Incoming!: June 2008 Archives

Incoming is a regular part of From the Abbey to Outlands where the author will rant at length about a topic that is frustrating or aggravating in the World of Warcraft. Keep reading for more, we have a Rant Incoming!

You may have heard that the new Blizzard Authenticator is now available for purchase from the Blizzard Store. It's a great little device which will increase account security an enormous amount, and could potentially be the catalyst to the elimination of the account hacking going on by Gold Sellers. That is, of course, if everyone can get it, which they can't. "This product can only be shipped to the United States." is what you will see if you go to the Authenticator item page I linked to before. Now, however, there is an item page on the European Blizzard Store, which does not limit where it can be shipped, though the item is not yet actively for sale.

The following is an email I sent to Blizzard's billing department after getting off the phone with a rep who pretty much had no clue why it wasn't for sale to Canadians, and was guessing distribution issues.

I would like to express my frustration that Blizzard is not shipping the new Authenticator to Canada. This device is a great idea, and should increase the security of accounts substantially, but it cannot do that if we cannot buy it. I fail to see why the USA and Europe are the only are the only areas who are allowed to maintain the highest level of security on their accounts, while other countries must sit back and simply hope their accounts don't get hacked. I guess one has to question if, in addition to contests, Blizzard has a complete lack of respect that extends to not caring about our security. I am sad to see this come to pass.

I look forward to a response from Blizzard, even if it only comes in the form of a change in that policy so that we here in Canada can enjoy the same level of security as others in the US and EU.

[Update: Blizzard has now posted both about the sell out and the lack of availability to Canadians. Thank you Blizzard for answering the questions I and others had.]

Incoming is a regular part of From the Abbey to Outlands where the author will rant at length about a topic that is frustrating or aggravating in the World of Warcraft. Keep reading for more, we have a Rant Incoming!

You can't win for losing. For months, since the big account hacking started in World of Warcraft, people have been complaining and whining and raising the ire of their fellow players that Blizzard couldn't, or wouldn't do more for their and their friend's accounts. They felt that Blizzard had to have something it could do in order to prevent people from losing all the stuff they spent ages working to get.

Earlier this week, Blizzard announced they are making available the Blizzard Authenticator. The device, available soon for a measly $7 USD from the Blizzard store, is connected to your account once you register the serial number. Once the device is connected to your account, you will need to use it on every login. To use it, you press the button on it, and then type the generated 6 digit code along with your username and password into the WoW client.

Called two-factor authentication and branded SecurID by RSA, this format is a truly innovative and extremely difficult to break method of authentication, only vulnerable to spoofed authentication attacks. As those are fairly complex and time based attacks, I doubt more than one or two attempts will be made to spoof these. I have to hope and assume Blizzard has had the forethought to program the authentication system around the hole.

As you might have guessed, I support this measure by Blizzard a great deal. While this is a long time in coming, I am sure that any decent techie will tell you that such systems take a lot of time to program just right. For a feature like this, I would happily give Blizzard as much time as they need to get it just right. I am really hoping that these key fobs will be a huge hit and bought by millions of people and take a major chunk out of the profitability of attempted account theft and the Trojan attacks that accompany them.

So the same day I post about my support of this move by Blizzard, you can imagine my surprise when I go to the General Forums and see a thread slamming Blizzard for charging people to secure their(Blizzard's) property, since our characters are Blizzard's property. Let me see if I get these arguments straight. Blizzard needs to do something to protect the weeks/months/years of time players have put in, but it's not worth $7 to protect the weeks/months/years of time players have put in?

Folks, I have some sad, disturbing, or possibly even shocking news for you. If you are going to play this game without the Authenticator device, unless of course you are a Canadian like me who cannot get it(*shakes fist angrily*), you deserve to be the new juicy target of the hackers eager to get as many of the last remaining insecure accounts out there. I am even considering finding a way to import these things to Canada if Blizzard gives us no way to get one delivered up here, or at least make them available from gamer stores in the country.

Blizzard has done their part to put the focus on account security, now will you? What is your /played and gear and efforts in World of Warcraft worth to you?