So you have self concluded that you are somehow immune to getting hacked by hackers and since blizzard did not answer your emails they are acting suspicious and it must be their fault.
That is really the extent of your proof?
I wish I had a nickle for every user that promised me they didn't do something to cause the problems on their computer. That it must be someone else, because they didn't do anything.
The world seems filled with computer security experts it seems.
Anything is a possibility, but you just can't seem to take Blizzard databases being hacked, like what has just happened to SOE, being a possibility. They can do no wrong. SOE may have had weaker systems, but with enough determination anyone with the right know how could easily hack into Blizzard (or any other company) too, and steal info in the same way. SOE only got targetted due to Geohot fiasco
The more this discussion has gone on strengthens the fact that may be the case, as at the moment there seems to be no holes in this theory, as opposed to everything else.
As been said here, SOE found out after they had been hacked after the info was posted on other forums and been bragged about. If that did not happen, SOE sites and services would still be up, and no one would know that SOE had been hacked, even SOE themselves, and that situation could be happening with Blizzard or any other company right now.
All other accounts do not get hacked - bank accounts, STO account, LOTRO account, EVE account, DVD rental accounts, basically all accounts, except WOW, and other get theirs hacked too. Something is not right somewhere, and for starters using email adress as username is wrong, as when people email they spread their Blizzard username about the place, so Blizzard is at fault for all their customers hacked accounts
Anything is a possibility, but you just can't seem to take Blizzard databases being hacked, like what has just happened to SOE, being a possibility. They can do no wrong. SOE may have had weaker systems, but with enough determination anyone with the right know how could easily hack into Blizzard (or any other company) too, and steal info in the same way. SOE only got targetted due to Geohot fiasco
The more this discussion has gone on strengthens the fact that may be the case, as at the moment there seems to be no holes in this theory, as opposed to everything else.
As been said here, SOE found out after they had been hacked after the info was posted on other forums and been bragged about. If that did not happen, SOE sites and services would still be up, and no one would know that SOE had been hacked, even SOE themselves, and that situation could be happening with Blizzard or any other company right now.
All other accounts do not get hacked - bank accounts, STO account, LOTRO account, EVE account, DVD rental accounts, basically all accounts, except WOW, and other get theirs hacked too. Something is not right somewhere, and for starters using email adress as username is wrong, as when people email they spread their Blizzard username about the place, so Blizzard is at fault for all their customers hacked accounts
I am not saying it is impossible that blizzard servers were hacked. Not in the slightest. I just don't buy into your blame shifting and lack of any reasonable evidence that it must be blizzard and in no way anything involving you.
You on the other hand have already stated you are 100% incapable of having any failure on your end and that the only explaination for your ignorance to the facts is that it simply MUST be blizzard. Don't you find it rather hypocritical to accuse me of being closed minded when you make statements like that? Seriously, just because I don't agree with your conclusion doesn't mean I don't see something as being possible. Are you really the only person on the internet that is immune to making a mistake, getting deceived or doing something that you didn't even know was not secure?
I mean you are on this website and there has been several instances of infected flash banner ads trying to install trojans onto peoples computers. *not the fault or actions of this site, but a failure in the ad server of another company*.
All you have offered is "I don't know how I got hacked so it must be blizzard". Everything else is wild speculation that would make conspiracy theorists applaud your efforts. Your whole attitude that the lack of evidence proves something isn't working.
As for your comment about hackers not talking and any server being "easy" to hack into, I am guessing you have never hacked anything before or you would not make such silly comments.
A post saying that Blizzard was hacked last fall. Perhaps that is where they got my info. I've been a wow customer since WOW started, but only played on its free trials and have never subbed a month. Then at the start of this year after 6 years of almost inactivity, it gets hacked? Its got to be that.
This looks like it could be major. The liability amounts could be staggering. It appears suit has been filed already in the Federal Courts for regress, under the play station hack, and they are going for class status. It will be fairly simple for SOE patrons to be enjoined to that suit. If that's the case, the "class" will have to notify all affected partys for inclusion so we'll all get an email, I would imagine. I believe there is statute that tells SOE/Sony they have to notify all affected partys, also and it appears from here that some of those emails are going out already..
Meanwhile, there is an obligation to mitigate your own damages. Personaly, I'll pay to sign up for a credit monitoring service, cancel and re-issue the cards I used with SOE, and pray a bit.
A post saying that Blizzard was hacked last fall. Perhaps that is where they got my info. I've been a wow customer since WOW started, but only played on its free trials and have never subbed a month. Then at the start of this year after 6 years of almost inactivity, it gets hacked? Its got to be that.
I found a post saying I'll get 10 million dollars if I send 10 thousand dollars to some African prince.
Curse.com was hacked and for a while it used Internet Explorer security hole to spread a keylogger into computer of everyone who visited the webpage using Internet Explorer. The keylogger in turn stole your WoW login information when you logged on to WoW, and sent that information to hackers. Blizzard has never been hacked, or if they've been hacked it has been kept a secret.
A post saying that Blizzard was hacked last fall. Perhaps that is where they got my info. I've been a wow customer since WOW started, but only played on its free trials and have never subbed a month. Then at the start of this year after 6 years of almost inactivity, it gets hacked? Its got to be that.
I found a post saying I'll get 10 million dollars if I send 10 thousand dollars to some African prince.
Curse.com was hacked and for a while it used Internet Explorer security hole to spread a keylogger into computer of everyone who visited the webpage using Internet Explorer. The keylogger in turn stole your WoW login information when you logged on to WoW, and sent that information to hackers. Blizzard has never been hacked, or if they've been hacked it has been kept a secret.
