Blizzard's Battle.net Hacked; Company Recommends All Users Change Their Passwords

[iSayuSay]

You do not own any software that you purchase, especially not games.

But it's the customers that have to "eat that" not Blizzard.

Well, we used to .. but Network services happened, Cloud happened. So now people never really "own" anything. And so now majority of the games also have some craps BS called [DLC] where we have to pay more for something funny and silly, or unlock things which actually we own in-game already.

Sure customers are screwed this way, but less and less player playing it online due to $#1tstorm like this could be a long way due for Blizzard.

 

[kingtj]

re: China

And interestingly enough, many Chinese are VERY interested in the ability to play Warcraft on U.S. based servers instead of their own, which they're normally forced to use.

(My brother used to work with an Asian guy who was only in the U.S. temporarily, and he was desperately trying to pay someone here to host a VPN with rolling/random IP addresses issued to users from China who'd connect in order to play on the U.S. servers. He said he could easily get "hundreds" of people to pay $20 (US) or so per month for such a service.)

His English was pretty poor, but if I understood what he was saying correctly, their servers bill differently too. Like they may have to pay an hourly fee to play on them?

China has its own servers and a slightly different client. Lots of weird things had to be changed with some models.

 

[Craiglorocks]

Not really a word or it's three but regardless, why is it funny?

I think he is refering League Of Legends which is a popular online alternative to many of Blizzards offerings.

 

[\-V-/]

Haven't touched my account in over a year, but I changed my password anyway. Meh...

 

[freedevil]

Loving Diablo 3 on my mac! Online multiplayer is really fun.

 

[lingo124]

... security question

sooo answers to security questions were obtained... thats not good because im sure a lot of people use the same security questions elsewhere =/

 

[reden]

Password Changed...just in case.

Thanks for letting us know.

 

[Peace]

sooo answers to security questions were obtained... thats not good because im sure a lot of people use the same security questions elsewhere =/

Fine by me. If they steal any money from me I will simply sue blizzard and pay off my bills.

 

[MH01]

And why do we always have to be "online" even when not doing anything multiplayer-related? Why doesn't Blizzard (or others such as Steam) explain that to us?

Ah, the good ol' days of true offline independence...

You don't understand what a MMORPG is.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massively_multiplayer_online_role-playing_game

Sure remove the Massively multiplayer Online part and you back with RPG

 

[bse3]

The letter addresses north america only – the text everything but China. What's true?

/Edit: Sorry, got it. Only email addresses outside of North America, except China.

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

You don't understand what a MMORPG is.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massively_multiplayer_online_role-playing_game

Sure remove the Massively multiplayer Online part and you back with RPG

You don't understand that Blizzard actually has 8 games on Battle.net, not just World of Warcraft, and that the other 7 do have single player story lines.

(Diablo, Diablo 2, Diablo 3, Warcraft 2*, Warcraft 3, StarCraft, and StarCraft 2 are their 7 games that have both Battle.net for online multiplayer as well as some form of single player mode. Only Diablo 3 and StarCraft 2 require an internet connection while playing in single player mode.)

*A re-release of the game, entitled "Battle.net Edition" had Battle.net... the original did not.

As far as why Diablo 3 requires a constant internet connection, even when playing single player: it's to prevent cheating. Because you use the same characters/items both in single player and on Battle.net, it's possible to indirectly cheat online by giving your character some crazy boosts in single player, and then taking him online in multiplayer. What's worse is they have the auction house, where real money is used in transactions. If you were permitted to cheat in single player, you could cause insanely good items to drop on your character, and then go online to the auction house and sell them for sad (stupidly high) amounts of money.

If someone could explain to me why StarCraft 2 requires a constant internet connection though, I'd appreciate that... other than achievements, nothing transfers with you from single player to multiplayer, does it? I don't know about custom games, I only ever play ladder.

 

[antonis]

You don't understand what a MMORPG is.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massively_multiplayer_online_role-playing_game

Sure remove the Massively multiplayer Online part and you back with RPG

Outside WoW, no other blizzard game is MMO. Any game could support multiplayer, but no other game is massive multiplayer (aka MMO).

 

[Northgrove]

Happy this happened before it struck my server region. Ugh.

It's not a common thing to happen though. AFAIK, this kind of attack is a first in Battle.net's 16 year history. Good to see Blizzard also use password hashes unlike certain other high profile companies... Still, it would make me uneasy if I were on the USEast realm.

 

[Morod]

"this is why I never play video games online!"

 

[MacOCD]

Only account names and password hashes were stolen meaning a simple password change will make it all better. They're going to need a lookup table before they can even do anything with said hashes. I hope blizzard uses something better than SHA2 or MD5 because I could download those rainbow tables with a quick google search.

 

[MH01]

Outside WoW, no other blizzard game is MMO. Any game could support multiplayer, but no other game is massive multiplayer (aka MMO).

