Massively

Blizzard denies Diablo III authenticator hacking claims

Justin Olivetti — Tue, 22 May 2012 17:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Launches, Legal, Diablo III

We've been following the mass reports of hackers bypassing passwords and authenticators to rob Diablo III accounts blind, and now we have a new twist on the story. While Blizzard confirmed "an increase in reports of individual account compromises," the studio says it has no hard evidence that hackers have found a way to skirt around the authentication system.

Community Manager Bashiok said that the company is taking the claims "extremely seriously" and is investigating the rash of account compromises. "Despite the claims and theories being made, we have yet to find any situations in which a person's account was not compromised through traditional means of someone else logging into their account through the use of their password," he said. "While the authenticator isn't a 100% guarantee of account security, we have yet to investigate a compromise report in which an authenticator was attached beforehand."

Blizzard is assisting compromised customers by restoring stolen items and rolling back their accounts. The studio has a post up on its forums to help players protect their accounts and get assistance if theft occurs.

Blizzard denies Diablo III authenticator hacking claims originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 22 May 2012 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Guy steals friend's goods in APB, GM offers vigilante justice in return

Justin Olivetti — Sat, 19 May 2012 13:00:00 EST

Filed under: Culture, Free-to-play, All Points Bulletin, Crime, MMOFPS, Humor

Account theft and compromise are tragic facts of life in all MMOs, as player BlackJackieChan discovered the other day when he logged into APB: Reloaded and realized that he was wiped out.

After posting a tirade on the forums, BlackJackieChan got the attention of a GM, who subsequently investigated the crime. His findings were stunning: BlackJackieChan's in-game friend beef43302 was the culprit. Beef43302 had crept into his friend's account, swiped a number of goods, and then deleted the temporary characters used for the theft. Beef43302 then tried to cover up his wrongdoing by consoling BlackJackieChan with a new car and encouraging him to stick with the game.

Even though BlackJackieChan was accused of not protecting his account (apparently he had shown his password to his friend), GamersFirst restored the stolen items and then offered BlackJackieChan the chance to decide his friend's punishment. "Seeing as this is a relatively unique case," the GM wrote, "we shall let you decide the fate of beef43302."

BlackJackieChan has yet to respond on the thread, but the GM did tell the offender that the company suspended his account "unless BlackJackieChan says otherwise."

Guy steals friend's goods in APB, GM offers vigilante justice in return originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 19 May 2012 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Daily Grind: Are you in favor of developer-sanctioned RMT?

Rubi Bayer — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 08:00:00 EST

Filed under: Economy, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous

The Ottawa Citizen recently did a story on real money trading in MMOs, and it started some interesting conversation here on Massively.

There are some who feel that the only way to truly eliminate the problem is to legalize it, so to speak -- cutting down on stolen accounts, shady deals, and ripped-off consumers by creating official channels for everything. Others argue that it won't help and that making real-world cash a part of the player economy is a terrible idea in general.

It's a discussion that can be approached from plenty of different directions, so what say you? Should developers create official channels and be done with it, or keep working to eliminate it altogether?

Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!

The Daily Grind: Are you in favor of developer-sanctioned RMT? originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 06 Sep 2011 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A cautionary tale of account security in Club Penguin

Justin Olivetti — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: Club Penguin, Legal, Virtual worlds, Family

Many MMO gamers have children who are eager to jump into the online world but are unaware of the dangers that lurk there. While many kid-friendly MMOs have systems to guard children from unwelcome contact and identity theft, they still require the assistance of parents to teach their kids how to be safe in games.

The Ancient Gaming Noob's Wilhelm recently shared a cautionary tale involving his daughter, Club Penguin, and a breach of account security. Even though she was cautioned not to share a list of details with anyone in game, all it took was the offer of a special item to get her to give up her account name and password to a stranger. This resulted in a headache, as the account was banned, and Wilhelm went back and forth with Club Penguin to re-establish his daughter's account and security. In the end, he found that Club Penguin's security was just as questionable as his daughter's judgment, and passed this story along to the rest of us in an effort to guard our own young ones from this unfortunate event.

Considering that account security, personal identity and privacy are hot topics these days, we feel that this story is an eye-opener as to how far both game companies and families have to go to protect our loved ones from being exploited. You can read Wilhelm's full account over at The Ancient Gaming Noob.

A cautionary tale of account security in Club Penguin originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 14 Jul 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Confessions of a gold scammer and identity thief

Eliot Lefebvre — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: Video, Exploits, Interviews, Making money

"We have met the enemy and he is us." The player identified as "Patrick" is not the malevolent monstrosity we'd like to see. Nor is he a victim of circumstance, at that. He acts for all the world like a perfectly normal gamer, and if you didn't know he'd scammed between $10,000 and $20,000 in a year of reprehensible behavior, you certainly wouldn't be able to guess. That's what makes a video interview with him, mirrored and annotated at PlayNoEvil and originally recorded by Marcus Eikenberry, so odd on many levels.

