F*CK blizzard, they took all of oyur money and they can't even protect their data base. Millions of dollars, and they don't give a sh*t about your account protection. this game has customer service rated 7.5? It should be 1.0!
I've played MMO's for over ten years, ranging from UO to WoW (and just about everything in between. I seem to be the only guy here who doesn't claim to be an IT tech.... like that matters. Most of the IT people I've met were idiots that fell into an IT type job and now think it somehow makes them knowledgable on all things computer.
That said, I have never been hacked... until WoW and it took only 4 days. I was getting WoW phishing emails before I even played WoW (had a bnet account from D2).
I get people telling me it was somehow my fault and hear how I have to jump through all these hoops and spend 6.95 on another piece of equipment just to keep hackers at bay. Oddly enough, my "ignorance regarding security" didn't get my bank account hacked or my identity stolen... but it did get my WoW account compromised. Wierd how WoW was the only thing they were able to get access too. And I am somehow suppose to believe this is 100% my fault and Blizzard has no blame on them and absolutely nothing to do with it?... right.
I know 100% for certain that I don't not have any kind 'infection'. This leaves very few options for how they got access to my account and personally I don't think Blizzard or their system is 101% infallible, or any other company for that matter.
Conversely (contrary to your belief), neither are you.
F*CK blizzard, they took all of oyur money and they can't even protect their data base. Millions of dollars, and they don't give a sh*t about your account protection. this game has customer service rated 7.5? It should be 1.0!
Yeah...they don't care about account protection that's why they give free options to help protect the account better and recover everything if hacked for most people...some people are just ignorant.
Lol, tard. I have had 3 accounts that have never been hacked and don't have authentacators amazing right? Takes some responsibility and don't go to iffy porn sites..
Mine got hacked as well and i never gave my info out, bought gold or PL's. Dont know how they did it. This is the 2nd account i lost to hackers. I told Blizzard to go shove it and im never playing a blizzard game again. IMO, Blizzard sells inactive accounts to the highest chinese bidder to make you buy their authenicators.
Interesting theory.
Which do you think blizzard wants more. Your $15 a month for many months
-OR-
You to buy an authenticator that costs anywhere from $6 to FREE.
Both!
And this theory is really possible. It would be even more profitable to the company if they got a deal or a percentage of the money that an illegal player (gold seller or simillar) would do with the inactive account in his hands.
I'm not saying they are doing it. But who can control the company for doing it? Who will stop the most rich online gaming company in the world from doing something like that?
If blizzard wanted people to buy authenticators, then why would they give them away for free? That sort of makes this whole consiparcy implausible doesn't it?
Furthermore, why would blizzard sell innactive accounts to gold farmers and cause all of this PR nightmare that is chasing away customers permanently and increasing their customer support overhead exponentially? Gold sellers want gold not accounts. Blizzard can make all the gold they want. It isn't like the only way blizzard can sell virtual currency to gold farmers is through innactive accounts. Just think about how far fetched this notion is and the only reason it is being considered is that there are people who do not understand how they got hacked.
Just imagine the legal issues that could arise if blizzard was doing this.
Consider all the problems this could cause for blizzard and think about what they stand to gain if it were true. Wow makes blizzard over 1 billion dollars a year. Why risk that by pissing off customers in this fashion when they could just do it quietly without all the negative press.
If it was true and this hacking problem has been going on since at least burning crusade, then where is the whistle blower? Why hasn't at least 1 disgruntled employee spoke out?
Again the only reason this theory exists is because people do not want to accept responsibility that they were in some small way involved in their accounts being compromised. Despite the constant phishing and hacking attempts bombarding player we are being asked to accept this conspiracy theory without a single reference to anythign tangible, just to absolve players from any wrong doing.
It just doesn't make any sense at all.
Sure, anything is possible, but that doesn't mean it is plausible.
There are sites that have nothing to do with WoW that have trojans that try to get your password for WoW. I came across one such last year but was not playing WoW at all and I got rid of it. I think there was a case even where brand new computers had hard disks manufactured in China that had something in them trying to get WoW passwords. It is pretty scary the lengths people go to to get your WoW info but I guess it is big money. That is the problem the popularity of WoW is what is causing this problem. Makes you pause and think and ponder on whether to reup huh ? I dare not even check my accounts any more cause I get phising attempts almost every week on my numerous emails that have nothing to do with Bnet at all. I stopped checking my accounts for fear that checking them might be detrimental to their security.
