For the past two weeks ArenaNet's recent launch of their long awaited MMO, Guild Wars 2, has been having a bit of trouble. With the usual array of bugs, connection issues and even the case of forgotten passwords, the launch has been mostly a smooth one.
However, according to recent daily game updates via their official wiki, the game has been affected by some malicious hacking attempts, with a current mark of 8,500 accounts having been caught up in the chaos. The tickets include users who have fallen victim to hacked accounts or any blocking login issues.
Hackers have lists of email addresses and passwords stolen from other games and web sites, and collected through spyware, and are systematically testing Guild Wars 2 looking for matching accounts. To protect yourself, use a strong, unique password for Guild Wars 2 that you've never used anywhere else!
When accounts are hacked and then used for botting or spamming ads for gold sales, we ban the accounts until we can return them to their rightful owner. If you login and see the message, "this account has been permanently banned for a violation of the User Agreement," and you're not a gold seller, it's likely that your account was hacked. Please contact customer support using the instructions below.
Luckily though it seems the Guild Wars 2 database has not been compromised, but instead hackers are systematically testing stolen passwords from various sources including spyware, other games and sites. The ArenaNet support team are prioritising those who have been affected the earliest and working from there to ensure everyone is able to jump into the game as quickly as possible.
For those worried about their accounts security, ArenaNet has now begun using a email security system whereby anyone that tries to login to your account from outside a sanctioned IP will not be able to do so until you have allowed, preventing anyone from gaining illegitimate access. The support team is also encouraging users to use unique and hard to guess passwords in order to keep safe.
For more info on Guild Wars 2, you can check out our recent
AusGamers review, and also swing by
our game page for the latest news and screenshots.
Posted 10:23am 08/9/12
Posted 10:28am 08/9/12
Of course there's no authenticator for GW2 yet :(
Posted 10:31am 08/9/12
Posted 10:34am 08/9/12
Posted 10:35am 08/9/12
This is why I hate websites requiring registration for every god damned thing. It means there are dozens of sites you barely ever visit that have your email address and a password that you tend to use in their database and you've got no idea what level of security they keep on it.
Posted 10:52am 08/9/12
Posted 01:47pm 08/9/12
Showed me the IP address and location and it's the damn chinese.
Posted 06:05pm 08/9/12
http://howsecureismypassword.net/
Posted 06:24pm 08/9/12
try this instead https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/security/pc-security/password-checker.aspx and use http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/security/online-privacy/passwords-create.aspx as a reference
give this a try to help you learn how to pick them http://correcthorsebatterystaple.net/
a bit more light reading http://cups.cs.cmu.edu/soups/2012/proceedings/a7_Shay.pdf
Posted 06:34pm 08/9/12
Posted 06:41pm 08/9/12
Edit: Also when I click on some links from here sometimes, I get homeimprovment dot com website.....
Posted 06:40pm 08/9/12