The full interview lasts thiry-eight minutes, which makes it a bit long for casual viewing. The article which mirrors the video notes some of the highlights, including when he almost breathlessly exhorts the moment he realized that there was nothing in PayPal's EULA that prevented him from not transferring his EVE Online account to a purchaser on Craigslist.

His rationalizing of the actions include the loss of his job and financial instability, even as he begins the interview explaining how he would scam players in both EVE Online and World of Warcraft for fun. His words are unsettling, but what makes them all the more eerie is the fact that without the foreknowledge... there's no way to tell his voice from any of ours. When you have the time, the whole interview is well worth looking at if you're at all interested in account security and the culture of scammers.

Confessions of a gold scammer and identity thief originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 19 Jan 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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CEO of SecurePlay discusses account security

Rubi Bayer — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 13:00:00 EST

Filed under: Interviews, News items, Massively Interviews

Anyone even slightly in touch with the MMO community is aware that account security has been an even bigger concern than usual for the past few months. While it's more in the forefront of everyone's mind these days, it's important to remember that this isn't a brand new problem. It's very important for people on both sides of a game -- both the player side and the development side -- to work to make player accounts as safe as possible.

Steven Davis, CEO of SecurePlay and the mind behind PlayNoEvil, has been watching the events with interest and spent some time recently talking to us about his take on the situation as well as overall account security. Follow along after the jump and see what he had to say.

Continue reading CEO of SecurePlay discusses account security

CEO of SecurePlay discusses account security originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 18 Jan 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Anti-Aliased: Hax0red

Seraphina Brennan — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Culture, Opinion, Anti-Aliased

Today was a beautiful morning. It was a morning filled with sunshine, chirping birds, and a good night's rest. I was up writing late last night, so it was nice to sleep in a little before getting a start on the day. Yet, all cozy naps must come to an end, as I had to get up to man my computer, check my e-mail, and get a start on today's work.

As I booted up Mozilla Thunderbird and looked over the e-mails that were floating in my inbox (yesterday's MAG comments, Star Wars Galaxies comments, and some new screenshots for D&D Online) I saw one that kinda stuck out. It was from Blizzard Entertainment Support, and it was a password change notification from Battle.net. At first I chuckled, thinking it was some type of spammer who was trying to get me to give up my password, but on looking through the letter, I noticed it was authentic Blizzard material.

That's when my phone rang. It was one of my guildmate's numbers flashing on the screen. Those birds stopped chirping after that booming string of profanities escaped my mouth.

Continue reading Anti-Aliased: Hax0red

Anti-Aliased: Hax0red originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 16 Sep 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Lame scams still profitable in Guild Wars, over 1000 bans every week

James Egan — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 14:30:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Guild Wars, Exploits, Game mechanics, MMO industry, Opinion

Would you fall for this? (Please say 'no'...): A complete stranger approaches you on the sidewalk outside of your bank and shows you a rare coin he says is worth twenty thousand dollars. "I want to just give this coin to you," he says, "but I don't want anyone to know we did this... tax issues, you see." The stranger suggests putting it in your safe deposit box, but because he's so concerned about privacy, he wants access to your safe deposit box to be sure the rare coin gets there, with no one the wiser. The problem is that he can only get in there with your express permission...

We're guessing 99.99% of you would never get suckered by something asinine like this, but why then do people fall for the exact same thing in the virtual realm? Specifically, it seems that Guild Wars players regularly turn over their login info to account thieves in hopes of getting something for nothing, as mentioned by Ravious over at Kill Ten Rats. This ultimately leads to a continuous deluge of stolen accounts, tears, and rage.

Continue reading Lame scams still profitable in Guild Wars, over 1000 bans every week

Lame scams still profitable in Guild Wars, over 1000 bans every week originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 06 Jan 2009 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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SOE's advice on keeping your account safe from theft

Shawn Schuster — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 09:00:00 EST

Filed under: Exploits, MMO industry, Tips and tricks, Legal

We can't stress it enough, but most account theft is preventable. Whether you've let your significant other borrow your account for a day, or your password is "12345", just like it is on your luggage, you've probably had a hand in your own account's demise in one way or another.

Over at SOE, they're trying to make the whole process a bit smoother by informing players on the dangers of account theft and how serious it can be. They've heard the stories of emptied guild banks, disbanded guilds and stripped characters, which they say is often the direct result of sharing account information. Check out the entire article for more of their tips and recommendations for keeping your account safe, and making their job a bit easier.

...And change the combination on your luggage!

SOE's advice on keeping your account safe from theft originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 06 Dec 2008 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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