OhI give up. Blizzard are immune to being hacked. Yeah right!
If things are meant not to believed then why should I believe what you say than what the other person said? Sounds like you're just in denial
There has been nothing, that hasn't been hacked into. The only things not getting hacked into is because people do not want to risk going to jail or worse for it, and especially when people can seem to get away with hacking peoples individual WOW accounts and getting away with it.
Even when SOE get their security systems to their highest as can be, people will still have the know how to be able to hack into them.
Also key words "may have been stolen" (NOT "was stolen")
They have shut down all services and called in the FBI - I think it's pretty safe to assume it's well beyond a "may have". Hacker sites have posted screens of the data even. Rumors have gone out that the hacker tried to sell it back to SOE for $100k. This isn't a "maybe", the data contained HAS BEEN compromised. We just don't know to what extent.
Dude, this is serious stuff. Please stop acting as if it's no big deal. I don't care what Blizzard does but if you really wanna talk about it, there's a forum to dedicated to them - use it.
If you are correct in what you say, then it is not quite as serious as I previously thought
If they went and asked SOE for money for it, then their intent is hurting SOE and not the players/customers. If they had any sense they would know SOE would not do that, but probably did not think they have the resources to track them, but the FBI should do, and will end up getting into deep trouble now, and should be able to stop the information from being sent out.
If it was people intent on using peoples details and / or getting money, they would have sold it to 3rd party people to use it, and then there would be no hope of stopping info getting into the wrong hands.
No, they.. the hackers likely intend to make money from it in any way. Trying to get $ 100.000,= is just seeing if they panic and pay it to stop them from selling it to other parties or to use it for themselves. But this isn't about kidnapping a person, this is computer data. You can't copy a person but you can copy computer data. If SoE is going to pay that hacker $ 100.000,= then they are either incredibly stupid or they do so in order for the FBI to locate them and arrest them.
I would forget about hurting soe. If they wanted to do that, then they wouldn't have asked for money, they would have just said they did it and not remove any data after which SoE would get sued by the players and probably also gain some support from the playerbase since SoE would have to come up with their make good plan.
If they just wanted money from it, contacting SOE was the worst idea, as it risks getting into trouble, which is what is going to happen now, as they can now add extortion to the theft, and whatever means they contacted SOE for that money could be traced, especially by the FBI.
Now by contacting SOE for the money, these idiots will not see a penny, and once caught spend time behind bars. If they went straight off and sold it to a 3rd party, could have gotten some money from it, and may have gotten away with it.
They are smart in hacking, but certainly don't seem smart in knowing what to do with the info now they've got it.
A post saying that Blizzard was hacked last fall. Perhaps that is where they got my info. I've been a wow customer since WOW started, but only played on its free trials and have never subbed a month. Then at the start of this year after 6 years of almost inactivity, it gets hacked? Its got to be that.
I found a post saying I'll get 10 million dollars if I send 10 thousand dollars to some African prince.
Curse.com was hacked and for a while it used Internet Explorer security hole to spread a keylogger into computer of everyone who visited the webpage using Internet Explorer. The keylogger in turn stole your WoW login information when you logged on to WoW, and sent that information to hackers. Blizzard has never been hacked, or if they've been hacked it has been kept a secret.
OhI give up. Blizzard are immune to being hacked. Yeah right!
If things are meant not to believed then why should I believe what you say than what the other person said? Sounds like you're just in denial
There has been nothing, that hasn't been hacked into. The only things not getting hacked into is because people do not want to risk going to jail or worse for it, and especially when people can seem to get away with hacking peoples individual WOW accounts and getting away with it.
Even when SOE get their security systems to their highest as can be, people will still have the know how to be able to hack into them.
Didn't Blizz get a lot of emails information stolen from them or a big chunk of it? Pretty sure some guy didn't walk out of the building with a crap load of files. That would mean they got hacked too.
How many delicate flowers have you met in Counterstrike?
I got a case of beer and a chainsaw waiting for me at home after work.
If they just wanted money from it, contacting SOE was the worst idea, as it risks getting into trouble, which is what is going to happen now, as they can now add extortion to the theft, and whatever means they contacted SOE for that money could be traced, especially by the FBI.
Now by contacting SOE for the money, these idiots will not see a penny, and once caught spend time behind bars. If they went straight off and sold it to a 3rd party, could have gotten some money from it, and may have gotten away with it.
They are smart in hacking, but certainly don't seem smart in knowing what to do with the info now they've got it.
A post saying that Blizzard was hacked last fall. Perhaps that is where they got my info. I've been a wow customer since WOW started, but only played on its free trials and have never subbed a month. Then at the start of this year after 6 years of almost inactivity, it gets hacked? Its got to be that.
Is that really what you consider proof? I don't even know where to start about how much misinformation and stupidity is in that post you linked.
Blizzard doesn't "allow" curse.com to make addons for wow. They do not have some business aragement with curse to create addons. Curse is an independant 3rd party website and in fact the addons are made by PLAYERS and not curse. On top of that curse is completely owned by a major gold seller and has no tied to blizzard.
Furthermore even if a trojan is disquised as an addon it A) requires users to do something stupid to install them and cannot hack the blizzard servers. All it can do is steal an individuals account information at best.
Second, hacking into curse would do exactly jack and shit towards allowing someone to hack into blizzard. There isn't some magical gateway between the curse website and blizzards user database. Curse however has every single financial motivation in the world to try to hack into players accounts. Being owned by a gold selling company and having access to countless users who no doubt use the same email address and password to register with curse, but perhaps you do not understand how that can be dangerous in your zeal to blame anyone but yourself.
