Blizzard Responds to Myriad Reports of Hacked Diablo 3 Accounts

Blizzard has said it is taking reports about a wave of hacked Diablo 3 accounts "extremely seriously".

Since Sunday there have been a growing number of reports that many people are logging into the game to discover their gold, items and even characters missing.

Community Manager Lylirra said, "Historically, the release of a new game - such as a World of Warcraft Expansion - will result in an increase in reports of individual account compromises, and that's exactly what we're seeing now with Diablo III.  We know how frustrating it can be to become the victim of account theft, and as always, we're dedicated to doing everything we can to help our players keep their Battle.net accounts safe."

Whilst issues like this have been plaguing World of Warcraft and other MMOs for years, what's most troubling is that some people have said Blizzard's authenticators haven't protected them.  The authenticators, which are available in physical form or as iPhone and Android apps, work by randomly generating a unique code tied to your account that expires within two minutes each time you try to log in.  It means only people with your phone or authenticator can ever log into your account... in theory.

When Blizzard changed the rules for authenticators late last year, it caused quite a stir; while you used to have to input a code every time you logged in, you now only have to do it if you log in from an unfamiliar location for the first time.  Many people are speculating that the recent wave is down to hackers managing to mimic IP identifiers and slip past Blizzard's authentication servers.

But Blizzard is refuting these suggestions, with Community manager Bashiok stating, "We've been taking the situation extremely seriously from the start, and have done everything possible to verify how and in what circumstances these compromises are occurring.  Despite the claims and theories being made, we have yet to find any situations in which a person's account was not compromised through traditional means of someone else logging into their account through the use of their password.  While the authenticator isn't a 100% guarantee of account security, we have yet to investigate a compromise report in which an authenticator was attached beforehand."

The good news is that Blizzard has over eight years of experience dealing with hacked accounts, so most players who contact Blizzard are getting swift resolutions.  Often Blizzard can 'rollback' the character to before the hack took place, but this can sometimes mean that progress or items are lost.

Blizzard is offering a wealth of advice for protecting your account over on its forums, but if you're yet to invest in an authenticator or register for the SMS protect system, with these reports flying around, it's a good idea to do so now.

Have you been hacked, or known someone who has been?  Let us know in the comments below.

Source : http://www.ign.com