard must be at fault.
As to the topic of hacking inactive accounts, it makes perfect sense. A hacker is going to get far more access to an account someone is not paying attention to. They can bot and exploit far longer on those accounts than they could an account of an active player. It is actually very clever, because they can stockpile old accounts since they are not getting reclaimed by people who are actively playing. Why burn a hacked account for 1-2 days access when they can activate it for 30 days or more (assuming stolen CC numbers which is common).
Nods. Got jacked when BattleNet merge happened, at the time my account was inactive. Then again earlier this month that resulted in a ban. Now again this week account is jacked, password changed and suspended. Its real easy to check if the emails are real or not... LOG INTO THE GAME. When the game says you are suspended, password error, banned... its real. Blizz is making it real easy to keep playing EQ2. But for the key log crowd... how does one log a password to an account that is inactive? Wouldn't someone have to oh I don't know, type it in? =P
They could of logged your info months and months ago when you did type it in, just cus you get hacked on Friday does not mean you got key logged you on the Thursday.
Oh really? They logged people a year ago and just waited until they cancel? And then wait another few months to steal it? Please.
Yup.. spammers keep email address for years, keeping wow account info is no different.. the information (even if its incomplete) is a commodity to be bought and sold.
If you want to live under a rock with ya tin foil hat on thinking ya safe behind your software firewall and anti-virus then so be it.
As for myself I dont care either way, they can have my account if they want it. But is sure is odd that this is all happening at once. So either all the folks living under a rock quit the game at the same time or Blizz may have a security problem. I guess your tin foil hat theory may fit you as well. Yea, they have all this info for years and are just waiting to attack. I think I saw that movie on the creature feature years ago.
This isn't "all happening at once". Why do you think blizzard introduced the authenticator in the first place? That wasn't something done in response to the battlenet changes, it was done long before that, because there was already a massive problem with people getting their accounts hacked and being stupid with their account information.
Which rock are you living under to not see all the effort blizzard has been doing to combat the account hacking long before battlenet? It has always been a widespread problem. This is not the first time people run to the forums claiming all manners of excuses and conspiracy in some attempt to place blame for their hacked accounts on anyone or anything but themselves.
Just listening to how many people in this thread think they are secure, because they run antivirus software is simply amazing. It is obvious how few people understand the various methods of hacking that can go on. From phishing, keylogging, dns poisoning to simple social engineering. Not to mention the people who share account information or log in at other locations.
The really funny part about all of this is how many people who post in this thread talk about wow being filled with only 12 years olds. Yet when it comes to account security those 12 year olds must be network engineers and blizzard must be at fault.
As to the topic of hacking inactive accounts, it makes perfect sense. A hacker is going to get far more access to an account someone is not paying attention to. They can bot and exploit far longer on those accounts than they could an account of an active player. It is actually very clever, because they can stockpile old accounts since they are not getting reclaimed by people who are actively playing. Why burn a hacked account for 1-2 days access when they can activate it for 30 days or more (assuming stolen CC numbers which is common).
Another wall of text blaming anyone and everyone except Blizz. And as for it "happening all at once" I guess you are in denial at the influx of these claims of late? Its everyone else thats to blame, couldnt be a security breach from Blizzard. You deserve a raise.
Comments
I may be wrong, but I think you can link multiple accounts to one authenticator
I think you may be right, but we got three. Seemed kind of a pain in the ass to do it all with one, because then...if we wanted to play together, we'd have to run around to each room of the house with ONE authenticator to get the number to sign in....lol.
And....since the accounts are in 3 different names (even though we share an address, we all have our own computers and email addresses, etc, that we registered with)...I'm not sure we could have put it all on one anyway.....
President of The Marvelously Meowhead Fan Club
I may be wrong, but I think you can link multiple accounts to one authenticator
I think you may be right, but we got three. Seemed kind of a pain in the ass to do it all with one, because then...if we wanted to play together, we'd have to run around to each room of the house with ONE authenticator to get the number to sign in....lol.
And....since the accounts are in 3 different names (even though we share an address, we all have our own computers and email addresses, etc, that we registered with)...I'm not sure we could have put it all on one anyway.....
Gotcha, but in my place we have a separate floor for social activities. Everything except outdoor games are there. The computers are there.
I know that my own account was compromised when a fake armory site was googlebombed to #1 and I clicked it. I then entered my info on the next page which looked legit, due to beer goggles and assumptions about higher level blizz security being installed. LOL.
