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General Discussion => The Speakeasy: OOG/Off-topic Discussion => Topic started by: Sinjin Mokk on 01 Jul 2011, 06:23

Title: Blizzard hack?
Post by: Sinjin Mokk on 01 Jul 2011, 06:23
Just as a head's up:

My Blizzard/Battlenet account was hacked early today. I was able to catch it in time and stop it before any payments went out or anything. It seemed more like a bot than an individual hack.

All the same, if you have a Blizzard/Battlenet account, take the time to change your passswords and account info just in case.

Title: Re: Blizzard hack?
Post by: Casiella on 01 Jul 2011, 09:19
Isn't this, like, something that's a huge problem there? And why we have the two-factor authenticators? (You do have one, right?)
Title: Re: Blizzard hack?
Post by: Myrhial Arkenath on 01 Jul 2011, 12:08
Isn't this, like, something that's a huge problem there? And why we have the two-factor authenticators? (You do have one, right?)

^ This.

How strong was your password? It's all nice and well to warn people, and it's appreciate really, but if you password was "logmein" or your sibling's name or any other dictionary word well that'd could have been brute forced. Always use upper / lower case, numbers, special characters, and make sure there is no known word in it.

To avoid words, take a sentence, and take the 1th (or last, or whichever pattern you like) letter of each word and jam them together. Replace some letters with numbers (A == 4, O == 0 ect.) and in case that's not possible make up a word out of numbers and stick it in there.

If you have all that, and you got hacked, then you can worry. Also, make sure said "omg you are hacked" mail is in fact not a phishing mail. I get a ton of them, every day. Thank god for spam filter. But once in a while they manage to slip through and turn up in your inbox.
Title: Re: Blizzard hack?
Post by: Sinjin Mokk on 01 Jul 2011, 23:16
Well to be honest, the old password might have been a little on the weak side.  :ugh:

It's all good now.

I've heard though, that the authenticators don't really give you all that much extra protection.

Title: Re: Blizzard hack?
Post by: Bacchanalian on 02 Jul 2011, 01:15
Best password doctrine: 

"I really like MC Hammer's 2 Legit 2 Quit!" = IrlMCH2L2Q!

Good luck brute forcing that password.  Make it a sentence you remember, make sure it has some sort of punctuation somewhere in it, incorporate some numbers, and you have a very strong password.
Title: Re: Blizzard hack?
Post by: lallara zhuul on 02 Jul 2011, 04:42
Or just use some other language than english.

Omenapuujakuujonkaylihyppasilehma.

Good luck in cracking that :D
Title: Re: Blizzard hack?
Post by: Casiella on 02 Jul 2011, 08:34
That password is fairly secure because of its length, not because of the language. Eight character passwords of just regular Latin letters are insecure no matter what language they're in.
Title: Re: Blizzard hack?
Post by: Lydia Tishal on 02 Jul 2011, 16:41
I'm going to go ahead and display my considerable ignorance here, but...isn't it pretty much standard procedure to lock out access to an account if it fails password authentication a certain number of times in rapid succession? How do brute force a password if you get locked out after three or four failed attempts?
Title: Re: Blizzard hack?
Post by: Casiella on 02 Jul 2011, 16:53
Yes, assuming a service provider does that, then you've defeated a lot of brute forcing. However, these days, the primary threats consist of malware such as keyloggers (where strong passwords won't matter), phishing, password reuse across sites, or database compromises that reveal encrypted or hashed passwords which attackers then compromise via brute force or rainbow tables.
Title: Re: Blizzard hack?
Post by: Lydia Tishal on 05 Jul 2011, 17:49
Got it, thanks for the clarification. :)
Title: Re: Blizzard hack?
Post by: Darveses on 10 Jul 2011, 16:28
1Password best, comfiest 64 character passwords ever  :D