LOL to all those who blame the person for their acct being hacked. Havent played the game in years and don't even have it on my computer and 2 days ago I get an email telling me mines been hack from Blizzard. So it isnt always the person fault for being hacked.
Daffid011 I did mention I could see the possibility of a virus being hidden in the addons, then a worm activating them either through a web browser or I wouldn't be surprised if through the auto updater. That's why I mentioned I'm not completely sure on the possibilities, but I could see something like that happen.
If the website could execute programs on a remote computer visiting the website, then it already has access to everything it needs to do whatever it wants. It would not need to rely on the user to do anything. Security is already breached at that point and nothing really needs to be put into any download, including addons.
You are right about the auto updater though. It can download and install anything it wants without the user knowing what it did. That is why I said it doesn't make much sense for someone using one of those to be giving out security advice.
Since you didnt get an auto-matic email saying your password was changed....and also that your email had been changed.
The Hacker in this case can only be a GM, CUstomer Service Rep. or a Developer for the company.....no matter what..... it was someone working for the company.
The Reason this is the only answer is becasue the problem is....Automatic systems are annoying....super annoying...and they tell you via email eveyrthing that you do....they even give you a chance to fix things...like if you happen to accidentaly change to the wrong email.....it sends a message to the old email asking if you want to let the change happen....just as an example
So if the automatic systems are bypassed...then only a few people can do that....
Security at Blizzard = Fail if they didnt figure this out.
Since you didnt get an auto-matic email saying your password was changed....and also that your email had been changed.
The Hacker in this case can only be a GM, CUstomer Service Rep. or a Developer for the company.....no matter what..... it was someone working for the company.
The Reason this is the only answer is becasue the problem is....Automatic systems are annoying....super annoying...and they tell you via email eveyrthing that you do....they even give you a chance to fix things...like if you happen to accidentaly change to the wrong email.....it sends a message to the old email asking if you want to let the change happen....just as an example
So if the automatic systems are bypassed...then only a few people can do that....
Security at Blizzard = Fail if they didnt figure this out.
First of all the original article shows screen shots from Wrath of the Lich King, so that brings the validity of the article into question. Maybe I am wrong, but I thought the login screen changed for everyone to a cataclysm screen back when patch 4.0 released in november.
However, you are incorrect that this proves it is an inside job.
If the authors email account was hacked, then a hacker could just delete any automatically generated email from blizzard. Not only that, but they also have complete access to reset the players account password any time they want. Again with full ability to delete any emails send to confirm new password, etc.
Hackers don't even need to target wow itself anymore, because they can get everything they need from an email account.
Since you didnt get an auto-matic email saying your password was changed....and also that your email had been changed.
The Hacker in this case can only be a GM, CUstomer Service Rep. or a Developer for the company.....no matter what..... it was someone working for the company.
The Reason this is the only answer is becasue the problem is....Automatic systems are annoying....super annoying...and they tell you via email eveyrthing that you do....they even give you a chance to fix things...like if you happen to accidentaly change to the wrong email.....it sends a message to the old email asking if you want to let the change happen....just as an example
So if the automatic systems are bypassed...then only a few people can do that....
Security at Blizzard = Fail if they didnt figure this out.
First of all the original article shows screen shots from Wrath of the Lich King, so that brings the validity of the article into question. Maybe I am wrong, but I thought the login screen changed for everyone to a cataclysm screen back when patch 4.0 released in november.
However, you are incorrect that this proves it is an inside job.
If the authors email account was hacked, then a hacker could just delete any automatically generated email from blizzard. Not only that, but they also have complete access to reset the players account password any time they want. Again with full ability to delete any emails send to confirm new password, etc.
Hackers don't even need to target wow itself anymore, because they can get everything they need from an email account.
Exactly, as I and a couple of others have pointed out, this articale is completely bogus to try and stir up anti wow discussions. The articale was posted on Dec 21st, with the statement that all of this happened "this past weekend".
The wotlk title screen hasnt been in the game since mid Nov... MMORPG.com really needs to check these before posting them on their main page....
