Blizzard confirms WoW account hacks, issues warning on security

WoW Insider reported on this over the weekend, and Blizzard has now confirmed that there has been a security issue with the Mobile Auction House. Blizzard EntertainmentThere's been a recent increase in unauthorized World of Warcraft account-logins via our website and the World of Warcraft mobile armory app.

We're in the process of notifying any account holders who were not using an authenticator and whose account showed signs of unauthorized access (e.g., logging in from an unusual IP address). If you are among this group, you will receive an email describing how to reset your account.

As a result of these activities, access to the World of Warcraft auction house via the mobile app has been taken off-line temporarily. Upon request, our customer support team will restore in-game items and gold for any accounts impacted.

While no means of account security is guaranteed, every precaution you take to secure your computer and your account-including changing your password periodically-adds another defensive barrier. We strongly encourage everyone to take a few moments to read through the security tips available on our support website and follow the suggestions posted there.

As we mentioned in the original article, a GM had recommended the addition of SMS Protect to further secure accounts, and using unique passwords for your battle.net account. Also, running virus scans, keylogger scans, and malware scans is an excellent practice.Tags: breaking, hack, hacking, mobile-armory, mobile-armory-auction-house, mobile-auction-house

Filed under: Account Security

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Blizzard was Hacked, Security Update

Some of Blizzards servers were broken into. Blizzard has issued a press release. Here it is, in full, links have been removed. See the source pages for Bliz links. Credit cards and other important data do not seem to have been compromised.

Players and Friends,

Even when you are in the business of fun, not every week ends up being fun. This week, our security team found an unauthorized and illegal access into our internal network here at Blizzard. We quickly took steps to close off this access and began working with law enforcement and security experts to investigate what happened.

At this time, we’ve found no evidence that financial information such as credit cards, billing addresses, or real names were compromised. Our investigation is ongoing, but so far nothing suggests that these pieces of information have been accessed.

Some data was illegally accessed, including a list of email addresses for global Battle.net users, outside of China. For players on North American servers (which generally includes players from North America, Latin America, Australia, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia) the answer to the personal security question, and information relating to Mobile and Dial-In Authenticators were also accessed. Based on what we currently know, this information alone is NOT enough for anyone to gain access to Battle.net accounts.

We also know that cryptographically scrambled versions of Battle.net passwords (not actual passwords) for players on North American servers were taken. We use Secure Remote Password protocol (SRP) to protect these passwords, which is designed to make it extremely difficult to extract the actual password, and also means that each password would have to be deciphered individually. As a precaution, however, we recommend that players on North American servers change their password. Please click this link to change your password. Moreover, if you have used the same or similar passwords for other purposes, you may want to consider changing those passwords as well.

In the coming days, we’ll be prompting players on North American servers to change their secret questions and answers through an automated process. Additionally, we’ll prompt mobile authenticator users to update their authenticator software. As a reminder, phishing emails will ask you for password or login information. Blizzard Entertainment emails will never ask for your password. We deeply regret the inconvenience to all of you and understand you may have questions. Please find additional information here.

We take the security of your personal information very seriously, and we are truly sorry that this has happened.

Sincerely,
Mike Morhaime

Original source

MMO-Champion has the original release and an FAQ.

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