Blizzard's internal network compromised.

[flux1]

http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/securityupdate.html

Some data was illegally accessed, including a list of email addresses for global Battle.net users, outside of China. For players on North American servers (which generally includes players from North America, Latin America, Australia, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia) the answer to the personal security question, and information relating to Mobile and Dial-In Authenticators were also accessed. Based on what we currently know, this information alone is NOT enough for anyone to gain access to Battle.net accounts.

In the coming days, we'll be prompting players on North American servers to change their secret questions and answers through an automated process. Additionally, we'll prompt mobile authenticator users to update their authenticator software.

Entire Post:

Players and Friends,


Even when you are in the business of fun, not every week ends up being fun. This week, our security team found an unauthorized and illegal access into our internal network here at Blizzard. We quickly took steps to close off this access and began working with law enforcement and security experts to investigate what happened.


At this time, we’ve found no evidence that financial information such as credit cards, billing addresses, or real names were compromised. Our investigation is ongoing, but so far nothing suggests that these pieces of information have been accessed.


Some data was illegally accessed, including a list of email addresses for global Battle.net users, outside of China. For players on North American servers (which generally includes players from North America, Latin America, Australia, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia) the answer to the personal security question, and information relating to Mobile and Dial-In Authenticators were also accessed. Based on what we currently know, this information alone is NOT enough for anyone to gain access to Battle.net accounts.


We also know that cryptographically scrambled versions of Battle.net passwords (not actual passwords) for players on North American servers were taken. We use Secure Remote Password protocol (SRP) to protect these passwords, which is designed to make it extremely difficult to extract the actual password, and also means that each password would have to be deciphered individually. As a precaution, however, we recommend that players on North American servers change their password. Please click this link to change your password. Moreover, if you have used the same or similar passwords for other purposes, you may want to consider changing those passwords as well.


In the coming days, we'll be prompting players on North American servers to change their secret questions and answers through an automated process. Additionally, we'll prompt mobile authenticator users to update their authenticator software. As a reminder, phishing emails will ask you for password or login information. Blizzard Entertainment emails will never ask for your password. We deeply regret the inconvenience to all of you and understand you may have questions. Please find additional information here.


We take the security of your personal information very seriously, and we are truly sorry that this has happened.


Sincerely,
Mike Morhaime

US forum thread about it: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/6307730815#1

[JohnGabriel]

Do you think it was compromised long ago and they are just finding out?

[Ughmahedhurtz]

This shines a completely different light on those folks that have been flaming anyone that suggested account compromises could have come from within Blizzard. Of course, we'll never really know the true extent of the breach, how long it's been in progress or whether there are other gremlins lurking. Will be interesting to watch how this plays out.

[fpsware]

This shines a completely different light on those folks that have been flaming anyone that suggested account compromises could have come from within Blizzard. Of course, we'll never really know the true extent of the breach, how long it's been in progress or whether there are other gremlins lurking. Will be interesting to watch how this plays out.

I'm in the boat, I've been a firm believer that a number of compromised accounts I've experienced have been the result of an "insider", or something just like this. When I use an email address and password which is dedicated to WoW and only WoW it is rather suspicious when your account is hacked.

[JohnGabriel]

I remember when I first started playing Rift there was a very large number of compromised accounts.

People would post in the forums they are doing everything right and still getting hacked, but of course the fan-boys would constantly harass them saying its their fault not Rifts. I mean really harass, like calling people retards and such.

Of course shortly after we find out that it was Rift's fault. People could play as any character they wanted simply by changing the name after authentication.

I love WoW, love playing WoW, but I think the fan boys go too far. I would rather a fan boy quit playing then someone complaining against blizzard.

[Svpernova09]

They said encrypted passwords were taken. And with the encryption being rather hard to break. I believe if this WAS the source of alleged account compromises, I think we'd see MANY more. Call me skeptical. I just have more faith in cryptology than the average idiot battle.net user.

Even still, I've changed all the passwords I've ever used for my WoW account. Rest in Peace "<38====DMiRai" you were an amazing password.

[MiRai]

They said encrypted passwords were taken. And with the encryption being rather hard to break. I believe if this WAS the source of alleged account compromises, I think we'd see MANY more. Call me skeptical. I just have more faith in cryptology than the average idiot battle.net user.

Even still, I've changed all the passwords I've ever used for my WoW account. Rest in Peace "<38====DMiRai" you were an amazing password.

Feel free to add a few more ='s to that p/w to make it just a little longer, and harder, to guess.

[zenga]

They said encrypted passwords were taken. And with the encryption being rather hard to break. I believe if this WAS the source of alleged account compromises, I think we'd see MANY more. Call me skeptical. I just have more faith in cryptology than the average idiot battle.net user.

Even still, I've changed all the passwords I've ever used for my WoW account. Rest in Peace "<38====DMiRai" you were an amazing password.

SRP is pretty much as good as you can get. But you don't want to know how many 'big' sites just store the encrypted hash in the database, while there are plenty of tools that contain a ton of hash/password matches, and thus are prone to brute force attacks as well. They can even deal with know obfuscated hashes (add noise to the hash or store it the other way around).

Edit: I must say that I'm happy with the way Blizzard communicates about this. They could serve as an example for many on how to handle shit like this.

[zenga]

Well to add to that ...

- tcg mounts are being duped like fuck (same with gems, death chargers,... ) for months
- 90%+ of people in EU who'll get hero of the alliance/horde bought it from the russians, who advertise for months on end with the same toons in trade, who simply use an exploit where they can queue vs whoever they want (same happens in arena btw)
- the biggest AH sellers on the busy realms in EU are bots. not something I suspect but something they admitted cq which I can prove. reporting is to no avail as warden can't detect it (i'm not talking about a few, but 20 who sell day/night on kazzak).
- gametime is being sold for only a few k gold, by using a flaw in the recruit a friend, this is going on for half a year if not longer
- all in a sudden people can buy 'unmerged bnet accounts' for ingame gold with a lvl 80, which can be merged with your own account and you are entitled to the scroll of rez
... and the list goes on.

So why doesn't that breach surprise me at all.

[Khatovar]

Keep in mind, BattleNet also allows you to simply change your Email address - and thus your account name - as easily as your password. It's under Account > Summary > Account Details. There's a link to edit right next to the email address.