I appear to have been World of Warhacked!

Discussion in 'The Lounge - Off Topic' started by Fergal1982, Jan 8, 2011.

  1. Fergal1982

    Fergal1982 Petabyte Poster

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    I got an email through tonight (one that BT didnt immediately dump into the spam folder) stating that an email change request had been placed against my battle.net account.

    The email started off with my name, and identified my current email. After checking the URL's, it appears that all of the links (in particular the important one for taking action) all pointed to www.battle.net.

    I've had a few similar to this in the past, so I almost dismissed it, but I went to wow-europe.com (independantly, rather than using the email) and attempted to log in. It refused to acknowledge my credentials.

    Now, I havent played wow since around November 2009, but I know what the account name and password are on that account (I converted it to battle.net account prior to leaving).

    So I started the account recovery process and have now reset the pw and added an authenticator for good measure.

    The thing I cant get my head around, is how it was hacked. I did recently log into my account (I was thinking about reactivating for Cataclysm), and the timing of it implies that there is a chance that my PC has been compromised, but I can't see how. I'm pretty careful about these kind of things, and can usually spot the troublemakers.

    I'm also cautious to the point that I virus scan anything I download that im not entirely sure about.

    The weird thing is, that once I got back in, I checked the account history (after all, I hadnt paid for it since the end of 2009). There is a referral reward on it with today's date - meaning that whoever did it sent a referral from my account and paid for a months membership from the other side.
     
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  2. Apoc220

    Apoc220 Byte Poster

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    You wouldn't happen to use the same password for all your accounts, do you? There was that gawker incident where they got people's passwords a month back and if you were using the same password or username for your accounts then this could be a cause. That is, of course, if you HAD a gawker (or associated website) account. Other than that I don't know what else it could be.
     
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  3. Fergal1982

    Fergal1982 Petabyte Poster

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    I do happen to use the same password for a lot of accounts, but I dont have a gawker account (No idea what it is to be honest). Also, the password I use for emails, and Wow was a variant of my more common password. The common is the less secure - in that it doesnt contain numbers of capital letters.

    I tend to only roll out the big password for things I think need it (or sites that require it I suppose).

    Perhaps its time I made a global change to my passwords...
     
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  4. The_Geek

    The_Geek Megabyte Poster

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    I've had an authenticator on my account for about a year, after a friends account got hacked and he lost everything. Luckily Blizzard was able to recover everything for him.
     
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  5. Arroryn

    Arroryn we're all dooooooomed Moderator

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    I do rotational passwords. It's a pain in the ass, but it makes me feel safe. I have the same alpha-numeric plus character pre-cursor - 12 characters in all. Then I have a 4 number combination I plump at the end. Every few months, I rotate the passwords around my major accounts. Not sure how safe it means long term, but I'm pretty sure that there are easier accounts to hack, so someone probably just couldn't be arsed to take the time and effort to crack the combo.

    The weird thing for you is, you got hacked, and they've paid your subscription fee :blink
     
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  6. Fergal1982

    Fergal1982 Petabyte Poster

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    Yeah it is strange, isnt it. I'm not really sure how Blizz will deal with that. They have also completed a few achievements with my main (Such as the one for touring the damage wrought by Cata). Some of my alts have been wiped out of equipment it seems too but thats to be expected.

    It just seems really weird. Its almost as if they wanted to take over the account for themselves - rather than just wipe it out and move on.
     
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  7. nugget
    Honorary Member

    nugget Junior toady

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    What are you waiting for then? Get in there and play! :twisted:
     
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