10K+ sites infected - SE response - RESTORATION, K?

[Fhqwghads]

http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/pol...ews12968.shtml

Mar. 28, 2008 09:00 [PDT] From: PlayOnline


Caution on Account Hacking



Recently both ABC News and Yahoo! News have reported that over 10,000 websites have been infected by hackers in an attempt to steal the IDs and passwords used in various online games.

Based on the articles, it is apparent that hackers are heavily targeting online game accounts. As we have often reminded our players in the past, we ask that you continue to monitor and update the security of your system and Internet connection to prevent any harm caused by infected websites and malicious programs.

If you suspect your account is compromised, please contact the Information Center and provide us with the details. If your account is compromised outside Information Center business hours, please place a helpdesk call in order to contact a Game Master (GM) to report the details. Depending on your situation, we will offer all the assistance we can, including temporary login restriction to prevent any further harm, as well as instructions on how to proceed from there.

We are currently reviewing the restoration policy for players who have had their accounts compromised. Our goal is to expand the assistance towards affected players by restoring their accounts to a state that's as close as possible to the state it was in before it was compromised. Details on the restoration policy will be announced on the official web site once they become finalized. We appreciate your patience and understanding in this matter.

[Related Articles]
ABC News:
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Technology/PC ... id=4441255

Yahoo! News:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/infoworld/20080 ... bb8T663MMF

Rather than give us preventive measures, we get item restoration after the damage is done! GG!

[Rhealana]

No, you get the typical, "Maybe we'll restore you, maybe we won't."

And expect to get your earth crystals restored, but your relic/adaberk/ridill/bb/etc to not.

[Infini]

Welcome to 6 months ago SE c.c

[chi]

Recently both ABC News and Yahoo! News have reported what our playerbase has been telling us for half a year.

[Mizango]

http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/pol...ews12968.shtml

Mar. 28, 2008 09:00 [PDT] From: PlayOnline


Caution on Account Hacking



Recently both ABC News and Yahoo! News have reported that over 10,000 websites have been infected by hackers in an attempt to steal the IDs and passwords used in various online games.

Based on the articles, it is apparent that hackers are heavily targeting online game accounts. As we have often reminded our players in the past, we ask that you continue to monitor and update the security of your system and Internet connection to prevent any harm caused by infected websites and malicious programs.

If you suspect your account is compromised, please contact the Information Center and provide us with the details. If your account is compromised outside Information Center business hours, please place a helpdesk call in order to contact a Game Master (GM) to report the details. Depending on your situation, we will offer all the assistance we can, including temporary login restriction to prevent any further harm, as well as instructions on how to proceed from there.

We are currently reviewing the restoration policy for players who have had their accounts compromised. Our goal is to expand the assistance towards affected players by restoring their accounts to a state that's as close as possible to the state it was in before it was compromised. Details on the restoration policy will be announced on the official web site once they become finalized. We appreciate your patience and understanding in this matter.

[Related Articles]
ABC News:
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Technology/PC ... id=4441255

Yahoo! News:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/infoworld/20080 ... bb8T663MMF

Rather than give us preventive measures, we get item restoration after the damage is done! GG!

Classic example of being "A day late and a dollar short". I like the part about how when you're hacked they will get your account as "close as possible" to how it was before being compromised.

[Twig]

We are currently reviewing the restoration policy for players who have had their accounts compromised. Our goal is to expand the assistance towards affected players by restoring their accounts to a state that's as close as possible to the state it was in before it was compromised. Details on the restoration policy will be announced on the official web site once they become finalized. We appreciate your patience and understanding in this matter.

If they actually do a roll-back of our characters I can maybe forgive them for making me wait 4 months and counting to get my account returned. How about those who have already got their accounts back though? For those who got their accounts returned weeks ago, will they be eligible for this new restoration policy?

Of course they are as vague as they possibly can be, and it will be months before we get any real answers.

[Xno Kappa]

In before the lolIE.

[Raji]

A day late and ONE MILLION DOLLARS (*holds pinky to mouth*) short.

In other words, typical lolSE.

[Katlan]

We are currently reviewing the restoration policy for players who have had their accounts compromised. Our goal is to expand the assistance towards affected players by restoring their accounts to a state that's as close as possible to the state it was in before it was compromised. Details on the restoration policy will be announced on the official web site once they become finalized. We appreciate your patience and understanding in this matter.

