Attention players with Compromised Accounts

[Frostfire]

From the Special Tast Force Report

Warning about unauthorized access

As has been mentioned in previous Special Task Force reports, problems regarding third party access to players' account information have become more and more common. Even if ones account is compromised only once, all of that player's characters could be deleted and all gil and items lost.
Viewing suspicious web sites linked on gaming websites or blogs, as well as downloading files from these sites, is believed to be the main cause of this unauthorized access. A player's computer becomes infected with a Trojan horse or keylogger and before he realizes it, his PlayOnline ID and password have been stolen.
We are currently working on a method to restore edited account details and lost items, but there are a few preventative measures to help protect ones account. The following are a few such countermeasures that Windows users can use to protect against unauthorized access.

HURRRRRAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

[PrincessMinnet]

Gee....in other words the STF is still saying that its OUR fault...but at least they are acknowledging there is a problem.

[Purrrfect]

Gee....in other words the STF is still saying that its OUR fault...but at least they are acknowledging there is a problem.

I still don't see how it is our fault when those of us that stored our pw in pol (in THERE app/security layer) got hacked. If they are going to provide such an option in their software, it should work.

[Jeny]

Gee....in other words the STF is still saying that its OUR fault...but at least they are acknowledging there is a problem.

I still don't see how it is our fault when those of us that stored our pw in pol (in THERE app/security layer) got hacked. If they are going to provide such an option in their software, it should work.

Of course it's our fault! We knew exactly what RMT were planning to do and we let them take our accounts to aide them!

[ronin sparthos]

SE protip: Buy a PC to play FFXI on only.

[PrincessMinnet]

And that whole....you shouldn't visit 3rd party sites....WELL here's my response to that.

Get off your collective lazy SE backsides and provide your players with the information they are trying to find and we won't have to go visiting "third-party" sites for it. So you wanna play the blame game...it still all goes back to SE! I don't feel like spending hours wandering around aimlessly trying to figure out a quest because the clues given aren't enough to point me in the right direction, I don't feel like spending hours going through the lists at the guilds trying to find the recipe I need, and I don't feel like spending hours and hours trying to get maps that SHOULD be made available for sale by SOME npc even if it does cost an arm and a leg. Honestly....GET REAL SE....the websites you provide us DON'T give us the information we need. They don't even give decent info on how to go about the special events much less the day to day stuff.

[Frostfire]

And that whole....you shouldn't visit 3rd party sites....WELL here's my response to that.

Get off your collective lazy SE backsides and provide your players with the information they are trying to find and we won't have to go visiting "third-party" sites for it. So you wanna play the blame game...it still all goes back to SE! I don't feel like spending hours wandering around aimlessly trying to figure out a quest because the clues given aren't enough to point me in the right direction, I don't feel like spending hours going through the lists at the guilds trying to find the recipe I need, and I don't feel like spending hours and hours trying to get maps that SHOULD be made available for sale by SOME npc even if it does cost an arm and a leg. Honestly....GET REAL SE....the websites you provide us DON'T give us the information we need. They don't even give decent info on how to go about the special events much less the day to day stuff.

Preach it sista!

[Gere]

From the Special Tast Force Report

Warning about unauthorized access

As has been mentioned in previous Special Task Force reports, problems regarding third party access to players' account information have become more and more common. Even if ones account is compromised only once, all of that player's characters could be deleted and all gil and items lost.
Viewing suspicious web sites linked on gaming websites or blogs, as well as downloading files from these sites, is believed to be the main cause of this unauthorized access. A player's computer becomes infected with a Trojan horse or keylogger and before he realizes it, his PlayOnline ID and password have been stolen.
We are currently working on a method to restore edited account details and lost items, but there are a few preventative measures to help protect ones account. The following are a few such countermeasures that Windows users can use to protect against unauthorized access.

Nowhere are they saying it's our fault (you guys act like they somehow could have prevented rmt from hacking sites they don't own).

Go ahead and blame them for their shitty reaction to the situation all you want though.

[ronin sparthos]

Nowhere are they saying it's our fault (you guys act like they somehow could have prevented rmt from hacking sites they don't own).

Go ahead and blame them for their shitty reaction to the situation all you want though.

The bitterness is more towards when people were reporting this in early December and SE had fun hanging the phone up on people, and sending others on wild goose chases. Had they acted then, less people would have been hacked had they come forward and told people what to look for.

They are taking baby steps now, i guess. We'll see where that goes.

[Ravenskye]

I don't blame Se on a whole for being hacked . However I do blame them for:

1. Lack of response on reporting the account compromised. (stated in the User Agreements and Policies "immediately report any unauthorized use of you POL ID or password by using the form available in the "Service and Support" section of the POL viewer). If they change the PW this is unavailable.

