World of Tanks Suffers Security Breach

[StewShearerOld]

World of Tanks Suffers Security Breach

Wargaming has revealed that a recent security incident may have compromised player's information.

Tanks are built to be impervious to a lot of things. Gunfire, chemical attacks, zombies; there's generally not much a tank can't protect you from. That said, it seems even metal behemoths with gigantic guns aren't safe from the internet. Wargaming, the makers of World of Tanks, confirmed yesterday that the game "Change Your Password Event."

"In order to improve security and maintain account integrity for all of our players, Wargaming is supplying a one-time installment of 300 gold to each player that successfully updates their account password," said Wargaming in an announcement. "While we do support the regular updating of your account password, your account is only eligible for one payment."

While this incident looks to be nowhere near as disastrous other <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/109568-Sony-Admits-Private-PSN-Info-Has-Been-Stolen-All-Of-It>infamous cases of gaming related hacking, it's still fairly notable. World of Tanks has one of the largest player bases in the entire world, ending 2012 with more than <a href=http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2012-12-21-world-of-tanks-ends-year-with-45-million-players>45 million registered players. Any way you swing it, that's a lot of compromised information and fans would do well to heed the company's call and reset their passwords swiftly and soon. After all, even if nothing financial was revealed, you still don't want someone rooting around in your things, especially when a tank, virtual or not, happens to be one of them.

Source: <a href=http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-04-19-world-of-tanks-security-breach-exposes-email-addresses-and-password-hashes-but-financial-information-remains-safe>Eurogamer


Permalink

 

[evilneko]

If they were really concerned, they'd mass-reset all passwords.

 

[evilneko]

TBH I'm Surprised they lasted so long

If they were really concerned, they'd mass-reset all passwords.

Can they do that?

Yup. It wouldn't be hard or take very long, either.

 

[evilneko]

But then wouldn't there be a chance of the hacker receiving the notification anyway?

Yes, some chance. It's unavoidable due to people foolishly using the same password for their email accounts as other accounts. Of course, the hackers would have to make an effort to go and try to log into those email accounts, which they would if their goal was to steal WoT accounts. If the goal was something else or they're just lazy, they probably wouldn't bother.

Also they'd have to crack the passwords first. They got hashes, not actual passwords. Depending on the strength of the password and the strength of the hashing, this could take a very long time or a very very short time. And we all know how shit people are at using strong passwords...

 

[Aeshi]

300 gold just for changing passwords?? That almost makes me want to start playing WoT again. Almost.

Although I guess they basically NEED to bribe players to change their passwords given how much bullshit WoTs password requirements are.

 

[Xan Krieger]

To help motivate players to reset their passwords and do it quickly, Wargaming is hosting a "Change Your Password Event."

"In order to improve security and maintain account integrity for all of our players, Wargaming is supplying a one-time installment of 300 gold to each player that successfully updates their account password," said Wargaming in an announcement. "While we do support the regular updating of your account password, your account is only eligible for one payment."

Other developers and publishers should take notice of this. This is how you spin a massive hacking incident into positive PR for your game. Take notes, there will be be a quiz and....

Damnit, Sony, stop sitting in the back of the class and drooling all over your desk! You especially should be paying attention.

I agree with this, changed my password and got 300 gold, it's a very nice sort of apology for the inconvenience. Remember other companies, verbal apologies are alright but in game goodies are even better.

 

[Scrythe]

Wow, I just signed up for this a couple of days ago.

Shows what kind of sucker I am.

 

[uchytjes]

They suffer a security breach and instead of simply telling their playerbase to change their password (a thing that has never motivated me to do so in the past) decides to reward players that change it with pay-for currency in game. I actually took that opportunity without even knowing about the security breach. This is how you control the public, you give them shinys.

Captcha: lost love. No, captcha, this is love found.

 

[Korten12]

To help motivate players to reset their passwords and do it quickly, Wargaming is hosting a "Change Your Password Event."

"In order to improve security and maintain account integrity for all of our players, Wargaming is supplying a one-time installment of 300 gold to each player that successfully updates their account password," said Wargaming in an announcement. "While we do support the regular updating of your account password, your account is only eligible for one payment."

Other developers and publishers should take notice of this. This is how you spin a massive hacking incident into positive PR for your game. Take notes, there will be be a quiz and....

Damnit, Sony, stop sitting in the back of the class and drooling all over your desk! You especially should be paying attention.

You mean the Sony that gave people free games and free ps+ for compensation?

 

[linkmastr001]

You mean the Sony that gave people free games and free ps+ for compensation?

I'm just going to leave this here:

If they were really concerned, they'd mass-reset all passwords.

Some customers may not like being forced to reset their passwords, and may be willing to take the risk of not changing it.

I have never played WoT, but this seems like a smart move and it seems like a fast response from them. Kudos to the developers.

 

[Korten12]

You mean the Sony that gave people free games and free ps+ for compensation?

I'm just going to leave this here:

I agree with the video up till near the end, that is where it just gets nit picky. Saying "Isn't this supposed to be free?" makes no sense. PSN didn't suddenly become a paid service, PS+ was a paid service and so giving them access to it for a month is pretty good considering they get even more games to play (albiet until the service ends.)

On the topic of the games, InFamous 2 had literally just came out, they wouldn't give that out for free and cut profits. On for LBP2, the game had also jut come out earlier the same year. So giving them the newest games and cut profits wouldn't make sense.

Sure it would be great if they could cut profits and not much happen but it's unreasonable to think that they would. More so considering how much money they lost over the whole ordeal.

I am not saying Sony's PR was good during the whole thing, but to say that the compenstation wasn't very good is just bullshit.

 

[linkmastr001]

You mean the Sony that gave people free games and free ps+ for compensation?

I'm just going to leave this here:

Spoiler

I agree with the video up till near the end, that is where it just gets nit picky. Saying "Isn't this supposed to be free?" makes no sense. PSN didn't suddenly become a paid service, PS+ was a paid service and so giving them access to it for a month is pretty good considering they get even more games to play (albiet until the service ends.)

On the topic of the games, InFamous 2 had literally just came out, they wouldn't give that out for free and cut profits. On for LBP2, the game had also jut come out earlier the same year. So giving them the newest games and cut profits wouldn't make sense.

Sure it would be great if they could cut profits and not much happen but it's unreasonable to think that they would. More so considering how much money they lost over the whole ordeal.

I am not saying Sony's PR was good during the whole thing, but to say that the compenstation wasn't very good is just bullshit.

The main point I was trying to make is that the whole thing felt like an "up-sale," where Sony was offering services/products in the hopes that you'd like them and by more similar services/products. To be fair "Saying "Isn't this supposed to be free?" makes no sense" is a fair point, but a free trial of something is supposed to get you to like the service and encourage you to use it. At the time I would have argues that they are offering this free trial as compensation which they would have probably already going to have at some point, or with discount promos (I know XBOX live occasionally did 1$ for a month promos), but I couldn't find any evidence on that, so I suppose I'm less annoyed with the free trial now then I originally was.

The biggest thing that annoyed me was the games they offered, I agree offering brand new games, such as Infamous 2, would have been weird, but only limiting the games to a handful of really popular games that have sequels feels like they want to get you addicted to a game series so you'd buy the sequels. Also, what about the customers who have already owned/played all the games they offered, they'd get nothing out of it. It seems to me that instead of offering a selection of $20 games for free, allowing users to get $25 of PSN credit or $20 cash back would have been the better move.

Anyways, I think I might have gotten us a bit off topic, if you wish to continue this, let's PM.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

That game, I understand makes over 50million dollars US per month. Russian owners. Almost as much as WoW.