Mandatory Authenticators

[Terina/Sinaroc]

I saw this over on the lotro forums and thought people in WoW might find it interesting.
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WoW.com has learned through trusted sources close to the situation that Blizzard is giving serious consideration to making authenticators mandatory on all accounts. According to our sources, while this policy has not been implemented yet and the details are not finalized, it is a virtually forgone conclusion that it will happen.

This response is a direct effort to stop the massive number of compromised accounts by gold sellers and keyloggers. The seriousness of the situation with compromised accounts has reached such a level that wait times for item and character restoration are entirely unacceptable, even to Blizzard executives. Blizzard has taken other internal measures to deal with long wait times of people in account restoration queues, and we'll be covering those measures tomorrow.

www.wow.com/2010/01/08/blizzard-giving-serious-consideration-to-mandatory-authenticator/

[Aeife/Niamb]

They reallly need to do that. Hacking has become epidemic. I've had an authenticator for a while, but it seems like every other week someone in our guild is hacked. This has to be a huge expense for Blizzard.

[Lastat]

i have app for my ipod. my sons account he played for 2 years was hacked and banned for breaking the economy. i know it happens alot, but they are not thorough in their investigations. and they just dont give you the account back you have to provide them with photo id to get it back.

they sent me this email
> ****Notice of Account Closure****
>
> Account Name: ****
>
> Account Action: Closure
> Reason for Action: Terms of Use Violation - Economy Exploitation
>
> After a thorough investigation, we have found that a player of the account listed above participated in activities designed to gain an unfair advantage in the World of Warcraft economy.

so they must have stolen his account and sold what they could or sold the account. not sure. my son said he hadnt played the game in several months.

i cant believe one game is having such an impact on the world that people are willing to exploit the people playing it.

[Aeife/Niamb]

While it is against the terms of service, I'm not even sure hacking an account and selling its contents is a crime. It is easy money for hackers from economically challenged areas like eastern Europe and the China. Even if it is a crime, the chances you will be prosecuted are very, very slim and the profits can be very big for people in areas where economic opportunities are slim. It's no wonder this is reaching epedemic proportions.