Blizzard sued over authenticator

[Damien36]

The McDonalds lawsuit was won because McDonalds had been told several times to lower the temperature of the coffee they served. The coffee was in excess of 170 degrees if I remember correctly. Skin doesn't do well with anything that hot. Get your facts right before you start spouting something you read on the internet.

[Seranthor]

I guess you need to read up on brute force attacks a little more. What you described was a dictionary attack, brute force is where it will take, as you said, AAAAAA, AAAAAB, AAAAAC and go through the list.

I would bet you were NOT brute forced... I would bet that you were foolish enough to use the same password and email combination on one of those gold buying websites, or you were naive enough to fall for one of those phishing scams that folks send in your email... THAT IS HOW YOU GOT HACKED... respectfully, you got hacked because you were careless. and no other reason.

[Kevyne-Shandris]

Firstly this thread already exists (http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...ainst-Blizzard)

Like on cue (it always happens like this), it got closed due to the drivebys trying to get it closed...especially when good points are made.

But as I said, Blizzard getting sued over keeping Authenticators optional is no one else's fault but their own. Others will try to sidetrack the issue blaming the individual, but they always trying to forget about mutual responsibility.

[Seranthor]

I think I've found the perfect warning label for Wow.

[Rotted]

Forcing players to use Battle.net and the authenticators is "deceptive and unfair", alleges the lawsuit.

I facepalmed,

really hard

[Kevyne-Shandris]

The McDonalds lawsuit was won because McDonalds had been told several times to lower the temperature of the coffee they served. The coffee was in excess of 170 degrees if I remember correctly. Skin doesn't do well with anything that hot. Get your facts right before you start spouting something you read on the internet.

So very true. And even though I'd defend McDonald's (it wasn't a bad place to work at as a kid, and has some of the best management training and an "open door" policy on disputes), someone didn't equate liquids that hot could cause injury despite enough medical literature to prove it. The lady was seriously burned, and that's physical evidence to back up her claim, not some idea. From working there it was indeed so damn hot you had to put ice cubes in it to get the same level of warmth that people are used to from their own coffee maker. People would assume hot coffee is the same all around, not something just 42 degrees from boiling.

[Deleted]

Like on cue (it always happens like this), it got closed due to the drivebys trying to get it closed...especially when good points are made.

But as I said, Blizzard getting sued over keeping Authenticators optional is no one else's fault but their own. Others will try to sidetrack the issue blaming the individual, but they always trying to forget about mutual responsibility.

I sense that this thread is gonna get closed soon~ish as well. And I'm sure we all know why.

[Disgruntler]

Total bullshit. I started playing just after cataclysm release, I had not used an authenticator and within 1 month of playing, someone had managed to steal my password from me. didn't find a key logger on my pc, [b]I have no idea how they did it[b] and my bad with a weak password. Blizzard restored my stuff and told me I should use an authenticatior.

FTFY.

They don't hack your account. They just steal your password from you. Sometimes they trick you into giving it to them, and there's a lot of ways they can do it.


The truth is, they don't do brute force nonsense. They don't sit there and run complicated algorithms or pull out dictionaries--that crap takes time, effort, resources, and money. Stealing WoW accounts is a multibillion dollar business, and they don't need to put forth a lot of effort when people are willing to literally hand their battle.net ids and passwords to these people through sheer carelessness.

I mean look--they check the IPs you log in from and a shift in log-in patterns will cause them to lock your account until you deal with it. They 'should do more' is silly--people should do more to protect their own stuff on their own computer!

And yet, even tho the problem is NOT on their end, and exists in myriads of households in dozens of countries far removed from anything that they can affect... the STILL do more and more to make it that much harder for people to co-opt the common user's account, because the common user can't be trusted with it!

People would assume hot coffee is the same all around, not something just 42 degrees from boiling.

That's the problem with assumptions... common sense doesn't apply here. You're speaking of coffee that's 170 degrees in temperature.

Anyone who has done any sort of work in the restaurant knows what 170 degrees is. Anyone who has ever had to deal with hot food that needs to stand has to memorize that number, because 170 degrees is the most important temperature you will ever memorize if you want people to survive an encounter with your food.

You see, 170 degrees is the temperature you keep anything hot if you do not want bacteria thriving in it. 170 degrees is the temperature you store hot food at so that people do not die of food poisoning, salmonella, and the like.

That coffee was 170 degrees, because 165 degrees is dangerous.

[Simca]

So very true. And even though I'd defend McDonald's (it wasn't a bad place to work at as a kid, and has some of the best management training and an "open door" policy on disputes), someone didn't equate liquids that hot could cause injury despite enough medical literature to prove it. The lady was seriously burned, and that's physical evidence to back up her claim, not some idea. From working there it was indeed so damn hot you had to put ice cubes in it to get the same level of warmth that people are used to from their own coffee maker. People would assume hot coffee is the same all around, not something just 42 degrees from boiling.

Yeah, you can find pictures of her injuries on Google - she was fucked up badly by just a few seconds contact (tight sweatpants are also to blame). The media never shows those images and instead just sensationalizes her as somebody who didn't know coffee was hot. She knew that, she just wasn't aware it would melt her skin off in mere seconds.

[Kevyne-Shandris]

I sense that this thread is gonna get closed soon~ish as well. And I'm sure we all know why.

Things just don't happen in a vacuum, you know? Which is an important lesson of this topic.