It happens, most of the latest round are phishing hacks. No installation necessary, you give them the info. Be very careful what URL's say.
My account wasn't hacked but after a year of innactivity, Blizzard seem to have deactivated my account. I had to phone them up and they promptly reactivated the account. I asked them why, but wasn't given a real answer.
yep politician response is never a satifying response espacially when it come from a mmo maker like blizzard!
Doing that is often the problem, visit www.manboobs,com then clear your cache & cookies, then go to GMail and type your email address (cus ya cleared cookies) then log into wow and type ya password (which you always have to do).. but what you did not know was that www.manboobs,com keylogged ya ... now the hackers possibly have your bnet login info... that they can test out at their lesiure the next day or in 6 months. etc.
And the keylogger might be instructed to remove its self after a reboot or x amount of hours to avoid detection but by then it could be too late.
Easy aint it, even the best anti-virus wont catch all hacks, especialy 0day hacks.
You've all been warned stay away from www.manboobs.com
Doing that is often the problem, visit www.manboobs,com then clear your cache & cookies, then go to GMail and type your email address (cus ya cleared cookies) then log into wow and type ya password (which you always have to do).. but what you did not know was that www.manboobs,com keylogged ya ... now the hackers possibly have your bnet login info... that they can test out at their lesiure the next day or in 6 months. etc.
And the keylogger might be instructed to remove its self after a reboot or x amount of hours to avoid detection but by then it could be too late.
Easy aint it, even the best anti-virus wont catch all hacks, especialy 0day hacks.
You've all been warned stay away from www.manboobs.com
Man I've GOT to ask....
Who on Earth would WANT to go to a site called "manboobs.com?" I mean....really. I don't even know any gay guys that would be attracted to a site with a name like that.....
lol
President of The Marvelously Meowhead Fan Club
Blizz can't manage your PC for you.
They don't keep your OS patched and up to date.
They don't keep your Antivirus software patched and up to date.
They don't keep your home network secure.
They don't keep your system's bios, firmware, or drivers up to date.
They can't stop you from you giving your user info to 1 of your friends, who may in turn, share it with someone else... and then so on.
They can't stop you from using the same user name and password for their game that you do on every other game (and/or website).
They can make sure that your information is as safe as it possibly can be once you send it to them. Once they have the information on their side... yes, that's their responsibility.
If they have had an intrustion and someone has stolen your account information from them... that's on them, indeed.
...
There is no pre-req to owning a PC and using it. It doesn't take any level of certification or degree. You just have to have enough money to make the purchase. In many instances, there are some people that just shouldn't own or operate a PC. They don't know enough about taking care of their PC or their OS to keep them running well, secure, and they are, in general, in a constant state of 'need' for PC assistance.
"I don't know how that got on there..."
"I didn't install it... I just clicked on the e-mail..."
"free antivirus sounded good because I didn't have any..."
"PORN!"
"I didn't do anything... it just stopped working"....
Love it when friends and family ask for help with their PC's.
THIS post.....
Wins my choice for post of the DECADE.
President of The Marvelously Meowhead Fan Club
Thank you, BlackWatch, for restoring my faith in the idea that there is intelligent life in the internet universe.
Firebrand Art
"You are obviously confusing a mature rating with actual maturity." -Asherman
Maybe MMO is not your genre, go play Modern Warfare...or something you can be all twitchy...and rank up all night. This is seriously getting tired. -Ranyr
The BIGGEST cause for the increase in hacks lately has been due to "ADDON's".. YES.. I received this info directly from the mouth of Blizz ON THE phone.. If you are using WoWmatrix or Curse.com, or any 3rd party site to install addons you are open to being hacked.. It has NOTHING to do about not running anti viruses.. In fact I was told by Blizz that such key logging viruses will go undetected by most scan, unless you have a WoW window open that triggers the virus to run..
Lets not jump to conclusions that all hacks victems are careless.. even Blizz employees get hacked.. FACT.. Because of the promotion and use of addons, Blizz came out with the authenticator to combat this problem.. Addon viruses = get an authenticator..
Funny you say this...The exact same thing happened to me. Been playing since Beta and never had any problems. I switch over to Bnet like they required and let my account go inactive for a month then wham it gets hacked almost immediatly.
Obviously some serious security flaws in the system somewhere...
yup probably on your end
You probably got key logged a while back they go your email address and wow password, did not get your account login as you dont have to type that all the time, then you switch to bnet that needs your email address and wow password. They wait for the account to go inactive and pounce thinking the person would not care as it inactive.