2. Not freezing accounts immediately and investigating the accounts when numerous accounts were being reported daily as being compromised.

3.For not sending User's an Email to their Email listed on the account (not the POL email as the hacker's now have this ) that their account information has been changed and to what it was changed too ( this would give us the information we needed to regain control of our accounts )." Personal Information is collected so that we can provide you with the POL services you requested, contact you to verify your Personal Information or POL account activities, notify you if there is a problem with your account, and enhance the services that we provide you".

4. For being victimized twice by SE 1st by the hacker 2nd when I reported it and being accused of inappropriate actions ( sold my account, gave someone my PW and codes, and using third party cheats).

5. Being a paying customer for 2 years and being told to " Find another game to play" and hung up on.

6. Humiliating me with my local police department because they want a police report. ( If I call and say someone charged ass of cash on my CC their here ASAP, but if I say I need a Police report because someone took my taru they act like your on crack ).

To the hacker's just a note : Karma is a beautiful thing and it will catch you.

[ronin sparthos]

To the hacker's just a note : Karma is a beautiful thing and it will catch you.

Monsoons, Power Surge, Tainted food anyone? >.>;

[PrincessMinnet]

I don't really blame SE for the hijackings...but I've heard time again how we've visited "suspicious" or "third-party" websites and I'm sorry you don't happen to see it this way...but the majority does....This is SE saying, "Hey its your fault for going to those sites." I personally haven't lost my account (though I came very very close), but my husband and a good friend both lost theirs. And by very very close, I mean to say my computer started doing EXACTLY what happened leading up to my husband losing his, which is how I knew to stop before it happened to me. Forgive me for getting to the point of frustration that I went off the handle at SE. I'm just tired of reading the same lame rhetoric about visiting these sites. If SE doesn't want us to visit these sites then they need to give us a safe alternative. When you've fire-walled, anti-virused, got your system on paranoid settings, behind a sub-net ip, and you STILL get hit....You've fulfilled your part of keeping your account info as safe as you can. It is unreasonable to expect players to have a separate computer for web browsing, it is unreasonable to expect them to spend every moment making sure their protection is up to the second, it is unreasonable to have policies in place that protect the attackers instead of aiding the victims.

[Gergall]

6. Humiliating me with my local police department because they want a police report. ( If I call and say someone charged ass of cash on my CC their here ASAP, but if I say I need a Police report because someone took my taru they act like your on crack ).

Tell them you are an identity theft victim, they gained access to your account and private information, its linked to your credit card, etc.

[setzor]

6. Humiliating me with my local police department because they want a police report. ( If I call and say someone charged ass of cash on my CC their here ASAP, but if I say I need a Police report because someone took my taru they act like your on crack ).

Tell them you are an identity theft victim, they gained access to your account and private information, its linked to your credit card, etc.

It's not a question of identity theft that's the issue, the fact of the matter is, the police find out it's through a video game and suddenly they don't care if you could get hurt from it, it's a video game, it can't be serious.

I tried that, I tried all angles with my local identity theft/computer crimes division, and the dude just about broke out laughing on the phone, and said that the District Attorney would probably roll on the floor if he found out I was trying to get a subpoena over a video game.

It's just not a viable method of getting your account back, if anything it's a delay and a joke.

It was honestly just another of the customer service department's methods of getting you off the phone and punting you to someone else and making you feel more helpless..

[Ravenskye]

Because nothing was charged on my CC and the "real " CC information wasn't changed it wasn't Identity Fraud. That since the account information at POL/SE was changed that it was POL/SE responsibility to file the charges because technically the didn't get paid and someone assume my Identity with their company and since POL/SE wasn't taken it seriously enough to even investigate the situation upon reporting the account compromised. So technically their point of view was that POL/SE was the one who the fraud was committed against and they should be the ones filing the charges since in the ToS they own everything we are just "renters" of a service and they wouldn't put out an "Amber Alert on your and what was it? a "taru"?"

[Twig]

This is what SE said in their report: "Viewing suspicious web sites linked on gaming websites or blogs, as well as downloading files from these sites, is believed to be the main cause of this unauthorized access."

My question is does ffxi-atlas.com count as a suspicious site? We know it was the cause of some the recent hackings. The playonline website even links to http://monsters.ffxi-atlas.com. Check it out:

http://www.playonline.com/polapps/s/...olg_loc=en&c=2

I find it very inconsistent that SE encourages us to visit these "suspicious sites" as well as warn us to avoid them.