12. Can I turn the extra security of the Battle.net Authenticator on and off as I wish?
You can go again to the Account Management page and then access from here the Battle.net Authenticator free service. Click the "Access this service" link go to a dedicated page that will allow you to detach the Battle.net Authenticator from the account you are using.
Did you click on one of those 200 billion "battle.net account" emails that have been spamming the crap out of my in-boxes lately? They are funny, as I never had any wow accounts on those addresses, so I guess it's just random fishing
I hope that the recovery goes well! I have never been hacked but I agree with the vehemence of opposing the selling of the authenticator. If Blizzard is having trouble safe-guarding the integrity of user accounts then they should give authenticators out to all subscribers.
I'm sorry but I can't read the whole thread. I read a quarter of it and no one asked this question. So if somebody did in the last 3/4, sorry I missed it.
WHY DID YOUR FRIEND JOSH TELL YOU YOUR ACCOUNT WAS HACKED?
Sounds like you let him use your account and even if you didn't do anything to compromise it, apparently he did.
Well...i'm guessing that Josh saw that he logged in via his friends list and tried to chat and the person using his account was clearly not him....
Thank you douglasv95.
Oh, God. And I used all caps, too. How embarassing.
If Blizzard wanted to make money via Gold they would just spawn gold and give it to the goldsellers... If Blizzard wanted your account they would just take it.... Because legaly you do not OWN anything you rent.
For the people who think Blizz is somehow directly involved you are crazy. They have to spend resources on this that they would not have to which would exceed any money they would get from selling an authenticator which also has a cost to make and ship. $6.95 is probably close to what it cost them including processing, handling cost, and shipping cost. If they wanted to make money on it they would be selling it for $25.00 like the mount that was so popular they had a queue for players to give them money.
99.9999999% of the time it is the end users fault when they get hacked. People use the same email, same log in, same passwords for almost every single thing that requires it. Facebook same as twitter, same as yahoo, same as your WOW log on same as your other MMO's all sharing the same password. Fan sites data bases get hacked all the time it is not a hard in most cases for people who know what they are doing. Once they have that info it would not be hard to then punch in that very same info into the blizz launcher.
The most common password used today is not suprisingly "password"......yes people are really that stupid. Other common passwords 123456 or 654321, birthdate. Even if you have a good hard password if you use it for a majority of everything you register for it is no longer a secure password because odds on some site you register for data base is going to get hacked.
In the end of all of this if you are going to get hacked be very very very thankful it is WOW because most other MMO's would tell you sorry we can not help you, or maybe if you are really lucky give you back your naked character with or one with next to nothing. Blizz bar none is the most supportive when it comes to this. And be more thankful that is was not your bank account with the same email, same log in and password as your WoW account!
Next time grab those $6.50 and buy and authenticator or if you have a iPhone or iPod Touch just get the mobile authenticator for free...
I've never been hacked and I played WoW for about 4 years without an authenticator.. just keep your computer clean and know what you are doing (which you obviously didn't since you got hacked) and you should be fine.
Stop winning about Blizzard's Customer Support because you won't find any better.. when I lost my Blizzard Authenticator I just emailed them my account information, name, address, etc. and I got my authenticator removed in less then 12h.
And yes, if you got hacked you are probably the one to blame, it wasn't anyone's fault but yours for being careless.
Originally posted by Iadien All those people saying to "just purchase an authenticator", guess what? You can still be hacked with one.
The odds of getting hacked WITH an authenicator are extremely low, probably so miniscule it's not even worth mentioning.
Tell you what... let's see if we can find someone with a legitimate account here (not a shell) that claims they bought an authenticator and STILL got hacked. I doubt you will so your point is basically about as strong a kitten in a burlap sack thrown into a river.
If you are a gold hacker and looking for an account to pilfer, which one would YOU go for? One with an authenticator or one without one? Let me know what you choose, and we'll see if you're posting seriously or just trolling around.
Once again:
1. The OP is a WRITER for MMO games, not some fresh off the banana boat noob to computers and gaming.
2. The OP is a longtime player of WoW, presumably with toons WORTH protecting.
3. The OP KNOWS full well WoW has gotten hacked over the span of many years as the most popular online video game in the entire history of the civilized world.
4. The OP scoffs at buying a $6.50 authenticator and chocks it up to Blizzard "just wanting money", and not as a responsible corporation providing an added security measure for it's customers.
