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Blizzard Authenticators May Become Mandatory
An anonymous reader writes "WoW.com is reporting that a trusted source has informed them that Blizzard is giving serious consideration to making authenticators mandatory on all World of Warcraft accounts. The authenticators function the same as ones provided by most banks — in order to log in, you must generate a number on the external device. Blizzard already provides a free iPhone app that functions as an authenticator. The source stated, 'it is a virtually forgone conclusion that it will happen.' This comes after large spates of compromised accounts left Bizzard game masters severely backlogged by restoration requests."
Why not a PC app? Potential for compromise. A keyfob removes all question.
And why not educate users? Because blizzard doesn't have the time or money to deal with angry children who refuse to remember a random 8 character password. Never mind people who do have a good password and log on via their friends compromised system.
but what about if this starts a trend and all online games start to require such?
Maybe secure login will then become a common practice and devices will be standardized and we will live in a bright shiny future where login is no longer done by the most primitive system imaginable.
I mean seriously, passwords are among the weakest chain when it comes to security today and not something that can be fixed by 'educating the user' (last time I counted I had around 100 password), it wouldn't hurt to replace them with something that is more secure and more comfortable to use, even if it might be a bit painful at first.
Is your time worth $0?
Many people playing these games have hundreds or thousands of hours spent playing - a $7 device and 5 seconds each time you log in is a pretty fair price for protecting that time spent.
Even if this were entirely a benefit to Blizzard and completely neutral for the player, it still actually would benefit players: less support staff time spent on "I got my account hacked!" means that players with other problems can get tickets answered more quickly.
Since I can't tell them apart, I treat all ACs as the same person.
Let's not forget the real reason authenticators are becoming mandatory. It's because accounts are getting hacked, sure, but why are accounts getting hacked?
Because there are idiots paying real life $$ for in-game money, which they get by hacking accounts and selling off their stuff. The customers of these websites are paying these hackers to take over people's accounts, effectively.
Do away with the monetary incentive, and accounts wouldn't be getting hacked.