[ballstein]

I don't really blame SE for the hijackings...but I've heard time again how we've visited "suspicious" or "third-party" websites

I'm going to disagree with you there . SE is responsible for roughly(in my opinion) 95% of the account thefts that occur to this community. Though it is absolutely plausible that you may encounter to visit a source that contains malware specifically set out to destroy your gaming account, it's overall very unlikely and can easily be stopped from both sides.

I don't know how many of you share an interest in the programming genre of technology, but if you were to take a look at how SE operates its main gaming engines, you will notice that it's very flawed. Each month they ban people for what they call 'hacking', but they provide little to no progress to fully demolish these types of hacks.

1. Player movement cheats are usually the main abundance of these bans. Things as silly as 'speed hacks' and 'position movement hacks' can easily be made by any amateur 'script kiddie' and can even more easily be permanently blocked by SE. But for some odd reason, they refuse to acknowledge the core problem and put up stupid, temporary fixes such as server-side timers that demand each player's zone time be logged and anything under X amount of seconds be sent to the 'anti-cheat' team to be dealt with.

Position movement hacks are dealt with in a similar manner but instead of a timer, data position is logged and fed into what is sometimes called the 'Fibonacci security sequence'. And if you know what the Fibonacci sequence is, you'll probably understand what it means/how it works, but if you don't, i'll give a brief explanation. I'm not going to explain how the mathematical sequence works, that can be found on google . The way it works is by setting the integers to hexadecimal numerics(or possibly map positions such as 'A2'). For someone to make it to the third sequence, they must first encounter the first and second which ultimately MUST add up to the third or else the infamous SE 'anti-cheat' team is in for a treat. Also, these numeric values can be anything, usually each company finds a unique way for their system, but it all depends on what you're doing and what you're trying to go up against.

2. Claiming cheats are entirely different. During the 'old skool' days of FFXI, claiming was a big problem for most of the NA community. JP dominate players, pinging 20ms to SE's servers, had no problem claiming mobs. They didn't need bots/mechanics to beat anyone. Once a mob spawned, it was instantly seen on their screen and they could successfully claim it without a problem. The NA community on the other hand, could almost NEVER claim against JP players. One reason of course being the shitty internet connection we NA players experience(our internet is absolutely horrid compared to Europe and Asia), which results in approximately 220-260+ ms ping to Japanese servers. That being said, if any of you have ever played a FPS game where ping is a main component via your performance, you can definitely relate how the difference between 20ms and 250ms plays.

The way 'claim bots' worked back then was that they would list certain mobs found in your current area, and wait for them to spawn(HP will instantly change from 0 to 100), and then simply spam a macro. Now how can this possibly beat a JP player? After all, they're the ones with 20ms! Well, with this program, you are virtually eliminating all packet lag you receive from the server, making your ping virtually 0ms(this of course also plays a role depending on what type of computer you are running). Now, how can such a stunning tool be caught by SE? I've heard many people state that SE cannot detect these types of bots, this is WRONG. Even an amateur company like SE can detect these, think about it. If you normally ping 250ms to the server, how is it possible that you are claiming a mob that has not even spawned on your screen yet at a whopping speed of ~0ms? It isn't very hard to put together.

During the dawn of the 'new skool' days of FFXI, SE implemented a very stupid claiming system which consisted of a mob spawning and not being claimable for X amount of milliseconds(I say milliseconds because there is virtually no timestamp of solid integers/whole numbers). How did this exactly fix the problem? Sure NA players can now actually SEE the mob before it's claimed, but now every person in the room depending on where they're from, will have a totally different view on how much time they must wait before it's time to start bashing the keyboard/controller and attempting to claim. Also, you must remember that not all of us have the luxury of a quad core system these days. Some of us still will NOT see the damn mob spawn unclaimed. This 'fix' did nothing. It just gave NA players false hope. Now i've read many posts on here and several other boards(such as KI and various LS's), and some people seem to believe that this system is completely bullet proof - it somehow gives everyone an equal opportunity to claim. It doesn't. In the world of 'internet mechanics', nothing can be 100% hidden when passing through and from the server to the client. I'm not going to explain what this means because this is after all an open forum, I don't want to say all of you are on the same page as me(against cheating), but I also don't want to say that there may be some outside sources that read these forums as well(if you get my drift ).

Botting today has become more and more popular without solid reason. Most of you that decide to purchase or download these uncanny programs don't realize what position you're putting yourself into. What makes you believe they're safe? Now i'm not talking about simply referring to FFXI, but all of us have personal information on our computer; we've all accessed a private university personal data page or opened our paypal user account to view/change information. All of this is fair game when you're downloading something. And don't attempt to argue that "Nortan said it was clean." Virus scanners look for both general and specific patterns of bytes in a file and compare them to a database of known virus byte patterns. Virus scanners do not pick up new virus' and add them to their database. This is impossible. This is why the consumer is the main employee of these things. Someone has to encounter and report the new virus first right? My advice to anyone would be DON'T DOWNLOAD ANYTHING THAT IS NOT BACKED UP BY A MAJOR CORPORATION OR BY SOMEONE YOU CLOSELY KNOW!And closely doesn't mean your 'bffl billy that has been playing Diablo with you since third grade'.