Its real easy to check if the emails are real or not... LOG INTO THE GAME. When the game says you are suspended, password error, banned... its real.
Blizz is making it real easy to keep playing EQ2.
But for the key log crowd... how does one log a password to an account that is inactive? Wouldn't someone have to oh I don't know, type it in? =P
They could of logged your info months and months ago when you did type it in, just cus you get hacked on Friday does not mean you got key logged you on the Thursday.
They could of logged your info months and months ago when you did type it in, just cus you get hacked on Friday does not mean you got key logged you on the Thursday.
Oh really? They logged people a year ago and just waited until they cancel? And then wait another few months to steal it? Please.
They could of logged your info months and months ago when you did type it in, just cus you get hacked on Friday does not mean you got key logged you on the Thursday.
Oh really? They logged people a year ago and just waited until they cancel? And then wait another few months to steal it? Please.
Yup.. spammers keep email address for years, keeping wow account info is no different.. the information (even if its incomplete) is a commodity to be bought and sold.
If you want to live under a rock with ya tin foil hat on thinking ya safe behind your software firewall and anti-virus then so be it.
I had a similar thing happen to me, but I think it ended on a positive note. My account had been inactive since the end of October, and I think I did the Battle.net account switch a few weeks before that. Anyhow, after almost 3 months of inactivity, I get an email last week from Blizzard saying my password had been changed.
My immediate reaction was that I got hacked, since I hadn't logged into the game or my account page for months, and I didn't initiate the password change. However, the time from when the email was sent to the time I checked my email was only a few hours, so I thought there was a chance that they hadn't changed the email address yet. Sure enough, I was able to use the "Forgot Password" option, entered in the answer to my security question (which they didn't change as well) and was able to reset my password, after which I immediately downloaded the authenticator to my Ipod and linked it to my account to hopefully prevent this from happening again, even though I don't plan on playing.
So, I was able to take my account back, and looking at the payment history, the weird thing was that the account had been activated 5 days before they finally changed the password. Either they failed hacker school, or they thought since it was an inactive account, they had all the time in the world.
Now here's the kicker: All my epics and gold across all my toons are still there, one toon was used to farm leather cause his bags are full of it, and only my mats were sold on the AH, so I logged on to a mailbox full of succesful auctions! On top of that, a recurring subscription is set up now on their credit card, so I guess free WoW time? Not sure what to do about this.
They could of logged your info months and months ago when you did type it in, just cus you get hacked on Friday does not mean you got key logged you on the Thursday.
Oh really? They logged people a year ago and just waited until they cancel? And then wait another few months to steal it? Please.
Yup.. spammers keep email address for years, keeping wow account info is no different.. the information (even if its incomplete) is a commodity to be bought and sold.
If you want to live under a rock with ya tin foil hat on thinking ya safe behind your software firewall and anti-virus then so be it.
As for myself I dont care either way, they can have my account if they want it. But is sure is odd that this is all happening at once. So either all the folks living under a rock quit the game at the same time or Blizz may have a security problem. I guess your tin foil hat theory may fit you as well. Yea, they have all this info for years and are just waiting to attack. I think I saw that movie on the creature feature years ago.
Authenticator for iPod Touch or iPhone.
Im just wondering, did any of you that was hack use the same password for your battle-net and e-mail address?
Im 1 of them that create a new gmail just because of this battle-net thing, but different pw for my mail.
Also i receive a lot of spam saying that my account is being hack, but they send to my mail that's not register with blizz...
RIP Orc Choppa
This truly is a mystery to me.
Of over roughly 12 years of playing online games, starting from Starsiege Tribes and Ultimate Online, I've not known a single person to be hacked. Over the course of the past few months, heck, few weeks in fact... I can name about two dozen different people -- and I rarely play nowadays.
These are some seriously paranoid people as well -- some of them, at least. Different emails, passwords, copy/paste, etc. I'm thinking a addon or something on a trusted site was infected as they were also almost all raiders.
Ever since it changed to an email log in, it seems quite widespread -- not saying that is to blame, but it is a signigicant starting point for 10x the hacks in recent months.
They could of logged your info months and months ago when you did type it in, just cus you get hacked on Friday does not mean you got key logged you on the Thursday.
I was last active in WoW in 2006. Seems like an awful long time to sit on my info. Also the info changed when BNet hack happened and again last month. None of these hacks came from a key logger or phish email or add on. Unless of course you think NOD32 is pure garbage. Very tempted to get the BB authenticator just to stop the jacks. Little annoyed that there is a fee for it though given its to solve Blizz's security problems.