I starting playing wow in october with a friend account got hacked in less than 24 hours. I run three dif virus protections for keylog etc... I have been playing mmos since 1997 never had an account hacked til wow. Got my account info changed then quit. I play eq and eq2 regularly to this day. My wow account got rehacked about a week ago. Now if its not blizzard then why don't my other game accounts get hacked? Pretty sure gold farmers aren't picky now days. Someone explain this to me? Since I'm at fault not blizzard.
I starting playing wow in october with a friend account got hacked in less than 24 hours. I run three dif virus protections for keylog etc... I have been playing mmos since 1997 never had an account hacked til wow. Got my account info changed then quit. I play eq and eq2 regularly to this day. My wow account got rehacked about a week ago. Now if its not blizzard then why don't my other game accounts get hacked? Pretty sure gold farmers aren't picky now days. Someone explain this to me? Since I'm at fault not blizzard.
chances are you replied to an email.. and followed a link, now although the link may take you to the real battlenet website, it usually does so through its own 'portal' and you guessed it.. all the details you enter, are stored in their database for use as and whenever they like. I know its been said a lot, but you should never, ever follow a link in an email you receive, no matter how genuine it appears to be. Thats the most common one anyway, but its not the only method... as some also include backdoor programs that are installed along with 'addon's that claim to be legitimate, imo, i think thats why Blizzard started improving their own UI, with more functionality etc. An authenticator, these days is a necessity for any WOW player, just be sure that if you get an authenticator app, for your mobile, that you get the one from the battlenet website...
I starting playing wow in october with a friend account got hacked in less than 24 hours. I run three dif virus protections for keylog etc... I have been playing mmos since 1997 never had an account hacked til wow. Got my account info changed then quit. I play eq and eq2 regularly to this day. My wow account got rehacked about a week ago. Now if its not blizzard then why don't my other game accounts get hacked? Pretty sure gold farmers aren't picky now days. Someone explain this to me? Since I'm at fault not blizzard.
This is the same dumb argument mac users use, "Macs dont get viruses because they are better".
Its actually because nobody uses macs compared to PC, thus all the effort is put to making worms and viruses for PCs
The same case here, barely anyone plays any other p2p mmo compared to WoW, therefore wow is what all (or the majroity) of the hackers/goldsellers are after...
BTW, all of the anti viruss software in the world wont stop you from getting your account info phished....
WoW (battle.net) makes you use your email address as your username. Chances are, if you sign up to any site/game/anything with your email address, you will use the same password as well. If I sign up to "X" f2p MMO or random site that has nothing to do with wow and use a@a.com as my userID, and balls as my password, and I also sign up to wow with the same id and password, believe you me, they will be attemting that username and password combo in wow (without even knowing if I play wow or not)....
Thats why this is such a problem, people think that just because they have an antivirus, its all Blizz's fault/inside job...
Trust me, its costing them more to resolve than anything...do you know how many GMs are working simply to restore accounts, not to mention the development and support on all of the free smartphone authenticators, I am sure its a lot more than the maybve $0.50 they make off the physical authenticators...
Never been hacked in 12 years of online pc game play in every genre.
Actually I feel a little sad after reading this thread, like a pretty girl in a bar who was never good enough for anyones' roofies.
SOMEBODY LOVE ME!
That said, I'm going to run with the "duplicated password used on multiple sites" along with a frequently used email addy. I don't do this, always a different pw for everything.
The premise behind the OPs arguments are a bit specious so i'll have to agree.. Blizzard, since the battlenet update debacle, are doing the best they can to increase account security, what they cannot do however, is prevent people falling for phishing email scams, social engineering will always find ways of circumventing purely password based protection systems, the only thing they could do was to introduce the authenticators, that they did so at as low a cost as they did, despite claims to the contrary - if your going to point fingers at cash grabs, then look no further than the celestial horsey thing... the authenticator.. isnt one of them. Agree though, that Eve players would laugh this kind of thing off as the delusions of a tinfoil hat wearer...
The Wall of Faith devotees of Blizzard have erected impresses me.