Third, the person who posted that has been around for a whole 2 weeks and seems to be doing a ton of SOE apologizing. They make some claim that blizzard was hacked, but link ZERO proof of the hack, any articles, references or anything. Sounds just like you to be honest.
At this point you either have no clue what hacking is or you are being intentionally obtuse just to find someone or anything else to blame for the problem with your wow account. While it is POSSIBLE that blizzard servers could be hacked, you have offered and continue to offer nothing to support the claim that blizzard was indeed hacked as you keep stating in a factual manner.
A post saying that Blizzard was hacked last fall. Perhaps that is where they got my info. I've been a wow customer since WOW started, but only played on its free trials and have never subbed a month. Then at the start of this year after 6 years of almost inactivity, it gets hacked? Its got to be that.
Is that really what you consider proof? I don't even know where to start about how much misinformation and stupidity is in that post you linked.
Blah Blah Blah
No, was not even speaking to you when I posted that, and had nothing to do wiith our "discussion". I don't care what you have to say any more, even if you are right on what you saying, as you're insults are just voiding what you say, and this discussion has turned into something ridiculous. Im done here, with you at least.
If they just wanted money from it, contacting SOE was the worst idea, as it risks getting into trouble, which is what is going to happen now, as they can now add extortion to the theft, and whatever means they contacted SOE for that money could be traced, especially by the FBI.
Now by contacting SOE for the money, these idiots will not see a penny, and once caught spend time behind bars. If they went straight off and sold it to a 3rd party, could have gotten some money from it, and may have gotten away with it.
They are smart in hacking, but certainly don't seem smart in knowing what to do with the info now they've got it.
It was an extra $100k so SOE could see what was lost, rumor has it the hacker is from overseas too, so no...the FBI won't be pounding on his door.
This data loss is MASSIVE - one that will cost hundreds of millions in damages for a decade or more. This is any ID thief's dream data - names, addresses, emails, security question answers, passwords, birth-dates...all the stuff needed to confirm you're YOU.
Now that this is lost, there is NO recovering it. It's not like in TV shows where some hacker has this on a flash drive he keeps hidden in his coat pocket. This is all digital data and you can bet your butt there are backups of it in several areas and chances are it's already being/been sold. I don't know what a database like this would sell for, but this is the JACKPOT of hacked data.
This "idiot", as you call him, will live off this in luxury for the rest of his life.
The only thing I hope is that if this was facilitated by an insider as I have speculated, I hope he gets thrown behind bars forever.
SOE at least answer every single ticket you send them, even if it is just a "pass the buck" or "can not do" response. I did not expect counselling or whatever from Blizzard, but they just totally ignored me, and I sent multiple tickets in.
I have quite some good contacts in SOE, to get the job done, and some people even have Smedleys email address. Is any one that cosy with Blizzards president? I don't think so
None of the information has been stolen or rather proved 100% to be the case. All that is known is people managed to hack into SOEs databases and had the potential to see everyones info - whether they actually ripped the data only the hackers would know, and SOE is assuming they may have done to be safe. All this was done due to the unfair actions of Sony against Geohot, (who declared himself that stealing info is not cool) and if his "friends" did steal info then they are doing him and themselves a great injustice.
Hopefully no info got stolen from SOE, but has just shown SOE the holes in the system they can now fix and be stonger than anything, before true criminals got access to it.
Blizzard have gone after credit sellers and sued them, and gone to great lengths to sqush these people by going to court numerous times, and joined forces recently with paypal to put a further lockdown on things, but they still keep coming back for more. There is plenty of angry people with the potential to hack into Blizzards databases, like with what happened with SOE, and do it more quietly than the Geohot propaganda.
There is still holes in Blizzard systems, and hackers are getting info somehow. They may even be hacking their databases like hackers did to SOE, and doing it under Blizzards radars
Quite the opposite for me, I've had to wait days and sometimes over a week for a response from a CSR/GM in SOE games, I only played WoW for 4 months back in 2004-05 and I have sent in tickets and got response within hours.
When the Kashyyyk planet first went live in SWG, I went down to the Ryatt trail and ended up miles above the planet and /unstick wouldn't work so I sent a ticket and logged out and it wasn't until 13 days later a CSR responded and finally moved my character- extremely frustrating time.
I have had no issues with SOEs support speed since 2008 (never needed to befor then), and in game tickets get faster repsopnses than webpage tickets, although have needed to send in multiple tickets, which provikes them to respond, but had no luck with Blizzar with that! Maybe their staff is reduced too nowadays? Recession has hit almost everyone, in the last few years. Less staff + still loads more people + more problems = slower service
You might want to think about the playerbase number differences between SOE and Blizzard.
You can only hire so many CSM/GM's, and then it still requires that people are willing to take the job as a GM/CSM - Because you can have oh so many recruitment ads going about, but if noone picks up on them, well... Then not much is going to happen.
And if you do compare the playerbase between Blizzard Games and SOE games, then you'd certainly find a lot more people playing games developed by Blizzard, compared to SOE.
I think it was in 2006 that the NGE for SWG hit right ? If you first needed their support in 2008, then im not surprised that the response time is far lower, since they do indeed have a lot lower playbase compared to what they used to (All their games combined btw)
I my self have had major problems with SOE support.
Stop hating so much, and do think realisticly, because, what has happend should never have had happend... Dont know if you read my last post where I quoted you, but exactly for those reasons are why such things never should happen.
And you can say that it can happen anywhere.. maybe so, but that doesnt justify SOE for not having enough security on their servers.