5. The OP scoffs at downloading even a FREE authenticator. You know this because he didn't even get THAT one.. and it was FREE, lol. Next you'll try and make an excuse that a longtime MMO writer and player of WoW didn't know a free authenticator existed. Seriously?
If that's the case, he should consider stop writing about games and write about flower shows; if he doesn't know that then wth is he in the industry for? Those things have been out for awhile (free ones)
All this and the OP takes no responsiblity whatsoever and claims Blizzard should protect his toon for him. Meh, I think the writer probably let his account get hacked so he'd have something to submit to MMORPG.com for Xmas and not worry about finding real material this month.
My account got hacked 10 months after I had cancelled it and was paid for via some means not mentioned in my account (no record of a card used and my cc was not billed). I'm not too big on conspiracies, but it at least looks like they have a large loophole they care not to close, for whatever reason. At worst, they got my info via a dead addon that had logged my info but for years of watching ppl get hacked, I really doubt I had an epiphany to use bad online surfing habits. Oh and contacting in-game support 2 times+ to attempt to get all your stuff back, and have them give back "what they choose" everytime is a delight; But beggers can't be choosers, and in the end you get what you can and move on.
Also remember the phone authenticators are free or cost like $1 for some, so if it is a 'scheme' - their celestial steed movement of cash shops will bank them far more in the end. Also note SE does the same with FFXI & FFXIV and those authenticators (san the CE for FFXIV) cost more than the blizzard one. Bottom line: Companies love $.
Also remember the phone authenticators are free or cost like $1 for some, so if it is a 'scheme' - their celestial steed movement of cash shops will bank them far more in the end. Also note SE does the same with FFXI & FFXIV and those authenticators (san the CE for FFXIV) cost more than the blizzard one. Bottom line: Companies love $.
That's why I don't really buy into the whole "star chamber" conspiracy mode of thought.
They can easily make money in any number of ways that is legit.
Could there be someone within their organization who is crooked? Sure, why not. Look at Arthur Anderson, they were a legit organization until they changed some books and bam, no more.
But from what I've seen since those scandals a few years ago is a greater urgency for auditing companies and for companies to be more open and clear in their finances. I know I've had to deal with some pretty strict rules.
They have far more to lose than to gain and can easily print money by making some item to be purchased from their site.
Like Skyrim? Need more content? Try my Skyrim mod "Godfred's Tomb."
You're not ever going to convince me that its not on blizzards end.
About 4-5 years ago I tried Wow (not my cup of tea) right before wiping the harddrive and reinstalling. Since then I've built 3 new computers never once installing wow or logging in to blizzard...ever. A couple months ago I was at a friends house who was playing wow and went to log on and check out my character and it was hacked.
No chance of it being a keylogger, virus, malware, phising or anything on the client end. Password used was, of course, unique to blizzard.
Most security breaches usually come from within a company though, (disgruntled workers can mess things up along with someone selling account info for personal gain, etc.) so I would guess that this is where the problems might be.
You're not ever going to convince me that its not on blizzards end.
About 4-5 years ago I tried Wow (not my cup of tea) right before wiping the harddrive and reinstalling. Since then I've built 3 new computers never once installing wow or logging in to blizzard...ever. A couple months ago I was at a friends house who was playing wow and went to log on and check out my character and it was hacked.
No chance of it being a keylogger, virus, malware, phising or anything on the client end. Password used was, of course, unique to blizzard.
Most security breaches usually come from within a company though, (disgruntled workers can mess things up along with someone selling account info for personal gain, etc.) so I would guess that this is where the problems might be.
Yeah I'm going to call BS on this, for one you tried it when wow first came out then stopped. All of a sudden you log back in and found your character hacked ? Never got an email about password change from blizzard? Never got any email from blizzard regarding changes made to your account?
Yeah I call bs, if you're going to make things up at least make it believable.
I'll go along with some of the general sentiment - usually, if you're hacked, it's nothing to do with the company running the software, it's something the hacked person did or didn't do that causes the issue.
If you want to be more secure, you can go to a software company site, many of which will run link checkers. The best I've found is at https://www.websense.com/content/SiteLookup.aspx. If you're worried about a site or not been there before, chuck the URL in that and it will tell you whether it hosts malware, trojans, keyloggers etc.
For Facebook users, you can get a security app to protect you there from them as well - http://www.websense.com/content/Defensio.aspx - there's an image on the right you can download the Facebook app from.
The authenticator apps are free for iphone. So it doesn't cost you anything. I think it also may be for other companies as well. But seriously, this article gets front page?