"Blizzard can't be hacked, it has to be at your end." "If Blizzard were hacked, they'd tell us." Because Corporations are always honest with their customers.... repeated claims that the hacking/data theft could only possibly occur at the user's end. Next time somemone builds a ship and names it "Titanic II", bills it as "Utterly unsinkable, we mean it in ", then perhaps Blizzard could hold it's next convention on board, and nobody will be concerned that the unsinkable ship heading into the north atlantic doesn't have lifeboats...
Sure, most security breaches happen on the user end. Malware, bogus links, phishing messages and the like. But it's ridiculous to assume... and demand others assume.... that Blizzard is immune to hackers or compromised/suborned employees. I just got back from a fun and educational jaunt on Blizzard's forums regarding a similar occurance with my wife's account. There were many posters who provided, or sought to provide, helpful information. And for each of those was a smug fanboi posting the system security equivalent of "LRN 2PLY NOOB!" The thread was (anyone surprised?) locked before too long, I guess Blizzard mods are touchy about heresy.
One area the original article was less than accurate about was the authenticator. The free dial in version negates the claim that this is all a "money grab" by bliz. (And this is coming from someone who likes the game but doesn't like how Blizzard runs things, it's forums in particular.) Since they do provide a free authenticator, I can't harsh them on this.
HI all for everyone that does'nt know this .. blizzard has had a security breach for sometime .The breach came from a botnet . set on blizzards email account sever or spolls server for admins like myself. They know its there but they wont fix it ,does anyone want to know why. It's simple supply and deman they supply stolen accounts to chines farmer's so they can sell you the items and gold back. They hitting player's from both sides . Also on the topic of crappy game's stay away from world of tanks its crap the russian devs are making the game one sided . all russian tanks are overpowered. and they thing they won ww2. thanks all enjoy the holidays be safe and have fun out there.....:)
Also on the topic of crappy game's stay away from world of tanks its crap the russian devs are making the game one sided . all russian tanks are overpowered. and they thing they won ww2. thanks all enjoy the holidays be safe and have fun out there.....:)
Perhaps you should hit the history books, or at least Wikipedia's WWII entry: The Allies won WWII, and the U.S.S.R. was a member of the Allies. Ergo, they did win WWII. Also, some of the tanks that the Soviets designed were insanely powerful. For instance during trials the Soviets discovered that the IS-7's 130mm gun had difficulty taking out the IS-7 due to the thickness of that tank's armor. However the continued development of portable anti-tank weapons convinced the Soviets to change their doctrine away from heavy tanks, and instead they focused on more balanced tanks such as the T-54/55.
As to your claims of Blizzard working in partnership with the Chinese gold farmers? Show us some actual proof, please.
"Oh my, how horrible, someone is criticizing a MMO. Oh yeah, that is what a forum is about, looking at both sides. You rather have to be critical of anything in this genre as of late because the track record of these major studios has just been appalling." -Ozmodan
And im calling BS on this whole hacked story... he shows screen shots from the WotLK login screen, and said it happened this past weekend, with the rant being on the 21st of December.
That login screen hasn`t around since the Shattering back in November. This just seems to be just some lame anti-wow rant written by someone who pays about as much attention to detail as a fire hydrant.
+1 and Upped for epic failure of the "official" rant of the OP.
Explain OP ... How is your screen shot showing the login screen of October, while you were supposed to being "hacked" in Dec ?
) So we should expect all the rest of the story also to be "true" ?
Funny how a lot of IT guys laugh and say, "yeah it is your fault, not blizzard"
I bet your password was a small letters and was a common word like "alphabet". Then you wonder how you get hacked. Anyone working at blizzard has access to emails from active accounts. They sell them to gold farmers. Gold farmers try to brute-force your password. Type in a real password, and your account is safe.
It can also be a new security flaw in FlashPlayer. Why people still do not use flashblock is beyond me. This is something everyone, no matter how good, may fall victim to. Even I. You open a compromised flash ad, and the keylogger is in your pc. This means, you should only open flash content you trust, which is exactly what flashblock allows you to do.
Obviously, if you use microsoft internet explorer in 2010, you are made of fail. There are still plently of critical security flaws that are known, and not fixed. Look at a browser like Firefox or Chrome, and a known flaw is updated usually within 3 days.