Seriously, if someone gets through a hole in their firewall, why not have a safty mechanism that simply just shut down all communication for getting to such sensitive, and confidential information ? It seriously doesnt make any sense. So it doesnt really matter if you can get hacked or not, and i am quite sure that both blizzard and other MAJOR companies gets hack attacks all the time, but noone seemed to have breached their security to a point where it gets so serious that you'd see it in the news all over the world. Thats exactly what happend here...
SOE have had 2 hack attacks within a very short time, both being extremely serious. One was where the hacker shut down PSN, the other is where that there might have and probably most likely has been stolen a ton of sensitive information. And by the way, that information that could have and most likely has been (again) stolen, was after they took their network down - that tells us a little bit about how carefull they actually are with such information.
A post saying that Blizzard was hacked last fall. Perhaps that is where they got my info. I've been a wow customer since WOW started, but only played on its free trials and have never subbed a month. Then at the start of this year after 6 years of almost inactivity, it gets hacked? Its got to be that.
I found a post saying I'll get 10 million dollars if I send 10 thousand dollars to some African prince.
Curse.com was hacked and for a while it used Internet Explorer security hole to spread a keylogger into computer of everyone who visited the webpage using Internet Explorer. The keylogger in turn stole your WoW login information when you logged on to WoW, and sent that information to hackers. Blizzard has never been hacked, or if they've been hacked it has been kept a secret.
OhI give up. Blizzard are immune to being hacked. Yeah right!
If things are meant not to believed then why should I believe what you say than what the other person said? Sounds like you're just in denial
There has been nothing, that hasn't been hacked into. The only things not getting hacked into is because people do not want to risk going to jail or worse for it, and especially when people can seem to get away with hacking peoples individual WOW accounts and getting away with it.
Even when SOE get their security systems to their highest as can be, people will still have the know how to be able to hack into them.
Why on earth do you absolutely want to put blizzard up against this all the time, this has serioulsy nothing to do with blizzard at all in any way of what so ever !
SOE got hacked, have most possibly had their database stolen, with so extremely sensitive information that it can ruin millions of peoples lives.
It has nothing to do with Blizzard at all - every freaking company can get hacked, but not having your security up to date when dealing with your customers personal information is seriously EXTREMELY stupid.
GonesoloCity of Heroes CorrespondentMemberPosts: 70
Originally posted by Maggon
Why on earth do you absolutely want to put blizzard up against this all the time, this has serioulsy nothing to do with blizzard at all in any way of what so ever !
SOE got hacked, have most possibly had their database stolen, with so extremely sensitive information that it can ruin millions of peoples lives.
It has nothing to do with Blizzard at all - every freaking company can get hacked, but not having your security up to date when dealing with your customers personal information is seriously EXTREMELY stupid.
oh come on overly dramatic any. Yes SOE got hacked and yes they got personal details from a lot of people but even with CC information or your name and address it is unlikely to ruin anyones life.
I've already been in contact with my bank and changed my credit cards, every bank/card has fraud protection. Ok I admit people who lost account details will require more work to re-secure their money but it's hardly going to ruin a life just take some time to sort out.
I'm no SOE "fan boy" before you start, in fact I'm an Ex-SWG vet who was denied my favourite online game when SOE rolled out the NGE but I do work in IT/security and have done so for very long time, and I know all too well that you can never make any data/database/system 100% secure. Best you can do is try make it very hard to break so that people eventually give up trying.
A post saying that Blizzard was hacked last fall. Perhaps that is where they got my info. I've been a wow customer since WOW started, but only played on its free trials and have never subbed a month. Then at the start of this year after 6 years of almost inactivity, it gets hacked? Its got to be that.
I found a post saying I'll get 10 million dollars if I send 10 thousand dollars to some African prince.
Curse.com was hacked and for a while it used Internet Explorer security hole to spread a keylogger into computer of everyone who visited the webpage using Internet Explorer. The keylogger in turn stole your WoW login information when you logged on to WoW, and sent that information to hackers. Blizzard has never been hacked, or if they've been hacked it has been kept a secret.
OhI give up. Blizzard are immune to being hacked. Yeah right!
If things are meant not to believed then why should I believe what you say than what the other person said? Sounds like you're just in denial
There has been nothing, that hasn't been hacked into. The only things not getting hacked into is because people do not want to risk going to jail or worse for it, and especially when people can seem to get away with hacking peoples individual WOW accounts and getting away with it.
Even when SOE get their security systems to their highest as can be, people will still have the know how to be able to hack into them.
Why on earth do you absolutely want to put blizzard up against this all the time, this has serioulsy nothing to do with blizzard at all in any way of what so ever !
SOE got hacked, have most possibly had their database stolen, with so extremely sensitive information that it can ruin millions of peoples lives.
It has nothing to do with Blizzard at all - every freaking company can get hacked, but not having your security up to date when dealing with your customers personal information is seriously EXTREMELY stupid.
Hello, Welcome to the internet - you have just been woken up to the dangers it imposes
Blizzard is an example because no matter what precautions you take - not play the game so therefor do not input login details, use a different password to anything else, do not open emails from Blizzard, have several securit y packages on your PC scanning for viruses and key logging programs daily automaticllly and even scan for them again before amending / changing passwords, avoid porn sites like the plague - accounts can still be hacked
It is getting to the point where you have no internet life or extremeply hampered or just relax and go with the flow, taking small measures like stopping being lazy and think up different passwords and login names for everything, and not sharing the info. This is where Blizzard fails as they use your email address for username, and people tell other people their Blizzard usrername whenever they send emails. I don't go putting my SOE usernames in my emails. Until they change back to using unique usernames then I am staying away from Blizzard games.
SOE are not the ones to blame but the hackers, but I do expect them to use every means possible to bring these hackers to justice and be subjected to an extremely harsh penalty, so that they think twice before doing anything like this again.
