Hacking Alert: Goes to players of Any MMO.

[Aksannyi]

Found this on General Discussion on WoW's forums, but it's relevant to everyone who plays an MMO and happens to visit one of these sites:

Account Security Alert: Gawker Media - Forums - World of Warcraft

As some of you know, several Gawker Media websites, including Gawker, Gizmodo, Kotaku, Lifehacker, Jezebel, io9, Jalopnik, and Deadspin, were recently compromised.

I know a lot of people visit Kotaku. Just a fair warning that if you're on any of these sites, you might wanna change your gaming passwords. Just in case.

[Mhurron]

Re: Hacking Alert: Goes to players of Any MMO.

You're passwords shouldn't be the same in the first place.

[Aksannyi]

Re: Hacking Alert: Goes to players of Any MMO.

I realize that, but it doesn't change the fact that many people keep them that way. And I really only posted this just in case there was anyone who was unaware of this latest breach.

I don't have logins to any of those sites but I'm still going to be changing my WoW PW when I get home just because it's a good practice to change your passwords regularly anyway. So maybe this post will be the incentive some need to change passwords/double check security. Because you know not everyone is as dilligent about it as they should be.

While I dislike that breaches occur, I do like the publicity they get - it does give people a kick in the ass to check up on security measures that may be somewhat lax. Which (in theory, at least) results in less hackings down the road.

[Malacite]

Re: Hacking Alert: Goes to players of Any MMO.

The only time I even see kotaku is when someone links it here. Otherwise I go to GT, IGN and joystiq.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Hacking Alert: Goes to players of Any MMO.

.05 that a fourth of Kotaku's passwords consist of "xxx5eph1r0th" or "darkmast3rch13f" in some fashion.

[Mhurron]

Re: Hacking Alert: Goes to players of Any MMO.

Those wouldn't be horrible passwords.

The Top 50 Gawker Media Passwords - Digits - WSJ

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Hacking Alert: Goes to players of Any MMO.

Wow, Fox Mulder's password is rather popular.

[cidbahamut]

Re: Hacking Alert: Goes to players of Any MMO.

Your passwords shouldn't be the same in the first place.

While true, keeping different passwords for everything and changing them all regularly quickly becomes unmanageable once you start tallying up just how many different sites/games/services you have accumulated that require passwords.

[Mhurron]

Re: Hacking Alert: Goes to players of Any MMO.

While true, keeping different passwords for everything and changing them all regularly quickly becomes unmanageable once you start tallying up just how many different sites/games/services you have accumulated that require passwords.

A little thought should make it obvious which uses could share passwords and which shouldn't. Unless you're going to hold your MMO character in the same regard as a throwaway account on some site, you should realize they need different passwords. Add to that the fact that you pretty much do not have to remember passwords for websites (every modern browser does that for you), you don't have to remember all these different passwords, just a few very important ones.

As a side note, McDonalds servers were also recently compromised.

[cidbahamut]

Re: Hacking Alert: Goes to players of Any MMO.

A little thought should make it obvious which uses could share passwords and which shouldn't. Unless you're going to hold your MMO character in the same regard as a throwaway account on some site, you should realize they need different passwords. Add to that the fact that you pretty much do not have to remember passwords for websites (every modern browser does that for you), you don't have to remember all these different passwords, just a few very important ones.

True again. All I'm saying is that the ideal of perpetual password shuffling is not at all practical, which is why we prioritize as you said.

I just wish there was a better solution.

*shrug*

[Yellow Mage]

Re: Hacking Alert: Goes to players of Any MMO.

Wow, Fox Mulder's password is rather popular.

I'm actually quite surprised that swordfish wasn't on the list.

[Aeni]

Re: Hacking Alert: Goes to players of Any MMO.

Just keep the password to your email separate from the ones you use for your gaming accounts and from your online accounts. If you are really lazy and are a gamer then you really only need 3 passwords ... 1 for email ... 1 for sites ... 1 for games. It's definitely not a good way of doing things but is still better than using 1 password for everything. And most people who experience a compromise end up in that way because they were not careful with their browsing behavior. You can do a lot on your own, like using Firefox + Noscript + Ad Block and running virus/malware scans routinely. And not visiting all those Russian porn sites.

Oh and stop downloading all those illegal copies for Adobe products. We all know someone who does it and then hear about how they got "hacked" ... good lord, not everyone uploads shit like this out of the goodness of their hearts. People around here act like they leave their doors to their homes in the projects unlocked when they go to bed.