Bottom line is:
If you get hacked, you are at fault for not taking the steps to protect your PC. Blizzard sells a game, not a brain. Would you blame a car company if your car falls in a ditch when you are driving with summer tires in the middle of a snowstorm? If so, you might need a couple of pills that help people come back to reality.
Bottom line folks - you have to get the free authenticator service. This is the only 100% guaranteed way to avoid being hacked. I have the service on my Android phone and it's so easy. If you don't get the authenticator you will eventually be hacked. Whether it's an inside or outside job, you will be hacked. So get the authenticator allright?
Bottom line folks - you have to get the free authenticator service. This is the only 100% guaranteed way to avoid being hacked. I have the service on my Android phone and it's so easy. If you don't get the authenticator you will eventually be hacked. Whether it's an inside or outside job, you will be hacked. So get the authenticator allright?
There is no such thing as a 100% way to be safe from getting hacked. Even authenticators will not make you 100% safe.
It is really difficult to even believe stories like this - and I actually know someone who was hacked. But you just have to wonder how it happens and how often, especially when you see threads like this and know that half the people here are lying. Take this for instance:
"i reinstalled wow after not playing for months and found out my account was being used for gold farming. so i switch my PW and go to log on today and pw was changed. there was also an authenticator attached to my accout(by whoever hacked my account) so i switch my PW again and log in and immediately delete all my chars. ive had it with wow. i will never go back"
Uh huh. Anyone who knows anything about authenticators knows this is just a bald faced lie. Well - unless he skipped the part about going through the hassle of calling Blizzard and sending in all the id verification they require and then waiting for them to release the authenticator from the account. Seems like an awful lot of work just so he can delete some characters.
I have known someone who was hacked. I haven't known anyone get hacked who knew anything about computer security. I haven't known anyone with an authenticator get hacked. If you play WoW and you have a good password you should be fine. If you play WoW hardcore, get an authenticator. As for the stories here - believe what you will. I'll be taking Marvin Gaye's advice on this one.
I was pleasantly surprised when I went from Apprentice to full 5 star Elite in under 2 months. I was pleasantly surprised again when I went from Elite to just barely Hardcore in 2 weeks. Apprentice, here I come!
Ok, I am a former Wow Player, got hacked, no keyloggers no malware nothing my machine is clean, had another guy who has tighter security on his pc than the white house, and got hacked multiple times(prior to the authenticator being a hot ticket item). Someone was able to get into blizzards system, maybe not the credit card info, but their system. A friend of mine had his account hacked, during a period the account was OFFLINE due to no payment in the system, the whoever they were took and reactivated his account to use it...this was 3 or 4 months into his inactivity then a few months after went to reactivate his account and saw when it was last turned on and went what the hell...and got an authenticator. Whether or not blizzard knows about or can stop the internal intrustions on their end I do not know. For giggles, I created a fake(i.e. one I won't use more than a dozen times) email address and setup a trial to WoW and not a day later got a phishing email about my account being compromised...so that sort of pins the nail in the coffin that whatever is happening is something with blizzard itself, whether they have the people and/or resources to stop it.
My account was also hacked back when I used to play. It took 3 days of trying to call blizzard support only getting a busy signal, then when I finally got through, I had to stay on hold for 3 hours. When I finally got my account back, I noticed that all of my items were deleted. I filled out an in-game ticket for GM assistance and stood around in my underwear for 8 hours until giving up and canceling my account.
An entire year after I canceled my account, I got another email from blizzard saying my account may have been compromised. I deleted the message and didn't even care.
Worst customer service ever.
I refuse to pay extra to have my account's security guaranteed by buying a special keychain when they could make and give free downloads of a standalone program that does the exact same thing.
This entire situation smells fishy and sounds like a scam.
(EDIT: I may add that I have an Associates degree from KSU for Computer Technology, so I know a thing or two about keeping my computer and information secure.)