If anyone is thinking of pulling all their data from SOE, then they should pull their data from every online website people are registered for, close their ISPs and email accounts and just use their PC for word processing and playing offline games. This breach should put the fear into all online retailers too, and customers who have their details stored in them, like Amazon for example - they could be next
The hack, which has led to the network being unavailable for over a week, has left observers wondering if a company as vast and seemingly advanced as Sony can get hit, who out there is safe?
The answer, according to experts, is no-one - and something similar will almost certainly happen again."
If you've used a credit or debit card to buy content, your account may be compromised. The fears are that all the 3 million or so British PlayStation users have been hit by hackers.
Q What does compromised mean?
It means that crooks may have your plastic card details. Sony has admitted that hackers have stolen names, addresses, email addresses, birth dates and logins and passwords, but has yet to say if financial details have been stolen.
Q Should I cancel my credit card?
There's no need to panic. If as a result of hackers' activity money is stolen from your account, it should be returned by your bank or card company.
Q So I don't need to do anything?
That depends. If you use your PlayStation password elsewhere, you should change it right away. In any event, it's good practice to change your password regularly to cut down the possibility of fraud.
Q Once I've switched password, do I have any reason to worry?
Not really. You should monitor your account for unusual activity and tell your bank if you see any strange payments. Also be on the lookout for phishing emails. Banks never ask for passwords or PINs. If anyone else does, refuse and tell your bank or card company. - The Independent"
Yes it can happen to anyone, but it happened to a major company that happens to store a database server within reach. When I was a server admin back in the 90's we had a few database machines on the internal network which was unreachable from the outside- only an insider could expose it, from what I read an outdated database (2007?) was sitting there on an open network? Sure maybe it's outdated, but in a 3 year span, how many people's information has changed?
And people wonder why Microsoft runs a closed network that you pay $50/yr for on the XBox 360.
I think it was in 2006 that the NGE for SWG hit right ? If you first needed their support in 2008, then im not surprised that the response time is far lower, since they do indeed have a lot lower playbase compared to what they used to (All their games combined btw)
Trials of Obi-Wan and the NGE was in November 2005, Kashyyyk and Combat Upgrade was March-October 2005, at times I've had quick CSR response back in 2003-04 when items vanished or bugged crystal tunes or crafted items not appearing and their response were usually within 3 days, but man when that happened on the Ryatt Trail I was really pissed having to wait 2 weeks. Post NGE, GMs were also sluggish, I have the original Sunriders Destiny crystal and when I transferred my character the crystal was still tuned to my old character's name and I waited nearly a week before a GM responded.
Now in WoW, I remember doing an instance with a group and we agreed to divide up loot to whoever needed the item and one guy picked up the wrong item and we sent in tickets about it and I shortly forgot about it while sitting at the auction house and got msg'd by a GM at least 45 minutes later and they said they put the item into my inventory, this was when the Burning Crusade expansion first launched with 8 new servers and queue times were ~2 hours on the new servers (I was on Bloodfist).
Yes it can happen to anyone, but it happened to a major company that happens to store a database server within reach. When I was a server admin back in the 90's we had a few database machines on the internal network which was unreachable from the outside- only an insider could expose it, from what I read an outdated database (2007?) was sitting there on an open network? Sure maybe it's outdated, but in a 3 year span, how many people's information has changed?
And people wonder why Microsoft runs a closed network that you pay $50/yr for on the XBox 360.
I don't think that database is outdated as in it being like that since 2007, they have more up to date dtabases, and that info got transferred over to it.
In 2008 I had a pain of a time subscribing accounts, as payments kept failiing as was hitting their EU payment service fraud prevention system. Resubbing 1 or 2 accounts was OK,. but then 3+ would no go through. SOE took a week to sort me out, and gave me free time for the downtime.
SOE is solid, just the way it is sounding, is making it all worse
I don't think that database is outdated as in it being like that since 2007, they have more up to date dtabases, and that info got transferred over to it.
In 2008 I had a pain of a time subscribing accounts, as payments kept failiing as was hitting their EU payment service fraud prevention system. Resubbing 1 or 2 accounts was OK,. but then 3+ would no go through. SOE took a week to sort me out, and gave me free time for the downtime.
SOE is solid, just the way it is sounding, is making it all worse
Yeah, SOE is super solid indeed. They only had the information from over 24 million accounts on their servers stolen, store information unencrypted and keep around outdated banking and credit information just in case some hacker wants it. They can't tell if and when they have been hacked and had to take their servers down twice to fix security AFTER they knew there was a problem.
Those are truely the hallmarks of a trustworthy and sercure company.
"The Japanese electronics giant has retained a team from privately held Data Forte that is led by a former special agent with the U.S. Naval Criminal Investigative Service to work alongside the FBI agents, who are also probing the matter."
I didn't say Blizzard hacked the SOE servers. I said I think Blizzard are behind peoples battle.net accounts getting hacked, to try and sell more authenticators. Probably not, but seems that way, as when trying to investigate further other than what they say may be the problem, they do not respond. Blizzard accounts gets hacked more than anything else, and they have detailed procedures on these things because it is so common. Something is not right somewhere
My mistake if I misread your post, sorry.
However, the damage being done from account hacking is costing blizzard big time. From lost customers to huge increases in customer service time to a very negative image. No way a company does this to sell a handful of 6.50 authenticators at the expense of that. Especially when blizzard is giving away authenticators for FREE. Can't make money off of free can you?
Blizzard accounts get hacked more than anything, because they represent like 70% of the subscription based mmo market. The same reason windows based PC gets all the hacker/virus love in the world.
