Blizzard Intros WoW Authenticator Device to Counter Account Misuse

[btarunr]

Following countless complaints of World of Warcraft (WoW) user account hijacks and misuse, Blizzard has come up with a device, a security code generator that each user possesses, the device generates a six-digit security code that the user has to enter when logging on to the WoW account. The generation pattern is unique for each user's generator and this effectively eradicates account misuse, or at least attempts to. Blizzard CEO and cofounder Mike Morhaime says "It's important to us that World of Warcraft offers a safe and enjoyable game environment", he further adds that an aspect of that is helping players avoid account compromise, so they are pleased to make this additional layer of security available to them.

Once activated with Blizzard, the authenticator offers a six-digit code that must be used within 60 seconds on a gamer's WoW account. The user has to enter this number alongside username and password. Similar methods are adopted by PayPal, banks, and other financial institutions to help protect data, PayPal charges US $5 for the PayPal Security Key.

Blizzard plans to charge US $6.50 for the device but no announcements are made as to when it will be available.


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[ShadowFold]

Well if you have to pay for it then its pretty pointless.

 

[btarunr]

It's an optional layer of security. They can't give you a $5-odd device for free just as even banks where you save 1000's of dollars don't.

 

[mrw1986]

We use these at work to login to our VPN...nothing new

 

[patton45]

one more reason i dont play Wow you have to pay a rediculos fee for the member ship and now these gready bastards want you to pay for you to have a more secure account. they should offer that service as part of your monthly fee or find some way not charge all you WoW players that have helped blizzard make billions a year to offer this to you for free some how..... i hate WoW and will never even instal it on my pc ever again

off subject i hope that they use this for all future blizzard games and offer it for free in SC2 and D3 since they could provide it to everyone at launch through as part of the game package that would be more buyer friendly and more widely adopted if they hide the price in the game price tag at least

sorry for running my mouth

 

[btarunr]

The device is a physical electronic gadget, not something that can be given for free, and it's not even insignificant by price that they could give it for free, if I have your userid and password, Blizzard isn't responsible, they didn't give it to me, your account safety is your responsibility just as your SSN and bank account password is yours and not the government's or bank's responsibility. Thank Blizzard for at least this *looks at Valve Steam and its account abuses*.

 

[patton45]

i know what it is dude i use them at work every day and i got one from my bank for free so idk what your talking about there that just how i feel imho that blizzard can afford to give it to its 8mill+ subscribed wow players and still make billions in profit for the year it wouldnt hurt their bottom line too much only 45million at 5$ a pop retail is all im saying

 

[btarunr]

Great. And they would sacrifice $45 million just because users are irresponsible with their accounts? As long as they don't give your account information to someone, they are not entitiled to giving you this, they can't be held responsible for your account hijack. This is just a Value added service that's optional.

Your bank gave it for free since you have given them your money for safekeeping, $5 becomes an insignificant figure for them. But for WoW whose charges are not anywhere close to the amount you saved in the bank, $5 becomes a significant figure.

 

[Conti027]

i dont like EoW or anything but i think its a good/kool idea. for an extra feature.

 

[sideeffect]

60 seconds is long enough to delete someones equipment post their gold to another account and delete character I dont see how this helps account security

 

[stordoff]

60 seconds is long enough to delete someones equipment post their gold to another account and delete character I dont see how this helps account security

The way I though this worked was that the code generated can only be used for 60 seconds to log on, and then a new code is generated

 

[Deleted member 24505]

He he,6 millionx$5=happy blizzard.Nice they manage to squeeze More money from wow players.

 

[Bjorn_Of_Iceland]

60 seconds is long enough to delete someones equipment post their gold to another account and delete character I dont see how this helps account security

You just need to enter the current random generated code on login prior to it being changed by a random one after 60 seconds.

 

[WhiteLotus]

Seeing as there is over 10million players of this game worldwide and in the UK the monthly charge is £9 (i think) that is around £90million each month.

And they have to resort to a random number generator why?

 

[mdm-adph]

Seeing as there is over 10million players of this game worldwide and in the UK the monthly charge is £9 (i think) that is around £90million each month.

And they have to resort to a random number generator why?

Because morons keep giving out their passwords and usernames to people. I think this is a great farking idea -- what they should do, though, is make it even easier for you to get it; they should just issue one to you with the option of either paying for it outright, or tacking on an extra $1 to your monthly fee that you're already paying. Guarantee you they'd get more adopters that way.

 

[Darkrealms]

Blizzard is having all kinds of account problems. Accounts can be hacked fairly easily. Remember around the world many people use gaming centers or internet hubs to play.

I've had friends accounts hacked, deleted, etc. Hell I even had my account banned and Blizz wouldn't even tell me why. I guess after 3 1/2 years they figured they'd gotten as much out of me as they were going to.

They need to do something about their account security.

 

[Ser-J]

Lots of n00Bs will buy this, which is more money for Blizz. I'm 3 month Warcrack free and loving it. One of the most addicting games of this age. BE CAREFUL!