Ok, I am a former Wow Player, got hacked, no keyloggers no malware nothing my machine is clean, had another guy who has tighter security on his pc than the white house, and got hacked multiple times(prior to the authenticator being a hot ticket item). Someone was able to get into blizzards system, maybe not the credit card info, but their system. A friend of mine had his account hacked, during a period the account was OFFLINE due to no payment in the system, the whoever they were took and reactivated his account to use it...this was 3 or 4 months into his inactivity then a few months after went to reactivate his account and saw when it was last turned on and went what the hell...and got an authenticator. Whether or not blizzard knows about or can stop the internal intrustions on their end I do not know. For giggles, I created a fake(i.e. one I won't use more than a dozen times) email address and setup a trial to WoW and not a day later got a phishing email about my account being compromised...so that sort of pins the nail in the coffin that whatever is happening is something with blizzard itself, whether they have the people and/or resources to stop it.
So what you are saying is that it is impossible for you and your friends to have gotten hacked, had your email account broken into, visited an exploited website, watched a video with a flash exploit, registered on some forum with your bnet login email address, maybe used the same password somewhere for your email/account or any number of other methods account thieves use to deceive players into compromising their accounts. Since you lack a clear understanding of how your account got hacked, it must be blizzards fault?
I have several blizzard accounts. Never hacked, never get phishing emails and things work just fine. Even on new accounts.
Also I'm pretty sure blizzard could catch an employee who is selling information if they sold your email account the very first day it was created. It isn't like some blizzard security guy couldn't create a new account like you did and just monitor who/what accesses the information. If a couple of forum dwellers like us can solve this problem I'm pretty sure the professionals at a company could resolve it too.
This is just a shot in the dark, but has it crossed your mind that maybe your email got phished so quickly as a result of something you have or something you did, but may not realize or know about? It is just a thought.
An entire year after I canceled my account, I got another email from blizzard saying my account may have been compromised. I deleted the message and didn't even care.
Worst customer service ever.
I refuse to pay extra to have my account's security guaranteed by buying a special keychain when they could make and give free downloads of a standalone program that does the exact same thing.
This entire situation smells fishy and sounds like a scam.
(EDIT: I may add that I have an Associates degree from KSU for Computer Technology, so I know a thing or two about keeping my computer and information secure.)
I thought you might like to know that blizzard does offer free authenticators for several mobile devices as well as the free 1-800 call back authenticator service. That doesn't leave much to scam players since they are free.
One more thing the email you got a year later, probably wasn't from blizzard.
And im calling BS on this whole hacked story... he shows screen shots from the WotLK login screen, and said it happened this past weekend, with the rant being on the 21st of December.
That login screen hasn`t around since the Shattering back in November. This just seems to be just some lame anti-wow rant written by someone who pays about as much attention to detail as a fire hydrant.
+1 and Upped for epic failure of the "official" rant of the OP.
Explain OP ... How is your screen shot showing the login screen of October, while you were supposed to being "hacked" in Dec ?
) So we should expect all the rest of the story also to be "true" ?
I would still like to see mmorpg.com's response to this. I called this out last week, and still nothing...
Comments
LOL to all those who blame the person for their acct being hacked. Havent played the game in years and don't even have it on my computer and 2 days ago I get an email telling me mines been hack from Blizzard. So it isnt always the person fault for being hacked.
If the website could execute programs on a remote computer visiting the website, then it already has access to everything it needs to do whatever it wants. It would not need to rely on the user to do anything. Security is already breached at that point and nothing really needs to be put into any download, including addons.
You are right about the auto updater though. It can download and install anything it wants without the user knowing what it did. That is why I said it doesn't make much sense for someone using one of those to be giving out security advice.
Authenticators are not full proof btw.
Since you didnt get an auto-matic email saying your password was changed....and also that your email had been changed.
The Hacker in this case can only be a GM, CUstomer Service Rep. or a Developer for the company.....no matter what..... it was someone working for the company.
The Reason this is the only answer is becasue the problem is....Automatic systems are annoying....super annoying...and they tell you via email eveyrthing that you do....they even give you a chance to fix things...like if you happen to accidentaly change to the wrong email.....it sends a message to the old email asking if you want to let the change happen....just as an example
So if the automatic systems are bypassed...then only a few people can do that....
