Blizzard responds to Diablo III hackusations

I laughed really hard the first time I saw the Blizzard Authenticator, an RSA key fob-style secure code generator, to protect my video game. I couldn’t imagine a world where I would care enough about my game, much less allow my personal security to be compromised to that level. That little keychain seemed like a symbol of nerddom that rivaled the tape on the bridge of my glasses and the pencil traces on an overclocked processor. About a year into my addiction to World of Warcraft, my girlfriend’s account was hacked and a year of her digital life was emptied.

Keeping yourself safe on the Internet today is a growing challenge not just for users, but for companies as well. Shortly after the release of Diablo III, a growing volume of users began to see their accounts emptied and the fruits of their demon slaying stolen from them. Some users saw patterns in the users that were having this issue, which led them to the conclusion that the Battle.Net or Diablo III servers were victimized. In an attempt to resolve these issues, Blizzard has released a statement addressing these claims.

There’s money to be made in the unauthorized sale of items and account in Blizzard games, specifically World of Warcraft. And with the Diablo III real money Auction House on the way, there’s an increased desire to try and make real money on the game.

In the statement released by Blizzard, it is noted that every time there is a release of a new title or an expansion to WoW, there’s a spike in compromised accounts. Since Diablo III is a brand new game, and there’s probably more than a few Diablo III players who never bothered with WoW, there’s bound to be some account compromising things going on. As it stands right now, Blizzard is offering the ability to roll-back many compromised accounts, but notes that this is most likely a once in a lifetime kind of thing.

Blizzard’s recommendation is to take advantage of their Authenticator tools. You can get the keyfob, or you can install the Blizzard Authenticator app for Android and iOS.

Additionally, there’ s new SMS Protect service that allows you to access features in your account with an SMS. The Authenticator app seems to work well, but in the end doesn’t really solve the problem at hand. Two-factor authentication is always a useful add-on in this day and age, but it is also important to remember that you are on the Internet, and to behave accordingly. Blizzard’s account creation process could offer a little more in the way of encouraging secure password creation, for example.

Until it is proven otherwise, Blizzard is assuring everyone that their systems have not been compromised, and offers more information about their authentication methods in their forums.

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