 

[mdm-adph]

Blizzard is having all kinds of account problems. Accounts can be hacked fairly easily. Remember around the world many people use gaming centers or internet hubs to play.

I've had friends accounts hacked, deleted, etc. Hell I even had my account banned and Blizz wouldn't even tell me why. I guess after 3 1/2 years they figured they'd gotten as much out of me as they were going to.

They need to do something about their account security.

And they have! Secure, one-time keys are about as good as it can reasonably get -- all they need to do now is make them mandatory and it'll be cool....

...as long as there's some sort of emergency recovery process for when you lose your key thingy!

 

[FAXA]

I've had my WoW account hacked before, and the support from both Gamemasters and Site Adimns was excellent. I've heard many people complain about it, but the service that I recieved was top notch.

I've heard tons of people complain to blizzard about thier monthly fees, but, to be honest, I think its sort of worth it. I've been playing WoW non stop for about 1 1/2 years now, at £8.99 a month. Thats £100 a year (because I pay for 6 months in one big sum of money which is cheaper and I got 1 month free) for a game that will keep me entertained for, oooh, well, a long long time indeed - more than any other game I have played.

It is addictive however, play it within moderation. My friend has been playing it for 2 years, and his played time is 120 days. Straight. Thats 4 months - 1/4 of a year spent playing 1 game solid!

 

[Darkrealms]

And they have! Secure, one-time keys are about as good as it can reasonably get -- all they need to do now is make them mandatory and it'll be cool....

...as long as there's some sort of emergency recovery process for when you lose your key thingy!

Good for those that are left. I wonder how many Blizz banned without warning or reason. Or how many were hacked and left with empty characters or no characters at all.

I've had my WoW account hacked before, and the support from both Gamemasters and Site Adimns was excellent. I've heard many people complain about it, but the service that I recieved was top notch.

I've heard tons of people complain to blizzard about thier monthly fees, but, to be honest, I think its sort of worth it. I've been playing WoW non stop for about 1 1/2 years now, at £8.99 a month. Thats £100 a year (because I pay for 6 months in one big sum of money which is cheaper and I got 1 month free) for a game that will keep me entertained for, oooh, well, a long long time indeed - more than any other game I have played.

It is addictive however, play it within moderation. My friend has been playing it for 2 years, and his played time is 120 days. Straight. Thats 4 months - 1/4 of a year spent playing 1 game solid!

I've had times where their support was excellent. But what I had mentioned earlier was not.
I've played since BETA and played regular since it came out Nov 2004. I think that was being quite the loyal customer. Granted the last 4 or 5 months I'd been playing was probably not more than an hour or two a week.

 

[W1zzard]

my banks gave them for free .. also i dont really see much of a need for it. if you get hacked somehow you don't deserve to play against other humans anyway.. even if .. just cry to a gm and you will get your stuff back

its just a way to make a few million extra bucks until wotl

 

[Rhyseh]

my banks gave them for free .. also i dont really see much of a need for it. if you get hacked somehow you don't deserve to play against other humans anyway.. even if .. just cry to a gm and you will get your stuff back

its just a way to make a few million extra bucks until wotl

It's seems some people think Blizzard is some sort of charity. Last time I checked Blizzard is a company and companies are supposed to make money.

Having said that this isn't a money grabbing scheme. Lets go through what is likely the whole process:

The user requests one of these ID's someone who Blizzard has to pay would have to filter these requests. Once filtered they would be passed through to be allocated.

The tags are tied to each individual account they are issued for (banks use the same system). This means it's not just a simple case of pulling one of these tags (which Blizzard has purchased) out of the box and issuing it to their customers. They must be first synchronised to an authentication server by someone Blizzard is PAYING to do so and this is once Blizzard has purchased the server and paid their IT personell to set this system up.

Once the tag is issued Blizzard then has to pay for the tags to be packed and sent (the carrier, the packaging and the person doing this cost money) a large number of these would be going all over the globe.

So once this is all factored in I think Blizzard will probably be LOSING money issuing these tags then they would be gaining from selling them to customers.

Where Blizzard does benefit from this is the fact that they will not have to hire any more GM's to sort out the already plauge proportioned account hacking problems.

I know Blizzard's GM's are good with this sort of thing and will restore almost everything if you get hacked, but my time is precious and I'll be damned if I'm going to wait the hours to speak to a GM and then the extra days it takes to restore my items, which I'm not guaranteed will all be restored anyway.

If $6.50 can add that extra bit of security and potentially save me a weeks worth of inconvenience then I am going to pay it. This would also means I can log on at LAN cafe's something I would never dare do previously.

 

[MoA]

I wonder if you need this for the 10 free trials day lol

trial ... but pay for a gadget lol ?

 

[candle_86]

its not required anyway, i didnt get notice from Blizzard saying it is required it was stated to be optional, and im gonna get that option simply because i like the added secruity of the device.

 

[WhiteLotus]

its just a way to make a few million extra bucks until wotl

Come again?