This is a step in the right direction, and it's the first time they didn't mention "stop going to unofficial FF sites." Guess they are starting to realize that it's a bigger problem then they wanted to outwardly admit, but can't "not" say anything in response since its been publicly announced. Albit it's a bit late now and I don't know how much help it will provide at such a late date. Now all that's left to be seen is if they actually implement it or if the announcement was just to make ppl happy.

[DAKPluto]

Based on the articles, it is apparent that hackers are heavily targeting online game accounts.

This line did it for me...


SE IS FINDING OUT ABOUT THEIR CLIENTS GETTING HACKED FROM NEWS ARTICLES?!?!? WTF!?

http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/2...ic7copyrl2.jpg

[Kyreth]

For all the attitude on this one, there's a change there.

S-E is realizing that user-based security is going to be insufficent. Yes, it's at typical S-E (Slowly-Everytime) speed. It's SEpoke. At least this means a reaction is occuring, however lethargic it seems to be.

[Gergall]

Please tell me how this is going to work:

If your account is compromised outside Information Center business hours, please place a helpdesk call in order to contact a Game Master (GM) to report the details

I don't think someone with a compromised account is going to be able to do this.

And we all know what happens when a friend or alternate account is used to report a compromised account.

[Kenji]

Curious. The reports say online gaming, and not FFXI officially. If this hacking wave is targetting other games, how effective has it been on those other games? What are the other companies doing? I'd be interested in a comparison of responses.

[Arkanna]

At the very least, this POL news item represents a possible shift in policy from SE. There's no way to tell that it'll go anywhere and I definitely have my doubts, but at least those who are optimistic can see there could be a good outcome from it.

I'm virtually certain they have regular tape backups of everything FFXI-related (it's common sense in the IT industry), and all it would take to get characters restored from backup, aka, "rollback", is a simple policy change. Hopefully this marks the coming of that policy change.

*edit* proofread 4tw

[Mizango]

Please tell me how this is going to work:

If your account is compromised outside Information Center business hours, please place a helpdesk call in order to contact a Game Master (GM) to report the details

I don't think someone with a compromised account is going to be able to do this.

And we all know what happens when a friend or alternate account is used to report a compromised account.

Don't you see? That's the genius of SE's plan! This way they can't say that they didn't at least offer assistance, therefore rendering your after hours cries for GM assistance moot and irrelevant. Seeing how you have no character to "log into" to place said help desk call, you will just have to wait until the Information center office to open and contact them as normal.

Oh those wacky guys at SE, what will they think of next!?

[Kyreth]

Curious. The reports say online gaming, and not FFXI officially. If this hacking wave is targetting other games, how effective has it been on those other games? What are the other companies doing? I'd be interested in a comparison of responses.

WoW's been having issues with keylogged accounts being used to spam RMT advertisement via whispers lately, actually. Gets around the "newbie barrier" Blizzard put up to prevent trial accounts and such from being used as adbots.

[Caldor]

Please tell me how this is going to work:

If your account is compromised outside Information Center business hours, please place a helpdesk call in order to contact a Game Master (GM) to report the details

I don't think someone with a compromised account is going to be able to do this.

And we all know what happens when a friend or alternate account is used to report a compromised account.

Unfortunately at the moment it's not possible. They'd need some kind of connection to GMs using the FFXI website. Something like that webchat they offer there for customer service purposes.

[Midnitelouie]

Please tell me how this is going to work:

If your account is compromised outside Information Center business hours, please place a helpdesk call in order to contact a Game Master (GM) to report the details

I don't think someone with a compromised account is going to be able to do this.

And we all know what happens when a friend or alternate account is used to report a compromised account.

It's the equivalent of:

"If you're having a problem sending or receiving your email, please send an email to Helpdesk, and they'll look into it ASAP..."

Classic. Truly classic.

[ronin sparthos]

Id hope they told the GMs about this new 'outlook' on things, because they seem to always be outside the loop on information.

At least they arent talking in that 'its all your fault' tone they usually favor - lets see where they go with this new policy.

[ringthree]

Yes, late, but still good. They better apply it retroactively though.