They could of logged your info months and months ago when you did type it in, just cus you get hacked on Friday does not mean you got key logged you on the Thursday.
Oh really? They logged people a year ago and just waited until they cancel? And then wait another few months to steal it? Please.
Yup.. spammers keep email address for years, keeping wow account info is no different.. the information (even if its incomplete) is a commodity to be bought and sold.
If you want to live under a rock with ya tin foil hat on thinking ya safe behind your software firewall and anti-virus then so be it.
As for myself I dont care either way, they can have my account if they want it. But is sure is odd that this is all happening at once. So either all the folks living under a rock quit the game at the same time or Blizz may have a security problem. I guess your tin foil hat theory may fit you as well. Yea, they have all this info for years and are just waiting to attack. I think I saw that movie on the creature feature years ago.
This isn't "all happening at once". Why do you think blizzard introduced the authenticator in the first place? That wasn't something done in response to the battlenet changes, it was done long before that, because there was already a massive problem with people getting their accounts hacked and being stupid with their account information.
Which rock are you living under to not see all the effort blizzard has been doing to combat the account hacking long before battlenet? It has always been a widespread problem. This is not the first time people run to the forums claiming all manners of excuses and conspiracy in some attempt to place blame for their hacked accounts on anyone or anything but themselves.
Just listening to how many people in this thread think they are secure, because they run antivirus software is simply amazing. It is obvious how few people understand the various methods of hacking that can go on. From phishing, keylogging, dns poisoning to simple social engineering. Not to mention the people who share account information or log in at other locations.
The really funny part about all of this is how many people who post in this thread talk about wow being filled with only 12 years olds. Yet when it comes to account security those 12 year olds must be network engineers and blizzard must be at fault.
As to the topic of hacking inactive accounts, it makes perfect sense. A hacker is going to get far more access to an account someone is not paying attention to. They can bot and exploit far longer on those accounts than they could an account of an active player. It is actually very clever, because they can stockpile old accounts since they are not getting reclaimed by people who are actively playing. Why burn a hacked account for 1-2 days access when they can activate it for 30 days or more (assuming stolen CC numbers which is common).
They could of logged your info months and months ago when you did type it in, just cus you get hacked on Friday does not mean you got key logged you on the Thursday.
Oh really? They logged people a year ago and just waited until they cancel? And then wait another few months to steal it? Please.
Yup.. spammers keep email address for years, keeping wow account info is no different.. the information (even if its incomplete) is a commodity to be bought and sold.
If you want to live under a rock with ya tin foil hat on thinking ya safe behind your software firewall and anti-virus then so be it.
As for myself I dont care either way, they can have my account if they want it. But is sure is odd that this is all happening at once. So either all the folks living under a rock quit the game at the same time or Blizz may have a security problem. I guess your tin foil hat theory may fit you as well. Yea, they have all this info for years and are just waiting to attack. I think I saw that movie on the creature feature years ago.
This isn't "all happening at once". Why do you think blizzard introduced the authenticator in the first place? That wasn't something done in response to the battlenet changes, it was done long before that, because there was already a massive problem with people getting their accounts hacked and being stupid with their account information.
Which rock are you living under to not see all the effort blizzard has been doing to combat the account hacking long before battlenet? It has always been a widespread problem. This is not the first time people run to the forums claiming all manners of excuses and conspiracy in some attempt to place blame for their hacked accounts on anyone or anything but themselves.
Just listening to how many people in this thread think they are secure, because they run antivirus software is simply amazing. It is obvious how few people understand the various methods of hacking that can go on. From phishing, keylogging, dns poisoning to simple social engineering. Not to mention the people who share account information or log in at other locations.
The really funny part about all of this is how many people who post in this thread talk about wow being filled with only 12 years olds. Yet when it comes to account security those 12 year olds must be network engineers and blizzard must be at fault.
As to the topic of hacking inactive accounts, it makes perfect sense. A hacker is going to get far more access to an account someone is not paying attention to. They can bot and exploit far longer on those accounts than they could an account of an active player. It is actually very clever, because they can stockpile old accounts since they are not getting reclaimed by people who are actively playing. Why burn a hacked account for 1-2 days access when they can activate it for 30 days or more (assuming stolen CC numbers which is common).
Another wall of text blaming anyone and everyone except Blizz. And as for it "happening all at once" I guess you are in denial at the influx of these claims of late? Its everyone else thats to blame, couldnt be a security breach from Blizzard. You deserve a raise.