Security at Blizzard = Fail if they didnt figure this out.
First of all the original article shows screen shots from Wrath of the Lich King, so that brings the validity of the article into question. Maybe I am wrong, but I thought the login screen changed for everyone to a cataclysm screen back when patch 4.0 released in november.
However, you are incorrect that this proves it is an inside job.
If the authors email account was hacked, then a hacker could just delete any automatically generated email from blizzard. Not only that, but they also have complete access to reset the players account password any time they want. Again with full ability to delete any emails send to confirm new password, etc.
Hackers don't even need to target wow itself anymore, because they can get everything they need from an email account.
Exactly, as I and a couple of others have pointed out, this articale is completely bogus to try and stir up anti wow discussions. The articale was posted on Dec 21st, with the statement that all of this happened "this past weekend".
The wotlk title screen hasnt been in the game since mid Nov... MMORPG.com really needs to check these before posting them on their main page....
chances are you replied to an email.. and followed a link, now although the link may take you to the real battlenet website, it usually does so through its own 'portal' and you guessed it.. all the details you enter, are stored in their database for use as and whenever they like. I know its been said a lot, but you should never, ever follow a link in an email you receive, no matter how genuine it appears to be. Thats the most common one anyway, but its not the only method... as some also include backdoor programs that are installed along with 'addon's that claim to be legitimate, imo, i think thats why Blizzard started improving their own UI, with more functionality etc. An authenticator, these days is a necessity for any WOW player, just be sure that if you get an authenticator app, for your mobile, that you get the one from the battlenet website...
This is the same dumb argument mac users use, "Macs dont get viruses because they are better".
Its actually because nobody uses macs compared to PC, thus all the effort is put to making worms and viruses for PCs
The same case here, barely anyone plays any other p2p mmo compared to WoW, therefore wow is what all (or the majroity) of the hackers/goldsellers are after...
BTW, all of the anti viruss software in the world wont stop you from getting your account info phished....
WoW (battle.net) makes you use your email address as your username. Chances are, if you sign up to any site/game/anything with your email address, you will use the same password as well. If I sign up to "X" f2p MMO or random site that has nothing to do with wow and use a@a.com as my userID, and balls as my password, and I also sign up to wow with the same id and password, believe you me, they will be attemting that username and password combo in wow (without even knowing if I play wow or not)....
Thats why this is such a problem, people think that just because they have an antivirus, its all Blizz's fault/inside job...
Trust me, its costing them more to resolve than anything...do you know how many GMs are working simply to restore accounts, not to mention the development and support on all of the free smartphone authenticators, I am sure its a lot more than the maybve $0.50 they make off the physical authenticators...
Never been hacked in 12 years of online pc game play in every genre.
Actually I feel a little sad after reading this thread, like a pretty girl in a bar who was never good enough for anyones' roofies.
SOMEBODY LOVE ME!
That said, I'm going to run with the "duplicated password used on multiple sites" along with a frequently used email addy. I don't do this, always a different pw for everything.
The premise behind the OPs arguments are a bit specious so i'll have to agree.. Blizzard, since the battlenet update debacle, are doing the best they can to increase account security, what they cannot do however, is prevent people falling for phishing email scams, social engineering will always find ways of circumventing purely password based protection systems, the only thing they could do was to introduce the authenticators, that they did so at as low a cost as they did, despite claims to the contrary - if your going to point fingers at cash grabs, then look no further than the celestial horsey thing... the authenticator.. isnt one of them. Agree though, that Eve players would laugh this kind of thing off as the delusions of a tinfoil hat wearer...
The Wall of Faith devotees of Blizzard have erected impresses me.
"Blizzard can't be hacked, it has to be at your end." "If Blizzard were hacked, they'd tell us." Because Corporations are always honest with their customers.... repeated claims that the hacking/data theft could only possibly occur at the user's end. Next time somemone builds a ship and names it "Titanic II", bills it as "Utterly unsinkable, we mean it in ", then perhaps Blizzard could hold it's next convention on board, and nobody will be concerned that the unsinkable ship heading into the north atlantic doesn't have lifeboats...