12 million paying current players makes for a huge target don't you think? That is why hackers and gold farmers ignore soe games for the most part, because the market is tiny in comparison.
You couldn't tell that from playing SWG...all you seem to get is spam from credit sellers in tells or in emails to the extent that it's driven everyone to hide anon and further erode the in game community and the devs haven't been addressing it in a meaningful manner even after years of outcry about it.
Played: Asheron's Call(still the best fantasy MMO!), EQ1, EQ2, Vanguard, DAoC, Horizons, City of Heroes/Villians, WoW (crap), LOTORO, D&D Online, Eve, Anarchy Online, and still playing SWG daily.
Comments
NWO did it Cekis. NWO Hacks.
It keeps coming back.
My money is on Smokey!
Yeah, but Tux... you have one thing Smokey doesn't.... MOTIVE!!!
Oh I got motive...being banned 4 times for no reason other than being reported too many times and costing them too much money..
But dam! They finally discovered the NWO 5.0 LOL!
Anything is a possibility, but you just can't seem to take Blizzard databases being hacked, like what has just happened to SOE, being a possibility. They can do no wrong. SOE may have had weaker systems, but with enough determination anyone with the right know how could easily hack into Blizzard (or any other company) too, and steal info in the same way. SOE only got targetted due to Geohot fiasco
The more this discussion has gone on strengthens the fact that may be the case, as at the moment there seems to be no holes in this theory, as opposed to everything else.
As been said here, SOE found out after they had been hacked after the info was posted on other forums and been bragged about. If that did not happen, SOE sites and services would still be up, and no one would know that SOE had been hacked, even SOE themselves, and that situation could be happening with Blizzard or any other company right now.
All other accounts do not get hacked - bank accounts, STO account, LOTRO account, EVE account, DVD rental accounts, basically all accounts, except WOW, and other get theirs hacked too. Something is not right somewhere, and for starters using email adress as username is wrong, as when people email they spread their Blizzard username about the place, so Blizzard is at fault for all their customers hacked accounts
I am not saying it is impossible that blizzard servers were hacked. Not in the slightest. I just don't buy into your blame shifting and lack of any reasonable evidence that it must be blizzard and in no way anything involving you.
You on the other hand have already stated you are 100% incapable of having any failure on your end and that the only explaination for your ignorance to the facts is that it simply MUST be blizzard. Don't you find it rather hypocritical to accuse me of being closed minded when you make statements like that? Seriously, just because I don't agree with your conclusion doesn't mean I don't see something as being possible. Are you really the only person on the internet that is immune to making a mistake, getting deceived or doing something that you didn't even know was not secure?
I mean you are on this website and there has been several instances of infected flash banner ads trying to install trojans onto peoples computers. *not the fault or actions of this site, but a failure in the ad server of another company*.
All you have offered is "I don't know how I got hacked so it must be blizzard". Everything else is wild speculation that would make conspiracy theorists applaud your efforts. Your whole attitude that the lack of evidence proves something isn't working.
As for your comment about hackers not talking and any server being "easy" to hack into, I am guessing you have never hacked anything before or you would not make such silly comments.
Found this
A post saying that Blizzard was hacked last fall. Perhaps that is where they got my info. I've been a wow customer since WOW started, but only played on its free trials and have never subbed a month. Then at the start of this year after 6 years of almost inactivity, it gets hacked? Its got to be that.
This looks like it could be major. The liability amounts could be staggering. It appears suit has been filed already in the Federal Courts for regress, under the play station hack, and they are going for class status. It will be fairly simple for SOE patrons to be enjoined to that suit. If that's the case, the "class" will have to notify all affected partys for inclusion so we'll all get an email, I would imagine. I believe there is statute that tells SOE/Sony they have to notify all affected partys, also and it appears from here that some of those emails are going out already..
Meanwhile, there is an obligation to mitigate your own damages. Personaly, I'll pay to sign up for a credit monitoring service, cancel and re-issue the cards I used with SOE, and pray a bit.
I found a post saying I'll get 10 million dollars if I send 10 thousand dollars to some African prince.
Curse.com was hacked and for a while it used Internet Explorer security hole to spread a keylogger into computer of everyone who visited the webpage using Internet Explorer. The keylogger in turn stole your WoW login information when you logged on to WoW, and sent that information to hackers. Blizzard has never been hacked, or if they've been hacked it has been kept a secret.
OhI give up. Blizzard are immune to being hacked. Yeah right!
If things are meant not to believed then why should I believe what you say than what the other person said? Sounds like you're just in denial
There has been nothing, that hasn't been hacked into. The only things not getting hacked into is because people do not want to risk going to jail or worse for it, and especially when people can seem to get away with hacking peoples individual WOW accounts and getting away with it.
Even when SOE get their security systems to their highest as can be, people will still have the know how to be able to hack into them.
If you are correct in what you say, then it is not quite as serious as I previously thought
If they went and asked SOE for money for it, then their intent is hurting SOE and not the players/customers. If they had any sense they would know SOE would not do that, but probably did not think they have the resources to track them, but the FBI should do, and will end up getting into deep trouble now, and should be able to stop the information from being sent out.
If it was people intent on using peoples details and / or getting money, they would have sold it to 3rd party people to use it, and then there would be no hope of stopping info getting into the wrong hands.
At least there is more hope now.
No, they.. the hackers likely intend to make money from it in any way. Trying to get $ 100.000,= is just seeing if they panic and pay it to stop them from selling it to other parties or to use it for themselves. But this isn't about kidnapping a person, this is computer data. You can't copy a person but you can copy computer data. If SoE is going to pay that hacker $ 100.000,= then they are either incredibly stupid or they do so in order for the FBI to locate them and arrest them.
