Authenticator hackers best friend...

[Braeg]

My World of Warcraft account was recently compromised purely through using the same password I use for my e-mail account as I do on a multitude of other websites. Instead of the attacker attaching an Authenticator to my Battle.net account, he gave me an incentive to do so myself. Thank you, my devious yellow friend.

[Spirion]

The fact that you have to ask why is sort of typical of cockends. Too wrapped up in their cockend world to see what they are.

Coming from someone named Wrinkle? Nice.

[Tankkuun]

Well I see i have some people not calling me a complete idiot.. Anyways I have always been relatively safe with my computer and account, I do not give it out to random people nor do I click on the stupid emails that claim to be from Blizz yet don't know how to spell entertainment. All I am trying to say is that there really should be an email verification or some security measure that stops random hackers from attaching authenticators to your account.

[Netherinfern0]

people playing the game now, should all have an authenticator.

[Spirion]

The only way a keylogger will be in your Windows install is if you downloaded, or acquired to be more correct, it illegally. Gotta love scaremongers, they're the type of people i'm gonna totally laugh at in my new job. They'll likely get fired for spreading misinformation that could lead to mass panic.

Shame you can't fire people from the internet :

While I tend to think embedded keyloggers are unlikely in Windows I can't absolutely prove they aren't there and I certainly don't trust Microsoft to just say they aren't there. So with out proof I would be willing to give someone the benefit of the doubt and just say "Unlikely but not impossible".

[Doctor Professor]

You do understand that there are programs out there that just brute force their way through the passwords right?

These programs can make tens of thousands password attempts in seconds.

http://lastbit.com/pswcalc.asp
With the Online Password Calculator you may calculate the time it takes to search for a password using brute-force attack under conditions you specify. Read this article to learn more about passwords.

Try it yourself.
9-letter long pasword, using only lower case letters, common punctuation and numbers, going at 50000 passwords per second, even tho Blizz server will never let you do that.. Brute Force Attack will take up to 870 years. OMG YOU JUST GOT BRUTE FORCE HACKED RIGHT?




Btw if you use 14-letter password with only lower case letters and numbers, brute force attack by 10000 computers each doing 50 MILLION passwords a SECOND would take 390 years.

[anywherenotes]

I'm confused about why would a hacker set up authenticator? You don't mean that goldselllers that hack accounts add authenticators to each of them? that would make no sense.

It's likely some "friend" that you told your password to figured you'd be ok if they used your account since you're not playing.

[Tankkuun]

I'm confused about why would a hacker set up authenticator? You don't mean that goldselllers that hack accounts add authenticators to each of them? that would make no sense.

It's likely some "friend" that you told your password to figured you'd be ok if they used your account since you're not playing.

Well I don't think like a goldfarmer but hey you never know. Anyways no one knew my account info and therefore would not have taken control of my account.

[Spirion]

http://lastbit.com/pswcalc.asp
With the Online Password Calculator you may calculate the time it takes to search for a password using brute-force attack under conditions you specify. Read this article to learn more about passwords.

Try it yourself.
9-letter long pasword, using only lower case letters, comon punctuation and numbers, going at 50000 passwords per second, even tho Blizz server will never let you do that.. Brute Force Attack will take up to 870 years. OMG YOU JUST GOT BRUTE FORCE HACKED RIGHT?

Nuh uh... If I had an 8 character password using upper,lower, and digits sending 500,000 tries per second and 500,000 computers it would only take 15 minutes so yeah Brute force attack actually happens.

ROFL.

[lagmoose]

Not that I'm doubting the OP got hacked... but sometimes when I see people crying about their account getting hacked, especially after they say that they've taken extended periods of time away from wow, I wonder how many are actually keylogged and how many are people who sold (or bought) their account (or bought gold or power level service). Then after they tried to take it back (or had it taken back) for whatever reason and it won't work, start screaming about being hacked from fear of getting in trouble with blizzard, so they won't get the perma-ban and lose the account for doing something illegal anyway.

[Tankkuun]

Not that I'm doubting the OP got hacked... but sometimes when I see people crying about their account getting hacked, especially after they say that they've taken extended periods of time away from wow, I wonder how many are actually keylogged and how many are people who sold (or bought) their account (or bought gold or power level service). Then after they tried to take it back (or had it taken back) for whatever reason and it won't work, start screaming about being hacked from fear of getting in trouble with blizzard, so they won't get the perma-ban and lose the account for doing something illegal anyway.

Well sorry but i didn'tsell my account, I try to stay away from doing things I'll regret.

[lagmoose]

Well sorry but i didn'tsell my account, I try to stay away from doing things I'll regret.

Didn't say you did, was just making a general statement. No need to get defensive about it.

[Tankkuun]

No man and I'm not getting defensive :P just stating the facts. I just kidna stopped playing in August and have yet to add time since then.

