Update - Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Originally Posted by Arkantos

Has it demonstrated how thoughtless ANet is because they implemented an easily remembered security question, or has it demonstrated how thoughtless the players are because apparently some cannot remember their character names on their second account?

Originally Posted by zwei2stein

To be fair, people with mule accounts had no reason whatsoever to remember character names, or to be carefull when maning them: "Ftzkuqw Dqwer" is as good name for mule as any, in fact, i would be mildly annoyed if people with mule accounts named their mules with normal thought-out and rememberable character names, as it would mean that those names would be reserved and not avaiable for others who would actually play so named toon.

I mean, what point exactly would there be to be carefull about naming mules? At best you'd name mule toons something like "Weapons Sferferfg", "Weapons Two Otyerwertjh", etc to indicate what it stores, no point going any further. There was nothing whatsovere that indicated that toon name is ever going to be important past invite to guild (copy & paste makes even that point moot)

Originally Posted by MagmaRed

If you are randomly assigning names then it isn't something you care much about anyway.

Originally Posted by Arkantos

Because it's generally useful to know what your characters name is. If the account is stolen, knowing character name(s) on the account is a viable way of getting it back (I know because it's helped me). You remember a characters name for the same reason you keep your auth key - security reasons.

What ANet did just saved hundreds if not thousands of accounts being stolen. That's a huge step in the right direction. If you don't know your character names, contact ANet and explain. Tell them your auth key (you should have this), tell them the IP address you regularly log onto, etc and there should be no problems. If you find this such a hassle, stop being selfish.

Originally Posted by MagmaRed

I find it sad that people can't remember a character name. I have little sympathy for that. If you are randomly assigning names then it isn't something you care much about anyway. It isn't hard to create storage characters with simple names that are easy to remember.

Although not the best solution, it is a working one, and will do as Ark mentioned. Glad they have stepped up to stop part of the problems while still working on the others.

Originally Posted by Tom Swift

Hopefully this will help avoid account steeling

Ah....

But............

If a hacker does some how manage to get past this the player is in for a much much larger loss than before.

Previously, if someone stole your account all you had to do was ask for a password change to be sent to your email, log in, and take the account back. (at least for a non NC master account linked one - I've never linked mine so I don't know I it works the same way or not) Anyway, if discovered in time and done quickly enough, the player could prevent some theft and save some valuables. Plus, there was no particular reason for the thief to take the time to delete the characters themselves.

Now, however, if the thief does manage to get into your account, they can prevent you from taking it back by deleting all the characters and creating one of their own. Since you no longer know the names of any of the characters, you will not be able to log in and, since you will not be able to log in, your old password will still work on the account ("Please note that your old password will remain valid until you login with your new password." from the change password email sent by ANet). This means, until you go all the way through support, the thief has all the leisure they want to log in and out of your account and to do whatever they want with your account.

I don't know if thieves would actually do this, since the point of many is to take stuff rather than to steal the account itself. But I can't help feeling a bit uneasy about the fact that if the prevention does not work, there is no way to limit damages.

Originally Posted by zwei2stein

But I guess envy is strong thing, it must feel really good to go /ha-ha on someone who lost lots of work in eyeblink.

Originally Posted by zwei2stein

Heads-up would not make it less secure, andwould actually help (not to mention assuring people something is being done)

Originally Posted by joshuarodger

this also still doesn't help with keyloggers at all. while it is a step, it's still not a very good step.

Originally Posted by MagmaRed

I find it sad that people can't remember a character name. I have little sympathy for that. .

Originally Posted by isildorbiafra

Easy Peasy. Just email support and include a picture of your account key card and your set. Hackers dont have those.

Originally Posted by Tom Swift

That is my concern - that if the hacker deletes your characters you can no longer log on to activate the new password. You have to wait for support to get around to you.

Originally Posted by Chaosx1

I really wouldn't mind if they gave you a heads up that this update was going to happen, therefore people would know up ahead to remember their character names.

Originally Posted by Arkantos

It helps with keyloggers if you have your character name saved prior to being infected (which is going to prevent many, many stolen accounts). Not a very good step? Only for people who don't remember their character names, who should still be able to access their account if they contact support. For everyone else, it's a step that's going to work.

Originally Posted by Regina Buenaobra

If we have given players advance warning that this security update would be implemented, and when it would be implemented, the hackers would have been given advanced warning, too. Players would have been prepared, would have been able to check all their accounts, but don't forget---the hackers would have been forewarned as well.

Originally Posted by Fay Vert

And just how would forewarning them help them?

While it has tightented up security a bit, it has inconvenienced many players, and what is worse, hackers now have a very good reason to delete your GWAMM characters.

Originally Posted by Regina Buenaobra

If we have given players advance warning that this security update would be implemented, and when it would be implemented, the hackers would have been given advanced warning, too. Players would have been prepared, would have been able to check all their accounts, but don't forget---the hackers would have been forewarned as well.