I would forget about hurting soe. If they wanted to do that, then they wouldn't have asked for money, they would have just said they did it and not remove any data after which SoE would get sued by the players and probably also gain some support from the playerbase since SoE would have to come up with their make good plan.
If they just wanted money from it, contacting SOE was the worst idea, as it risks getting into trouble, which is what is going to happen now, as they can now add extortion to the theft, and whatever means they contacted SOE for that money could be traced, especially by the FBI.
Now by contacting SOE for the money, these idiots will not see a penny, and once caught spend time behind bars. If they went straight off and sold it to a 3rd party, could have gotten some money from it, and may have gotten away with it.
They are smart in hacking, but certainly don't seem smart in knowing what to do with the info now they've got it.
Didn't Blizz get a lot of emails information stolen from them or a big chunk of it? Pretty sure some guy didn't walk out of the building with a crap load of files. That would mean they got hacked too.
How many delicate flowers have you met in Counterstrike?
I got a case of beer and a chainsaw waiting for me at home after work.
Well, lets hope so.
Is that really what you consider proof? I don't even know where to start about how much misinformation and stupidity is in that post you linked.
Blizzard doesn't "allow" curse.com to make addons for wow. They do not have some business aragement with curse to create addons. Curse is an independant 3rd party website and in fact the addons are made by PLAYERS and not curse. On top of that curse is completely owned by a major gold seller and has no tied to blizzard.
Furthermore even if a trojan is disquised as an addon it A) requires users to do something stupid to install them and
cannot hack the blizzard servers. All it can do is steal an individuals account information at best.
Second, hacking into curse would do exactly jack and shit towards allowing someone to hack into blizzard. There isn't some magical gateway between the curse website and blizzards user database. Curse however has every single financial motivation in the world to try to hack into players accounts. Being owned by a gold selling company and having access to countless users who no doubt use the same email address and password to register with curse, but perhaps you do not understand how that can be dangerous in your zeal to blame anyone but yourself.
Third, the person who posted that has been around for a whole 2 weeks and seems to be doing a ton of SOE apologizing. They make some claim that blizzard was hacked, but link ZERO proof of the hack, any articles, references or anything. Sounds just like you to be honest.
At this point you either have no clue what hacking is or you are being intentionally obtuse just to find someone or anything else to blame for the problem with your wow account. While it is POSSIBLE that blizzard servers could be hacked, you have offered and continue to offer nothing to support the claim that blizzard was indeed hacked as you keep stating in a factual manner.
No, was not even speaking to you when I posted that, and had nothing to do wiith our "discussion". I don't care what you have to say any more, even if you are right on what you saying, as you're insults are just voiding what you say, and this discussion has turned into something ridiculous. Im done here, with you at least.
It was an extra $100k so SOE could see what was lost, rumor has it the hacker is from overseas too, so no...the FBI won't be pounding on his door.
This data loss is MASSIVE - one that will cost hundreds of millions in damages for a decade or more. This is any ID thief's dream data - names, addresses, emails, security question answers, passwords, birth-dates...all the stuff needed to confirm you're YOU.
Now that this is lost, there is NO recovering it. It's not like in TV shows where some hacker has this on a flash drive he keeps hidden in his coat pocket. This is all digital data and you can bet your butt there are backups of it in several areas and chances are it's already being/been sold. I don't know what a database like this would sell for, but this is the JACKPOT of hacked data.
This "idiot", as you call him, will live off this in luxury for the rest of his life.
The only thing I hope is that if this was facilitated by an insider as I have speculated, I hope he gets thrown behind bars forever.
You might want to think about the playerbase number differences between SOE and Blizzard.
You can only hire so many CSM/GM's, and then it still requires that people are willing to take the job as a GM/CSM - Because you can have oh so many recruitment ads going about, but if noone picks up on them, well... Then not much is going to happen.
And if you do compare the playerbase between Blizzard Games and SOE games, then you'd certainly find a lot more people playing games developed by Blizzard, compared to SOE.
I think it was in 2006 that the NGE for SWG hit right ? If you first needed their support in 2008, then im not surprised that the response time is far lower, since they do indeed have a lot lower playbase compared to what they used to (All their games combined btw)
I my self have had major problems with SOE support.
Stop hating so much, and do think realisticly, because, what has happend should never have had happend... Dont know if you read my last post where I quoted you, but exactly for those reasons are why such things never should happen.
And you can say that it can happen anywhere.. maybe so, but that doesnt justify SOE for not having enough security on their servers.
Seriously, if someone gets through a hole in their firewall, why not have a safty mechanism that simply just shut down all communication for getting to such sensitive, and confidential information ? It seriously doesnt make any sense. So it doesnt really matter if you can get hacked or not, and i am quite sure that both blizzard and other MAJOR companies gets hack attacks all the time, but noone seemed to have breached their security to a point where it gets so serious that you'd see it in the news all over the world. Thats exactly what happend here...
SOE have had 2 hack attacks within a very short time, both being extremely serious. One was where the hacker shut down PSN, the other is where that there might have and probably most likely has been stolen a ton of sensitive information. And by the way, that information that could have and most likely has been (again) stolen, was after they took their network down - that tells us a little bit about how carefull they actually are with such information.
Why on earth do you absolutely want to put blizzard up against this all the time, this has serioulsy nothing to do with blizzard at all in any way of what so ever !
SOE got hacked, have most possibly had their database stolen, with so extremely sensitive information that it can ruin millions of peoples lives.
It has nothing to do with Blizzard at all - every freaking company can get hacked, but not having your security up to date when dealing with your customers personal information is seriously EXTREMELY stupid.
oh come on overly dramatic any. Yes SOE got hacked and yes they got personal details from a lot of people but even with CC information or your name and address it is unlikely to ruin anyones life.