[Ghul]

not being hacked till now doesnt mean youre a smart guy or something like that. i mean seriously, how many hackers are out there? do you really think, there are enough hackers to hack around 11m accounts, log on every account disenchant/sell/destroy all the gear send the gold somewhere and stuff?

you gotta be kidding aight? and you call yourself smart because you never got hacked, in truth youre just lucky that your name never came up when they chose their next victim.

it can hit you everyday! im not saying its 100% random, i bet some hackers just pick a guy they dont like and get him or something like that, but in the end you never know.

that's why i got the authenticator last month, even tho i never got hacked after 5 years. this doesn't make me supersmart or something, im simply lucky and so are you.

end of story!

[DahLliA]

My World of Warcraft account was recently compromised purely through using the same password I use for my e-mail account as I do on a multitude of other websites. Instead of the attacker attaching an Authenticator to my Battle.net account, he gave me an incentive to do so myself. Thank you, my devious yellow friend.

/facepalm

first of all. never use the same password for stuff that's worth money and stuff that's random.

second of all. updated windows + using a browser that doesn't suck + noscript + decent antivirus == safe wow-account

[Tankkuun]

not being hacked till now doesnt mean youre a smart guy or something like that. i mean seriously, how many hackers are out there? do you really think, there are enough hackers to hack around 11m accounts, log on every account disenchant/sell/destroy all the gear send the gold somewhere and stuff?

you gotta be kidding aight? and you call yourself smart because you never got hacked, in truth youre just lucky that your name never came up when they chose their next victim.

it can hit you everyday! im not saying its 100% random, i bet some hackers just pick a guy they dont like and get him or something like that, but in the end you never know.

that's why i got the authenticator last month, even tho i never got hacked after 5 years. this doesn't make me supersmart or something, im simply lucky and so are you.

end of story!

You happen to be my hero, your words of Wisdom are scripture and you make the best point that has beenmade on this topic, thanks to you I will more then likely be purchasing an authenticator once this ordeal is over and I have regained control of my account.

[Spirion]

I sincerely hope you don't get your account back - you openly admit to account sharing!

I am willing to share my account... for $100,000 million MWHAHAHAHA... *raises pinky finger to mouth

[dotSeed]

http://lastbit.com/pswcalc.asp
With the Online Password Calculator you may calculate the time it takes to search for a password using brute-force attack under conditions you specify. Read this article to learn more about passwords.

Try it yourself.
9-letter long pasword, using only lower case letters, common punctuation and numbers, going at 50000 passwords per second, even tho Blizz server will never let you do that.. Brute Force Attack will take up to 870 years. OMG YOU JUST GOT BRUTE FORCE HACKED RIGHT?

Btw if you use 14-letter password with only lower case letters and numbers, brute force attack by 10000 computers each doing 50 MILLION passwords a SECOND would take 390 years.

Don't try logic bro. I tried informing one guildie that brute forcing my password would take 1,000 years of 10,000 attempts per second. And his response? "yeah but they use 1,000 machies!"

Yes. He really thinks people use 1,000 machines on a botnet to crack a single WoW password. Over a year. I mean, christ, that's even assuming Blizzard didn't just lock your account after an hour of attempts or the server didn't just ignore requests.

[Spirion]

not being hacked till now doesnt mean youre a smart guy or something like that. i mean seriously, how many hackers are out there? do you really think, there are enough hackers to hack around 11m accounts, log on every account disenchant/sell/destroy all the gear send the gold somewhere and stuff?

you gotta be kidding aight? and you call yourself smart because you never got hacked, in truth youre just lucky that your name never came up when they chose their next victim.

it can hit you everyday! im not saying its 100% random, i bet some hackers just pick a guy they dont like and get him or something like that, but in the end you never know.

that's why i got the authenticator last month, even tho i never got hacked after 5 years. this doesn't make me supersmart or something, im simply lucky and so are you.

end of story!

I disagree... you are obviously smarter than those getting hacked as you realized you need an authenticator.

[Lark]

not being hacked till now doesnt mean youre a smart guy or something like that. i mean seriously, how many hackers are out there? do you really think, there are enough hackers to hack around 11m accounts, log on every account disenchant/sell/destroy all the gear send the gold somewhere and stuff?

Of course not.

Inversely, how many stupid people are there with accounts? You can say 'well, it's just random luck', but why would a so-called "hacker" bother to brute force an account - already an incredibly difficult process, which in some cases is outright impossible - when he could just phish or keylog some moron playing as a gaming cafe or clicking world of raid links without noscript and no antivirus/trojan protection going. Put it another way: Say you're a lion, hunting out on the wilds. Do you go after the fleet footed gazelle powering across the grass at the speed of the wind, or the retarded one that is sitting there banging its head into a tree?

Luck plays a factor, but it isn't just random chance. That being said, hey, if you've got the six bucks or whatever and you feel a little unsure about your account, get an auth. There really is no reason not to.

But don't blame chance when people get hacked. Willing to bet they've been facerolling into that tree nine times out of ten.