I think its fairly common knowledge that if you don't have an authenticator on your account. Don't just assume that it will be safe. Also, staged? Really? C'mon, your not that important that Blizzard is running conspiracies just to sqeak out $6.50 from your pocket. Chances are.... yea. It probably was your fault.
You're not ever going to convince me that its not on blizzards end.
About 4-5 years ago I tried Wow (not my cup of tea) right before wiping the harddrive and reinstalling. Since then I've built 3 new computers never once installing wow or logging in to blizzard...ever. A couple months ago I was at a friends house who was playing wow and went to log on and check out my character and it was hacked.
No chance of it being a keylogger, virus, malware, phising or anything on the client end. Password used was, of course, unique to blizzard.
Most security breaches usually come from within a company though, (disgruntled workers can mess things up along with someone selling account info for personal gain, etc.) so I would guess that this is where the problems might be.
Were your characters cleaned out or was the account locked?
Blizzard has started to lock accounts that have suspicious login attempts. Just for example: if you have ever registered your email on some website, some hacker might have tried to log into your account with that and maybe the password you used on that site. Since the geogrpaphy doesn't match your last login, blizzard would lock the account.
Comments
F*CK blizzard, they took all of oyur money and they can't even protect their data base. Millions of dollars, and they don't give a sh*t about your account protection. this game has customer service rated 7.5? It should be 1.0!
Guild Wars 2 Youtube Croatian Maniacs
My Guild Wars titles
I've played MMO's for over ten years, ranging from UO to WoW (and just about everything in between. I seem to be the only guy here who doesn't claim to be an IT tech.... like that matters. Most of the IT people I've met were idiots that fell into an IT type job and now think it somehow makes them knowledgable on all things computer.
That said, I have never been hacked... until WoW and it took only 4 days. I was getting WoW phishing emails before I even played WoW (had a bnet account from D2).
I get people telling me it was somehow my fault and hear how I have to jump through all these hoops and spend 6.95 on another piece of equipment just to keep hackers at bay. Oddly enough, my "ignorance regarding security" didn't get my bank account hacked or my identity stolen... but it did get my WoW account compromised. Wierd how WoW was the only thing they were able to get access too. And I am somehow suppose to believe this is 100% my fault and Blizzard has no blame on them and absolutely nothing to do with it?... right.
All those people saying to "just purchase an authenticator", guess what? You can still be hacked with one.
Conversely (contrary to your belief), neither are you.
Yeah...they don't care about account protection that's why they give free options to help protect the account better and recover everything if hacked for most people...some people are just ignorant.
-I want a Platformer MMO
Lol, tard. I have had 3 accounts that have never been hacked and don't have authentacators amazing right? Takes some responsibility and don't go to iffy porn sites..
If blizzard wanted people to buy authenticators, then why would they give them away for free? That sort of makes this whole consiparcy implausible doesn't it?
Furthermore, why would blizzard sell innactive accounts to gold farmers and cause all of this PR nightmare that is chasing away customers permanently and increasing their customer support overhead exponentially? Gold sellers want gold not accounts. Blizzard can make all the gold they want. It isn't like the only way blizzard can sell virtual currency to gold farmers is through innactive accounts. Just think about how far fetched this notion is and the only reason it is being considered is that there are people who do not understand how they got hacked.
Just imagine the legal issues that could arise if blizzard was doing this.
Consider all the problems this could cause for blizzard and think about what they stand to gain if it were true. Wow makes blizzard over 1 billion dollars a year. Why risk that by pissing off customers in this fashion when they could just do it quietly without all the negative press.
If it was true and this hacking problem has been going on since at least burning crusade, then where is the whistle blower? Why hasn't at least 1 disgruntled employee spoke out?
Again the only reason this theory exists is because people do not want to accept responsibility that they were in some small way involved in their accounts being compromised. Despite the constant phishing and hacking attempts bombarding player we are being asked to accept this conspiracy theory without a single reference to anythign tangible, just to absolve players from any wrong doing.
It just doesn't make any sense at all.
Sure, anything is possible, but that doesn't mean it is plausible.
There are sites that have nothing to do with WoW that have trojans that try to get your password for WoW. I came across one such last year but was not playing WoW at all and I got rid of it. I think there was a case even where brand new computers had hard disks manufactured in China that had something in them trying to get WoW passwords. It is pretty scary the lengths people go to to get your WoW info but I guess it is big money. That is the problem the popularity of WoW is what is causing this problem. Makes you pause and think and ponder on whether to reup huh ? I dare not even check my accounts any more cause I get phising attempts almost every week on my numerous emails that have nothing to do with Bnet at all. I stopped checking my accounts for fear that checking them might be detrimental to their security.
so WHY T F did you buy that Authenticator???
