Grim Views

There are multiple threads in the tech support, complaint, and general Blizzard forums about users who have purchased and use authenticators having their accounts hacked. Reportedly the only way to close this exploit is to go to your account settings in Battle.net and check the ALWAYS AUTHENTICATE box.

While it may only be douchers downloading malware getting hit why take a chance. Check the box.

EDIT: This started 48 hours ago. They are targeting Diablo3 accounts.

It's posts like this that make me just shake my head:

"I admit I did not have an authenticator, I have since added one. However, I do not give out my email address, all my personal friends have added me using my battletag and my previous password was pretty damn beefy.

I also have no viruses, I have fallen for no phishing attempts, and in fact use the computer I've installed Diablo 3 on strictly for Diablo 3."

How many times have I seen, "I use this computer strictly for GameX." I call bullshit.

If you read posts about the compromised accounts, the majority of people have admitted to not having an authenticator. It's a Blizzard game; sadly a company that is a massive target for compromised accounts due to the value people place in items/gold. Anyone who doesn't have an authenticator is a fool. I saw one post where a person was raging about how the "SMS authenticator" didn't protect them... the SMS system isn't for authentication!

I don't think it's necessary to opt-in for persistent authenticator usage because the system is pretty damned smart about asking for one if anything unfamiliar pops when you login. Before my PC died, if I went from the PC to my laptop the dialogue would pop. Logged in on my laptop at home, and then later at work, or if we traveled out of town? Dialogue popped. Logged in while on the wireless, then switched to wired when the wireless was acting unstable: dialogue popped. I highly doubt accounts with authenticators present on them are being hacked. It hasn't happened since they released them for WoW, it's not happening now with D3. It's just that we have a new batch of people who played computer games back in the dark ages who don't know about the authenticators. I still think Blizz should be simply including them in future game releases.

I'll have to get one for my dad, should I show him D3 and he seems interested.

There are several posts from authenticated and non-authenticated accounts about the issue. I would ignore it if it weren't for the fact that every single one of them is refused account restoration and Blizzard says they detect no suspicious activity.

Not willing to risk my rares. I'll probably get tired of it and remove it after about a month but until then I'm leaving it on. I also saw that they're testing a SMS alert feature. I went ahead and signed up for that as well.

Move along, nothing to see here.

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/ ... age=29#571

*Coughinsidejobcough*

Bwaha, Canai.