[iceberg265]

This is both original and constructive. (I Lied)

Firstly this thread already exists (http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...ainst-Blizzard)

Secondly the lawsuit has no grounds and is just a folly, blaming authenticaters for getting hacked is just stupid, it is nearly always the persons fault.

Thirdly they actively campaign against bots, and to claim they do absolutely nothing about them is just ignorance.

Your first two points are accurate, but your third is just plain false. We all know they are getting kickbacks from the botting and gold selling sites, otherwise there is no way that they wouldn't have them shut down by now. And they could do it all in game, they wouldn't even have to fight the legal battle if they were actually serious about stopping them.

[Simca]

Your first two points are accurate, but your third is just plain false. We all know they are getting kickbacks from the botting and gold selling sites, otherwise there is no way that they wouldn't have them shut down by now. And they could do it all in game, they wouldn't even have to fight the legal battle if they were actually serious about stopping them.

This is probably the most obvious case of a logical fallacy in the last century. It implies you know everything about the internal operations of Blizzard and the process they go through for bots (which you clearly don't).

[Deleted]

The class action lawsuit filed by Benjamin Bell said it was "unfair" of Blizzard to force people to use Battle.net to play its games. Mr Bell alleges that it has made millions of dollars in profit by selling authenticators to players after they have bought its games. In Europe, the authenticator costs £8.99 (9.99 euros). It also produces a free software app version for smartphones.

Case is lost before it started.
Blizzard does not earn that money on the token, they spend it just as quickly. The whole thing with the Authenticator is that the token is sold at the same price it costs Blizzard to get it made.

And noone is being forced into buying the token; you will only need it for using the real money AH in D3. And you can always use the free to download App.

[Thelxi]

Tthey actively campaign against bots, and to claim they do absolutely nothing about them is just ignorance.

That is all they do, genius PR campaigns aimed at people like yourself.

Thinking they have ever done much more than employing PR against bots, is just ignorance.

[Kevyne-Shandris]

Stealing WoW accounts is a multibillion dollar business, and they don't need to put forth a lot of effort when people are willing to literally hand their battle.net ids and passwords to these people through sheer carelessness.

That's why Authenticators have to be required. Add to the matter the amount of account sharing going on (especially with kids. Just stand there in Goldshire and you'll see them asking to borrow each others account, oblivious to the dangers).

Kids mostly play this game and kids feel they're omnipotent because something bad hasn't happened to them yet. So if they're that careless it's pretty difficult to trust them to be as secure as some white hat working for some security company. It's not going to happen. So the compromise is requiring the Authenticator. Sure it's an annoying extra step, but one that could possibly half the "I'VE BEEN HACKED!!" threads.

Blizzard doesn't need to waste the man power (or for the matter monies) on something this preventable. Leaving it as an option, is like putting the house key under the door mat.

[Simca]

That is all they do, genius PR campaigns aimed at people like yourself.

Thinking they have ever done much more than employing PR against bots, is just ignorance.

Clearly since every MMO has bots (almost all of them are worse off with bots than WoW, btw), every MMO developer must be working with the bot authors.

"It's a conspiracy!"

Seriously though, think through the actual real-life repercussions of these conspiracies before posting. Think about the number of people who would have to have knowledge of this and add in the likelihood that none of them would ever come forward on it out of any MMO company.

[Seranthor]

Your first two points are accurate, but your third is just plain false. We all know they are getting kickbacks from the botting and gold selling sites, otherwise there is no way that they wouldn't have them shut down by now. And they could do it all in game, they wouldn't even have to fight the legal battle if they were actually serious about stopping them.

Lets see the proof of your claim, should you refuse then we will all know that you are not being truthful.

[xanzul]

Blizzard sued over authenticator

Hopefully this is a wake up call for them. I want to see them sued over bots in BGs too, bots are disallowed according to the EULA yet they do absolutely nothing about them.

It isn't a valid suit and it will eventually get tossed out. Blizzard has done nothing wrong here aside from giving you ungrateful brats an authenticator at cost when they pay considerably more for them than we do.

---------- Post added 2012-11-12 at 08:41 AM ----------

How do you know they do? You believe all the blue posts? The eu battleground forums are continuously full of complaints about bots, we get no official statements from Blizzard at all on the matter. We get crap like "Please use the report cheating feature", which doesn't work.

I believe the posts in the customer support forums from players whining about being banned for botting. You can claim Blizzard does nothing all you want but there is evidence to the contrary.

[Seranthor]

Blizzard doesn't need to waste the man power (or for the matter monies) on something this preventable. Leaving it as an option, is like putting the house key under the door mat.

why worry about the key being under the mat if the vast majority of these persons give up the keys...

[ZeroEdgeir]

How do you know they do? You believe all the blue posts? The eu battleground forums are continuously full of complaints about bots, we get no official statements from Blizzard at all on the matter. We get crap like "Please use the report cheating feature", which doesn't work.

So, you believe Blizzard, part of Activision-Blizzard, openly lies to the public, to look better, while in truth, they do nothing? You do realize what kind of bad business practices that falls under?

You expect bots to disappear before your eyes. It doesn't work that way. Stopping the account that is botting doesn't solve the issue. Stopping the program they are using does (along with the account), at least for a time. Those who bot will always get a new bot program made, once their current one is circumvented. It's not a one-stop-fix system.

But clearly, cause the bot doesn't disappear in 24hrs of you reporting it, they are doing nothing...