Sure, most security breaches happen on the user end. Malware, bogus links, phishing messages and the like. But it's ridiculous to assume... and demand others assume.... that Blizzard is immune to hackers or compromised/suborned employees. I just got back from a fun and educational jaunt on Blizzard's forums regarding a similar occurance with my wife's account. There were many posters who provided, or sought to provide, helpful information. And for each of those was a smug fanboi posting the system security equivalent of "LRN 2PLY NOOB!" The thread was (anyone surprised?) locked before too long, I guess Blizzard mods are touchy about heresy.
One area the original article was less than accurate about was the authenticator. The free dial in version negates the claim that this is all a "money grab" by bliz. (And this is coming from someone who likes the game but doesn't like how Blizzard runs things, it's forums in particular.) Since they do provide a free authenticator, I can't harsh them on this.
HI all for everyone that does'nt know this .. blizzard has had a security breach for sometime .The breach came from a botnet . set on blizzards email account sever or spolls server for admins like myself. They know its there but they wont fix it ,does anyone want to know why. It's simple supply and deman they supply stolen accounts to chines farmer's so they can sell you the items and gold back. They hitting player's from both sides . Also on the topic of crappy game's stay away from world of tanks its crap the russian devs are making the game one sided . all russian tanks are overpowered. and they thing they won ww2. thanks all enjoy the holidays be safe and have fun out there.....:)
Perhaps you should hit the history books, or at least Wikipedia's WWII entry: The Allies won WWII, and the U.S.S.R. was a member of the Allies. Ergo, they did win WWII. Also, some of the tanks that the Soviets designed were insanely powerful. For instance during trials the Soviets discovered that the IS-7's 130mm gun had difficulty taking out the IS-7 due to the thickness of that tank's armor. However the continued development of portable anti-tank weapons convinced the Soviets to change their doctrine away from heavy tanks, and instead they focused on more balanced tanks such as the T-54/55.
As to your claims of Blizzard working in partnership with the Chinese gold farmers? Show us some actual proof, please.
"Oh my, how horrible, someone is criticizing a MMO. Oh yeah, that is what a forum is about, looking at both sides. You rather have to be critical of anything in this genre as of late because the track record of these major studios has just been appalling." -Ozmodan
Blizzard and Battlenet are now the biggest jokes for security. WoW needs to die. And Blizzard can get back to making great games again.
My opinion and I don't care if you agree or not.
+1 and Upped for epic failure of the "official" rant of the OP.
Explain OP ... How is your screen shot showing the login screen of October, while you were supposed to being "hacked" in Dec ?
Funny how a lot of IT guys laugh and say, "yeah it is your fault, not blizzard"
I bet your password was a small letters and was a common word like "alphabet". Then you wonder how you get hacked. Anyone working at blizzard has access to emails from active accounts. They sell them to gold farmers. Gold farmers try to brute-force your password. Type in a real password, and your account is safe.
It can also be a new security flaw in FlashPlayer. Why people still do not use flashblock is beyond me. This is something everyone, no matter how good, may fall victim to. Even I. You open a compromised flash ad, and the keylogger is in your pc. This means, you should only open flash content you trust, which is exactly what flashblock allows you to do.
Obviously, if you use microsoft internet explorer in 2010, you are made of fail. There are still plently of critical security flaws that are known, and not fixed. Look at a browser like Firefox or Chrome, and a known flaw is updated usually within 3 days.
Bottom line is:
If you get hacked, you are at fault for not taking the steps to protect your PC. Blizzard sells a game, not a brain. Would you blame a car company if your car falls in a ditch when you are driving with summer tires in the middle of a snowstorm? If so, you might need a couple of pills that help people come back to reality.
Bottom line folks - you have to get the free authenticator service. This is the only 100% guaranteed way to avoid being hacked. I have the service on my Android phone and it's so easy. If you don't get the authenticator you will eventually be hacked. Whether it's an inside or outside job, you will be hacked. So get the authenticator allright?
There is no such thing as a 100% way to be safe from getting hacked. Even authenticators will not make you 100% safe.
