Does Blizzard have the right idea for account security?

[Zosi]

From http://www.blizzard.com/us/press/080626-auth.html

Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. today introduced an optional extra layer of security for World of Warcraft®, its award-winning massively multiplayer online role-playing game. Designed to attach to a keychain, the lightweight and waterproof Blizzard® Authenticator is an electronic device that generates a six-digit security code at the press of a button. This code is unique, valid only once, and active for a limited time; it must be provided along with the account name and password when signing in to the World of Warcraft account linked to it.

This optional security measure will be available at the 2008 Blizzard Entertainment Worldwide Invitational, which takes place June 28-29 in Paris, France. In addition, the Blizzard Authenticator will be made available for purchase via Blizzard's online store in the near future for a cost of $6.50.

Seems like this would be very effective at preventing stolen accounts due to password theft, but it obviously wouldn't protect against accounts being stolen due to security breaches to the servers themselves, or some weakness in the generation algorithm. It'd also make it pretty much impossible for anyone else to have *authorized* access to your account, since you can only have one authenticator per account, and you need to be in physical possession of it (or at least access to it) at the time of login.

How many of you would do something like this if it was offered for FFXI, or how many of you who play WoW will do this?

Edit: I know this was brought up in passing in the Blizz Expo thread, but I think it's interesting enough that it deserves it's own thread for discussion, since it's a solid solution to a problem that's just as big of an issue in FFXI as WoW.

[izembo]

think everything that needed discussed was discussed in blizzard expo thread =/

[Charismatic]

Sounds great, but having to pay for it is pretty fucked up imo.

[Vigilia]

I'd get one in a flash for FFXI.

[Zosi]

think everything that needed discussed was discussed in blizzard expo thread =/

There's one post and one reply in that thread, neither really discusses anything, and they both got drowned out by D3 and WoW talk.

[izembo]

kinda the point, there isnt really anything to say. its a cool idea, accomplishes nothing on ffxi, and helps a bit on wow if you want to pay a little. itll never happen on ffxi, so dont see the point.

[Lexa]

It'd also make it pretty much impossible for anyone else to have *authorized* access to your account, since you can only have one authenticator per account, and you need to be in physical possession of it (or at least access to it) at the time of login.

How many of you would do something like this if it was offered for FFXI, or how many of you who play WoW will do this?

I'd get one without second thought. And also, wasn't it established that if you're gonna let others onto your account, have them be in range or physical asskicking? The only other person with access to my account is someone I know IRL, whom I could physically bicthslap if something went awry.

[Shuemue]

izembo, we don't all read every thread, and let's face it, it's not your place to decide what's worth a thread.

On topic; my bank sent me one of these, they're fucking annoying, but I'd still probably get one.

[Osede]

They have the similar kind of function in taiwan WoW, but they require you to use your cellphone to do the authentication. But honestly, it still not able to prevent those RMT and hacker to hack into their account. Ppl still getting hacked even thought they use that cellphone authentication service

[Demosthenes]

I'm not too worried. ffxi is the only thing i use windows for, and even then it's not often. I prefer to play on the ps2. Unless someone finds a magic way to hijack my shit via my windows boot it's not going to happen. Whenever I boot into windows really, it's to upgrade something. gfx card drivers, lolvirusdatabase because i have not logged booted up in win in like 3 weeks, oh hay i should get new firefox for my windows boot too.
Though if I did use it as often as everyone else does, I'd be inclined to support the idea... only for free though. All the dollars SE has gotten from me should mean they send me one for free. Replacement one, sure charge. First one should be free though.

[Day]

We use these at work for our VPN. It uses a 4 digit code you make up + the current passcode on the token. Pretty damn secure. If I was super paranoid about my wow account, I think i'd look into one, but meh, don't really care enough to pay for one.

[Correction]

This idea isn't particularly new, managed networks with serious security concerns have been locking out software access with hardware attachments for years and years. It's just that it's not a step worth taking to protect virtual property until the value of said data exceeds a certain threshold, which certainly seems to be the case with popular MMO character banks.

The only real reason to protect your own account is to protect people you know online from any subsequent fraud. Guild banks get cleaned out, items get 'lent' and never returned, etc. When you lump all those considerations together the decision is pretty straightforward.

[Maxxthepenguin]

Not going to happen for FFXI. I doubt it's worth developing implementing for the small percentage of 500k people that would buy it. It does make sense for the massive WoW customer base though.

[Killgannon]

would buy

yes they're annoying

but they are probably the most secure you can get (outside of thumbprint recognition or retinal)

[Boyiee]

I'm ordering 2 tonight for wow. My sisters account was just hacked last week, not really sure how as she didn't have anything on her computer that I could find anyway, but I still did a reformat. We were able to retrieve her character after a 72hr suspension and get all of her items and gold back, which was pretty nice.

If that didn't happen, I wouldn't be so quick to get one. Since it's external, and randomly generated, AND changes from time to time, it's a pretty damn secure option. One thing however is it may make buying/selling accounts harder to do, so if anyone is into that, they need to unload their inventories.

Paying for it is kinda lame, what I saw mentioned that would be nice is having them free in the expansion packs, but I doubt that will happen. However $6.50 for a game you spend hundreds of hours and hundreds of dollars on is good enough for me, I don't mind the price.

would buy

yes they're annoying

but they are probably the most secure you can get (outside of thumbprint recognition or retinal)

They are advertising it as the most security you can get in any game from any game company currently.

[KuaiEQ]

I don't give out my account information to people I don't know and I don't download gay porn and visit gaytube.com so this would be useless. Still good for retards tho.

[Boyiee]

I don't give out my account information to people I don't know and I don't download gay porn and visit gaytube.com so this would be useless. Still good for retards tho.

Pretty sure there are more ways to lose your account then just those, but whatever.

[Day]

I don't give out my account information to people I don't know and I don't download gay porn and visit gaytube.com so this would be useless. Still good for retards tho.

Pretty sure there are more ways to lose your account then just those, but whatever.

Actually gay porn is the only way.

[Boyiee]

I don't give out my account information to people I don't know and I don't download gay porn and visit gaytube.com so this would be useless. Still good for retards tho.

Pretty sure there are more ways to lose your account then just those, but whatever.

Actually gay porn is the only way.

Then I really need to have a talk with my sister.

[Lbelle]

I think this could be good, but at the same time if you lost it, or it had some sort of technical difficulty then you'd be sort of fucked and have to wait for Blizzard's tech support to help you out.