I've already been in contact with my bank and changed my credit cards, every bank/card has fraud protection. Ok I admit people who lost account details will require more work to re-secure their money but it's hardly going to ruin a life just take some time to sort out.
I'm no SOE "fan boy" before you start, in fact I'm an Ex-SWG vet who was denied my favourite online game when SOE rolled out the NGE but I do work in IT/security and have done so for very long time, and I know all too well that you can never make any data/database/system 100% secure. Best you can do is try make it very hard to break so that people eventually give up trying.
Hello, Welcome to the internet - you have just been woken up to the dangers it imposes
Blizzard is an example because no matter what precautions you take - not play the game so therefor do not input login details, use a different password to anything else, do not open emails from Blizzard, have several securit y packages on your PC scanning for viruses and key logging programs daily automaticllly and even scan for them again before amending / changing passwords, avoid porn sites like the plague - accounts can still be hacked
It is getting to the point where you have no internet life or extremeply hampered or just relax and go with the flow, taking small measures like stopping being lazy and think up different passwords and login names for everything, and not sharing the info. This is where Blizzard fails as they use your email address for username, and people tell other people their Blizzard usrername whenever they send emails. I don't go putting my SOE usernames in my emails. Until they change back to using unique usernames then I am staying away from Blizzard games.
SOE are not the ones to blame but the hackers, but I do expect them to use every means possible to bring these hackers to justice and be subjected to an extremely harsh penalty, so that they think twice before doing anything like this again.
If anyone is thinking of pulling all their data from SOE, then they should pull their data from every online website people are registered for, close their ISPs and email accounts and just use their PC for word processing and playing offline games. This breach should put the fear into all online retailers too, and customers who have their details stored in them, like Amazon for example - they could be next
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13213632
"
The hack, which has led to the network being unavailable for over a week, has left observers wondering if a company as vast and seemingly advanced as Sony can get hit, who out there is safe?
The answer, according to experts, is no-one - and something similar will almost certainly happen again."
http://www.iol.co.za/scitech/technology/security/fury-at-sony-s-delay-in-revealing-hack-1.1062043
"
Q I have a Sony PlayStation. Should I be worried?
If you've used a credit or debit card to buy content, your account may be compromised. The fears are that all the 3 million or so British PlayStation users have been hit by hackers.
Q What does compromised mean?
It means that crooks may have your plastic card details. Sony has admitted that hackers have stolen names, addresses, email addresses, birth dates and logins and passwords, but has yet to say if financial details have been stolen.
Q Should I cancel my credit card?
There's no need to panic. If as a result of hackers' activity money is stolen from your account, it should be returned by your bank or card company.
Q So I don't need to do anything?
That depends. If you use your PlayStation password elsewhere, you should change it right away. In any event, it's good practice to change your password regularly to cut down the possibility of fraud.
Q Once I've switched password, do I have any reason to worry?
Not really. You should monitor your account for unusual activity and tell your bank if you see any strange payments. Also be on the lookout for phishing emails. Banks never ask for passwords or PINs. If anyone else does, refuse and tell your bank or card company. - The Independent"
Yes it can happen to anyone, but it happened to a major company that happens to store a database server within reach. When I was a server admin back in the 90's we had a few database machines on the internal network which was unreachable from the outside- only an insider could expose it, from what I read an outdated database (2007?) was sitting there on an open network? Sure maybe it's outdated, but in a 3 year span, how many people's information has changed?
And people wonder why Microsoft runs a closed network that you pay $50/yr for on the XBox 360.
Now in WoW, I remember doing an instance with a group and we agreed to divide up loot to whoever needed the item and one guy picked up the wrong item and we sent in tickets about it and I shortly forgot about it while sitting at the auction house and got msg'd by a GM at least 45 minutes later and they said they put the item into my inventory, this was when the Burning Crusade expansion first launched with 8 new servers and queue times were ~2 hours on the new servers (I was on Bloodfist).
I don't think that database is outdated as in it being like that since 2007, they have more up to date dtabases, and that info got transferred over to it.
In 2008 I had a pain of a time subscribing accounts, as payments kept failiing as was hitting their EU payment service fraud prevention system. Resubbing 1 or 2 accounts was OK,. but then 3+ would no go through. SOE took a week to sort me out, and gave me free time for the downtime.
SOE is solid, just the way it is sounding, is making it all worse
Yeah, SOE is super solid indeed. They only had the information from over 24 million accounts on their servers stolen, store information unencrypted and keep around outdated banking and credit information just in case some hacker wants it. They can't tell if and when they have been hacked and had to take their servers down twice to fix security AFTER they knew there was a problem.
Those are truely the hallmarks of a trustworthy and sercure company.
NCIS are on the case!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42888279/ns/technology_and_science-security/
"The Japanese electronics giant has retained a team from privately held Data Forte that is led by a former special agent with the U.S. Naval Criminal Investigative Service to work alongside the FBI agents, who are also probing the matter."
If it is McGee it should be sorted very soon!
Star Trek Online - Best Free MMORPG of 2012
You couldn't tell that from playing SWG...all you seem to get is spam from credit sellers in tells or in emails to the extent that it's driven everyone to hide anon and further erode the in game community and the devs haven't been addressing it in a meaningful manner even after years of outcry about it.
Played: Asheron's Call(still the best fantasy MMO!), EQ1, EQ2, Vanguard, DAoC, Horizons, City of Heroes/Villians, WoW (crap), LOTORO, D&D Online, Eve, Anarchy Online, and still playing SWG daily.