It is really difficult to even believe stories like this - and I actually know someone who was hacked. But you just have to wonder how it happens and how often, especially when you see threads like this and know that half the people here are lying. Take this for instance:
"i reinstalled wow after not playing for months and found out my account was being used for gold farming. so i switch my PW and go to log on today and pw was changed. there was also an authenticator attached to my accout(by whoever hacked my account) so i switch my PW again and log in and immediately delete all my chars. ive had it with wow. i will never go back"
Uh huh. Anyone who knows anything about authenticators knows this is just a bald faced lie. Well - unless he skipped the part about going through the hassle of calling Blizzard and sending in all the id verification they require and then waiting for them to release the authenticator from the account. Seems like an awful lot of work just so he can delete some characters.
I have known someone who was hacked. I haven't known anyone get hacked who knew anything about computer security. I haven't known anyone with an authenticator get hacked. If you play WoW and you have a good password you should be fine. If you play WoW hardcore, get an authenticator. As for the stories here - believe what you will. I'll be taking Marvin Gaye's advice on this one.
I was pleasantly surprised when I went from Apprentice to full 5 star Elite in under 2 months. I was pleasantly surprised again when I went from Elite to just barely Hardcore in 2 weeks. Apprentice, here I come!
Ok, I am a former Wow Player, got hacked, no keyloggers no malware nothing my machine is clean, had another guy who has tighter security on his pc than the white house, and got hacked multiple times(prior to the authenticator being a hot ticket item). Someone was able to get into blizzards system, maybe not the credit card info, but their system. A friend of mine had his account hacked, during a period the account was OFFLINE due to no payment in the system, the whoever they were took and reactivated his account to use it...this was 3 or 4 months into his inactivity then a few months after went to reactivate his account and saw when it was last turned on and went what the hell...and got an authenticator. Whether or not blizzard knows about or can stop the internal intrustions on their end I do not know. For giggles, I created a fake(i.e. one I won't use more than a dozen times) email address and setup a trial to WoW and not a day later got a phishing email about my account being compromised...so that sort of pins the nail in the coffin that whatever is happening is something with blizzard itself, whether they have the people and/or resources to stop it.
My account was also hacked back when I used to play. It took 3 days of trying to call blizzard support only getting a busy signal, then when I finally got through, I had to stay on hold for 3 hours. When I finally got my account back, I noticed that all of my items were deleted. I filled out an in-game ticket for GM assistance and stood around in my underwear for 8 hours until giving up and canceling my account.
An entire year after I canceled my account, I got another email from blizzard saying my account may have been compromised. I deleted the message and didn't even care.
Worst customer service ever.
I refuse to pay extra to have my account's security guaranteed by buying a special keychain when they could make and give free downloads of a standalone program that does the exact same thing.
This entire situation smells fishy and sounds like a scam.
(EDIT: I may add that I have an Associates degree from KSU for Computer Technology, so I know a thing or two about keeping my computer and information secure.)
So what you are saying is that it is impossible for you and your friends to have gotten hacked, had your email account broken into, visited an exploited website, watched a video with a flash exploit, registered on some forum with your bnet login email address, maybe used the same password somewhere for your email/account or any number of other methods account thieves use to deceive players into compromising their accounts. Since you lack a clear understanding of how your account got hacked, it must be blizzards fault?
I have several blizzard accounts. Never hacked, never get phishing emails and things work just fine. Even on new accounts.
Also I'm pretty sure blizzard could catch an employee who is selling information if they sold your email account the very first day it was created. It isn't like some blizzard security guy couldn't create a new account like you did and just monitor who/what accesses the information. If a couple of forum dwellers like us can solve this problem I'm pretty sure the professionals at a company could resolve it too.
This is just a shot in the dark, but has it crossed your mind that maybe your email got phished so quickly as a result of something you have or something you did, but may not realize or know about? It is just a thought.
I thought you might like to know that blizzard does offer free authenticators for several mobile devices as well as the free 1-800 call back authenticator service. That doesn't leave much to scam players since they are free.
One more thing the email you got a year later, probably wasn't from blizzard.
I would still like to see mmorpg.com's response to this. I called this out last week, and still nothing...