2012/09/21

MMO Account Security

Here is a great article by Guildwars makers about account securities:

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/mike-obrien-on-account-security/

I love his sentence where each word is a link to a security breach of a MMO company which I quote here:
But in recent years,a truly staggering number of game companies and web sites have had their account databasesbreached. These reports of security breaches — 77 million accounts, 25 million accounts, 24 million accounts, untold millions more — may seem abstract, too big to be real, but they’re obviously not
I agree that account security is a problem - but is it really necessary to put extra work on the player only because your security systems lack innovative concepts? Since Blizzard released the authenticator their account hacks were reduced by a large margin. Where is my Guildwars authenticator?

If you ask why spending money on account security then let me tell you that 60% of trojans on your PC are written to steal MMO accuonts - not your credit card or bank details. As MMO accounts are more worth these days than your limit on your credit card :)