MMO's and spyware

Discussion in 'Computer Security' started by twizzle, Mar 17, 2006.

  1. twizzle

    twizzle Gigabyte Poster

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    As an avid gamer i play City of heroes MMO. Im a member of thier EU forums and occasionally post on it. When browsing it today i saw this thread...
    http://uk.boards.cityofheroes.com/s...&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1#425183

    Its about a new Keyboard that allows users to create Macros on it for use in games... But thats just the start.

    What it goes on to discuss is World of Warcraft and the fact that someone got banned for using this keyboard... (stay with me here). How did Blizzard (makers of WOW) know that this had happened? They used a Spyware program designed to look for gamming BOTS thru the use of hash comparisons and keyloggers.
    Heres an article discussing that
    http://leer.wordpress.com/2005/10/10/world-of-warcraft-spyware/

    Now the question arises.. if a games publisher can use spyware to scan your PC for bots, but at the same time read open windows, email addresses etc etc stored on your pc surley this is an invasion of privacy? It shouldnt matter wether the program is run from your pc or on thier servers it still looks at your files and data and it is still spyware. Even tho it seems a legitamate use of spyware can it really be allowed? wouldnt it mean that other companies could try claiming the same for programs they use to monitor your interestes etc from web browsing?
    And isnt this a bit like Microsoft years ago trying to put code into windows to see what users were doing to verify if everything was legit?
    And as it is spyware would Ad-aware, Spybot seek and Destroy find it? and could you, rightly so, use a firewall to block it accessing your pc while still playing the game?
    What do you lot out there think? or is it all nothing to worry about?
     
    Certifications: Comptia A+, N+, MS 70-271, 70-272
    WIP: Being a BILB,
  2. simongrahamuk
    Honorary Member

    simongrahamuk Hmmmmmmm?

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    Good Question! *BUMP!* 8)
     
  3. ffreeloader

    ffreeloader Terabyte Poster

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    A couple of the major reasons I'm such a Linux fan are the privacy and drm issues. Many companies spy just because they can. I can see why the companies running MMO's are tempted to do it, but I still don't agree with them using spyware.

    It would seem to me that there are other, less intrusive, ways than spyware to figure out if someone is cheating at a game--using scripts to compete rather than just playing the game. One of my duties at my first IT job was to look at firewall logs and it was pretty obvious, even to someone as green as I was, who attempted to gain entrance manually and who was doing it in a scripted manner. Scripts do things so much faster than any human can it's not funny--same with macros--and that is what makes it readily apparent who is using scripts just from looking at logs. Seems to me that companies running MMO's could use the same methods to detect people using scripting and macros to cheat in gaming situations. That's not intrusive and it pretty effectively identifies anyone using using automated methods.
     
    Certifications: MCSE, MCDBA, CCNA, A+
    WIP: LPIC 1

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