Now you're probably thinking, "Gee, the majority of these things seem like they aren't SE's fault; they're mine." Wrong. The majority of users do not realize that YOU are the bosses for these corporate companies. You've all heard the expression the customer is always right, and damn right we will stay. Majority of these things are extremely difficult to avoid before contact, which is why the corporation must ensure you something. Now we're talking about a video game here, so let's go ahead and rightfully assume and dictate that EVERYTHING must be ensured, which is why SE is fully held responsible. They ensure us nothing. A similar situation I can think of would be a bank account. No matter what happens to a bank(and if you're not up to date, read the news), the Fed will guarantee you $100k. But again, we pay a measly $15 a month for FFXI, we don't put our life in your hands. The very LEAST you could do is fully ensure our accounts.


How can SE fix their problems?
1. In regards to 'botting' and other various cheats: BETTER ENCRYPTIONS. It's sad enough that you develop an engine and allow users to easily modify such major elements such as speed and positioning, the least you could do is heavily encrypt the already encrypted packets and fully disguise them. The time and money you spent to catch people cheating, you could have fully minimized cheating to an extreme extent!

2. In regards to 'unfair claim methods': GET NEW DEVELOPERS DAMN IT! If FPS games can have zero-ping dependency then so can you! Sure it would feel strange developing a zero-ping mutator for some MMORPG, but you already mentioned that you have no plans as to change the NM system.

3. In regards to 'client support': YOU CAN'T BLAME OTHER PEOPLE FOR YOUR IGNORANCE. If huge corporations such as NASA and Microsoft have been hacked into, what makes you think that your nifty POL viewer can't have the same fate? Also, a friendlier and much more useful support team will attract users to actually not have to worry when they find themselves in deep elephant shit. So what if the game becomes 'easier'? You're still going to make the same amount of money if not increase it. Also, a 'secret question/answer' would be absolutely amazing. So would IP analysis, so if someone logs into your account from China you can maybe ask them to type in their birthday and compare that to what the original user has? Something that could stop account thefts from taking place would be great.




On to helping fine FFXI users such as yourself!

How to protect yourself from account theft/GM abuse.
1. Don't download anything you're absolutely unsure about(basic Windower is ok).
2. Don't give out your account information.
3. For the love of God, don't set your member password to be the same as your account password.
4. Properly set up your firewall.
5. Download a GOOD anti-virus and scan weekly(scan downloads also). If you don't want/have the money to pay for one, download ClamWin anti-virus. It's free and fully functional.
6. If you're going to click on random links, at least have FFXI fully closed. For those of you unaware, there used to be a 'bug' where your password was fully visible through memory when logged in. Not sure if it's been fixed yet.
7. Not all GMs are smart(surprise surprise). Some of them have reportedly told users that they are using a windower. Read the ToS. Know what SE is allowed to do and make sure they stay within their words. Last I checked, you aren't exactly allowed to look into what I currently have open on my computer. Just because windower and IE is open, doesn't mean you can immediately 'assume' things. No one wants to be sued for 'spying' on their users do they?

[ballstein]

This is what SE said in their report: "Viewing suspicious web sites linked on gaming websites or blogs, as well as downloading files from these sites, is believed to be the main cause of this unauthorized access."

My question is does ffxi-atlas.com count as a suspicious site? We know it was the cause of some the recent hackings. The playonline website even links to http://monsters.ffxi-atlas.com. Check it out:

http://www.playonline.com/polapps/s/...olg_loc=en&c=2

I find it very inconsistent that SE encourages us to visit these "suspicious sites" as well as warn us to avoid them.

It's very hard to fully narrow down who's fault it is in regards to these account thefts. It doesn't seem like everyone was keylogged, mainly because not everyone sits there and types in their POL-ID# and password each time they log into FFXI. It probably has something to do with the way POL stores saved information, such as your POL-ID# and password. SE is still ignorant though, they somewhat refuse to accept their problems and simply substitute ideas with their flaws.

In all honestly, ffxi-atlas is most likely safe. I don't think SE owns that site, but it all depends on if the site itself becomes hacked with spyware which then finds a way onto your computer.

[Meko]

Any new news on this? I have not seen anything but I was curious.

[Jeny]

Any new news on this? I have not seen anything but I was curious.

I usually update with news on the main post, but it's been days since I've heard anything from SE. :/