12. Can I turn the extra security of the Battle.net Authenticator on and off as I wish?
You can go again to the Account Management page and then access from here the Battle.net Authenticator free service. Click the "Access this service" link go to a dedicated page that will allow you to detach the Battle.net Authenticator from the account you are using.
Did you click on one of those 200 billion "battle.net account" emails that have been spamming the crap out of my in-boxes lately? They are funny, as I never had any wow accounts on those addresses, so I guess it's just random fishing
I hope that the recovery goes well! I have never been hacked but I agree with the vehemence of opposing the selling of the authenticator. If Blizzard is having trouble safe-guarding the integrity of user accounts then they should give authenticators out to all subscribers.
Thank you douglasv95.
Oh, God. And I used all caps, too. How embarassing.
If Blizzard wanted to make money via Gold they would just spawn gold and give it to the goldsellers... If Blizzard wanted your account they would just take it.... Because legaly you do not OWN anything you rent.
For the people who think Blizz is somehow directly involved you are crazy. They have to spend resources on this that they would not have to which would exceed any money they would get from selling an authenticator which also has a cost to make and ship. $6.95 is probably close to what it cost them including processing, handling cost, and shipping cost. If they wanted to make money on it they would be selling it for $25.00 like the mount that was so popular they had a queue for players to give them money.
99.9999999% of the time it is the end users fault when they get hacked. People use the same email, same log in, same passwords for almost every single thing that requires it. Facebook same as twitter, same as yahoo, same as your WOW log on same as your other MMO's all sharing the same password. Fan sites data bases get hacked all the time it is not a hard in most cases for people who know what they are doing. Once they have that info it would not be hard to then punch in that very same info into the blizz launcher.
The most common password used today is not suprisingly "password"......yes people are really that stupid. Other common passwords 123456 or 654321, birthdate. Even if you have a good hard password if you use it for a majority of everything you register for it is no longer a secure password because odds on some site you register for data base is going to get hacked.
In the end of all of this if you are going to get hacked be very very very thankful it is WOW because most other MMO's would tell you sorry we can not help you, or maybe if you are really lucky give you back your naked character with or one with next to nothing. Blizz bar none is the most supportive when it comes to this. And be more thankful that is was not your bank account with the same email, same log in and password as your WoW account!
Next time grab those $6.50 and buy and authenticator or if you have a iPhone or iPod Touch just get the mobile authenticator for free...
I've never been hacked and I played WoW for about 4 years without an authenticator.. just keep your computer clean and know what you are doing (which you obviously didn't since you got hacked) and you should be fine.
Stop winning about Blizzard's Customer Support because you won't find any better.. when I lost my Blizzard Authenticator I just emailed them my account information, name, address, etc. and I got my authenticator removed in less then 12h.
And yes, if you got hacked you are probably the one to blame, it wasn't anyone's fault but yours for being careless.
Tell you what... let's see if we can find someone with a legitimate account here (not a shell) that claims they bought an authenticator and STILL got hacked. I doubt you will so your point is basically about as strong a kitten in a burlap sack thrown into a river.
If you are a gold hacker and looking for an account to pilfer, which one would YOU go for? One with an authenticator or one without one? Let me know what you choose, and we'll see if you're posting seriously or just trolling around.
Once again:
1. The OP is a WRITER for MMO games, not some fresh off the banana boat noob to computers and gaming.
2. The OP is a longtime player of WoW, presumably with toons WORTH protecting.
3. The OP KNOWS full well WoW has gotten hacked over the span of many years as the most popular online video game in the entire history of the civilized world.
4. The OP scoffs at buying a $6.50 authenticator and chocks it up to Blizzard "just wanting money", and not as a responsible corporation providing an added security measure for it's customers.
5. The OP scoffs at downloading even a FREE authenticator. You know this because he didn't even get THAT one.. and it was FREE, lol. Next you'll try and make an excuse that a longtime MMO writer and player of WoW didn't know a free authenticator existed. Seriously?
If that's the case, he should consider stop writing about games and write about flower shows; if he doesn't know that then wth is he in the industry for? Those things have been out for awhile (free ones)
All this and the OP takes no responsiblity whatsoever and claims Blizzard should protect his toon for him. Meh, I think the writer probably let his account get hacked so he'd have something to submit to MMORPG.com for Xmas and not worry about finding real material this month.