True. When I posted, I expected someone to comeback with this reply. When I think Blizzard, wow pops up as number one

 

[MH01]

You don't understand that Blizzard actually has 8 games on Battle.net, not just World of Warcraft, and that the other 7 do have single player story lines.

(Diablo, Diablo 2, Diablo 3, Warcraft 2*, Warcraft 3, StarCraft, and StarCraft 2 are their 7 games that have both Battle.net for online multiplayer as well as some form of single player mode. Only Diablo 3 and StarCraft 2 require an internet connection while playing in single player mode.)

*A re-release of the game, entitled "Battle.net Edition" had Battle.net... the original did not.

As far as why Diablo 3 requires a constant internet connection, even when playing single player: it's to prevent cheating. Because you use the same characters/items both in single player and on Battle.net, it's possible to indirectly cheat online by giving your character some crazy boosts in single player, and then taking him online in multiplayer. What's worse is they have the auction house, where real money is used in transactions. If you were permitted to cheat in single player, you could cause insanely good items to drop on your character, and then go online to the auction house and sell them for sad (stupidly high) amounts of money.

If someone could explain to me why StarCraft 2 requires a constant internet connection though, I'd appreciate that... other than achievements, nothing transfers with you from single player to multiplayer, does it? I don't know about custom games, I only ever play ladder.

I understand that fully, though I draw the line at StarCraft 2, Diablo 3 and Wow in the battlenet discussion since battlenet did not exist for the other titles. The previous titles were also created as excellent standalone games with adequate multiplayer. The new titles have been created with an excellent multiplayer and poor single player campaigns. And of course wow is just a Cash Cow. You already mentioned why Battlenet was setup, to prevent cheating.

Starcraft 2 you only get the benefit of Achievements etc with online play. Do not forget there is no LAN support for the game, so the only way to play is online, its about control for Blizzard, I think they had a rationale that professional play would develop better if players were used to gaming under online conditions instead of the faster latency times of LAN, ie players would not be bothered with playing online and would just LAN for the better responces/control (ones that wanted to compete). Though setting up a LAN takes somewhat more effort then just logging on, with online they get more players participating. Personally I miss the LAN option.

 

[MMOTotal]

This is some bad news right here, changed my password and e-mail just in case as a blue post said that only e-mail addresses were affected in EU

 

[Truffy]

One word: LOL

Probably just as well MR have removed the down-rating option.

 

[Nightarchaon]

Real money auction house in Diablo III made blizzard WAY to tempting a target, all those bank details ripe for the picking (not to mention blizzard account balances that can be transferred out to real cash).

hack an account, log in as it, buy some trash from the AH sold by the hacker for $100s convert to real cash , profit.

 

[foodog]

what the letter from blizzard doesn't say, but they have admitted elsewhere, is that the breach occurred on August 4th and they didn't notify their customers until today, Aug 9th, a full 5 days later.

that's pathetic

The breach was reported when it was discovered. That is kinda the way it works

 

[MTShipp]

I have not received an email from them on this.

 

[striker33]

Real money auction house in Diablo III made blizzard WAY to tempting a target, all those bank details ripe for the picking (not to mention blizzard account balances that can be transferred out to real cash).

hack an account, log in as it, buy some trash from the AH sold by the hacker for $100s convert to real cash , profit.

Except its incredibly easy for them to trace down the people responsible through the bank accounts used.

Tbh this is just another case of a few overstimulated virgins taking out their pain on the world... of warcraft.

 

[Macman45]

"..At this time, we've found no evidence that financial information such as credit cards, billing addresses, or real names were compromised..."


Just wait until they find out that sensitive and securely held details HAVE been hacked. One of the main reasons I gave up the on-line gaming fraternity a long time ago.

 

[Nightarchaon]

"..At this time, we've found no evidence that financial information such as credit cards, billing addresses, or real names were compromised..."


Just wait until they find out that sensitive and securely held details HAVE been hacked. One of the main reasons I gave up the on-line gaming fraternity a long time ago.

True enough, now i only pay online via "top up cards" bought in real stores for itunes, PSN, and MMOs.

When i do have to purchase online, i have a separate account that has £1 in it, i transfer in enough money to cover my purchase and no more.

Not that the money in my bank is safe, but at least the bank is obligated to put it straight if it screws up and hacked, and if it goes under, my saving are at least partially covered by the government.

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Except its incredibly easy for them to trace down the people responsible through the bank accounts used.

Tbh this is just another case of a few overstimulated virgins taking out their pain on the world... of warcraft.

WoW and blizz are just the biggest target out there at the moment, bigger score if successfully hacked ..

As for tracing the bank accounts, its easy to create a fake bank account, i have one in the USA i use to purchase goods over there (Not for nefarious dealings but to get around stupid sellers that will only accept USA proof of address/US registered accounts, like iTunes region lock) , it would be easy enough to set up an account and go empty it with no trace back to me if i was criminally inclined.