"TO MICHAEL!"
My account got hacked 10 months after I had cancelled it and was paid for via some means not mentioned in my account (no record of a card used and my cc was not billed). I'm not too big on conspiracies, but it at least looks like they have a large loophole they care not to close, for whatever reason. At worst, they got my info via a dead addon that had logged my info
but for years of watching ppl get hacked, I really doubt I had an epiphany to use bad online surfing habits. Oh and contacting in-game support 2 times+ to attempt to get all your stuff back, and have them give back "what they choose" everytime is a delight; But beggers can't be choosers, and in the end you get what you can and move on.
Also remember the phone authenticators are free or cost like $1 for some, so if it is a 'scheme' - their celestial steed movement of cash shops will bank them far more in the end. Also note SE does the same with FFXI & FFXIV and those authenticators (san the CE for FFXIV) cost more than the blizzard one. Bottom line: Companies love $.
That's why I don't really buy into the whole "star chamber" conspiracy mode of thought.
They can easily make money in any number of ways that is legit.
Could there be someone within their organization who is crooked? Sure, why not. Look at Arthur Anderson, they were a legit organization until they changed some books and bam, no more.
But from what I've seen since those scandals a few years ago is a greater urgency for auditing companies and for companies to be more open and clear in their finances. I know I've had to deal with some pretty strict rules.
They have far more to lose than to gain and can easily print money by making some item to be purchased from their site.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
it's amusing how the people who got hacked allways KNOW FOR SURE they dont have any spyware and co on their systems
and of corz none of them ever visits pron sites on the net, so, the only logical conclusion is that blizz is all behind this.
sounds fine to me, well, at least it's good for a laugh eh?
"I'll never grow up, never grow up, never grow up! Not me!"
uh one last thing, if you pw is as creative as GOD or 1234567... oldschool hacking- and bruteforce methods aint as dead as everyone believes
but i totally see that everyone here uses a pw with upper and lower case keys and additional numbers :>
"I'll never grow up, never grow up, never grow up! Not me!"
You're not ever going to convince me that its not on blizzards end.
About 4-5 years ago I tried Wow (not my cup of tea) right before wiping the harddrive and reinstalling. Since then I've built 3 new computers never once installing wow or logging in to blizzard...ever. A couple months ago I was at a friends house who was playing wow and went to log on and check out my character and it was hacked.
No chance of it being a keylogger, virus, malware, phising or anything on the client end. Password used was, of course, unique to blizzard.
Most security breaches usually come from within a company though, (disgruntled workers can mess things up along with someone selling account info for personal gain, etc.) so I would guess that this is where the problems might be.
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Palazious 75 wizard EQ
Paladori 50 Champion LOTRO
Poppa Reaver bugged at rank15
Yeah I'm going to call BS on this, for one you tried it when wow first came out then stopped. All of a sudden you log back in and found your character hacked ? Never got an email about password change from blizzard? Never got any email from blizzard regarding changes made to your account?
Yeah I call bs, if you're going to make things up at least make it believable.
I'll go along with some of the general sentiment - usually, if you're hacked, it's nothing to do with the company running the software, it's something the hacked person did or didn't do that causes the issue.
If you want to be more secure, you can go to a software company site, many of which will run link checkers. The best I've found is at https://www.websense.com/content/SiteLookup.aspx. If you're worried about a site or not been there before, chuck the URL in that and it will tell you whether it hosts malware, trojans, keyloggers etc.
For Facebook users, you can get a security app to protect you there from them as well - http://www.websense.com/content/Defensio.aspx - there's an image on the right you can download the Facebook app from.
The authenticator apps are free for iphone. So it doesn't cost you anything. I think it also may be for other companies as well. But seriously, this article gets front page?
I think its fairly common knowledge that if you don't have an authenticator on your account. Don't just assume that it will be safe. Also, staged? Really? C'mon, your not that important that Blizzard is running conspiracies just to sqeak out $6.50 from your pocket. Chances are.... yea. It probably was your fault.
Were your characters cleaned out or was the account locked?
Blizzard has started to lock accounts that have suspicious login attempts. Just for example: if you have ever registered your email on some website, some hacker might have tried to log into your account with that and maybe the password you used on that site. Since the geogrpaphy doesn't match your last login, blizzard would lock the account.
That is just one scenario.