Get an authenticator

Lus’ account got hacked last night.

We woke up this morning as my alarm went off for me to get ready for work and Lus turned on his computer and tried to log in.  “It’s asking me for an authenticator code.”

“It shouldn’t, try again.”

It still asked for one.  I was still waking up, so I said, “Well, either Blizzard activated mandatory authenticators overnight or you got hacked.”

It was cold, I know.  I’m not a morning person.  >.>

I think that it was partly ’cause I didn’t think it could’ve happened, but really, there’s no other reason for that window to be there unless there’s an authenticator attached to your account.

After I fully woke up and realized what happened, I recommended several things that I’ve gleaned from reading what other people have written about their accounts and/or their guildie’s accounts getting hacked.  Call Blizzard.  Try to log in on battle.net to change your password.  Check your armory.  Run a virus scan.  CALL BLIZZARD.  (I had to say that one several times, as he sat morosely looking at his naked gnome.)

They emptied our guild bank of anything of value (and our gold) of course, but what I thought was interesting was that his pally, that had the best gear (epics, anyway) still had about half his gear on, but the warlock, who was only 75 and leveling, had just about everything gone.  His old BE rogue had all his gear gone except arena gear.  Those were characters of note.

Unfortunately, I had to leave for work pretty much right then, so I could only issue instructions for him to stop pouting about his warlock and CALL and get the ball rolling.  (I’m such an ass.)

I drove to work very concerned about the whole thing, whether or not he was going to get the ticket submitted, how long it would take them to respond, whether or not it would take months to get things back… selfishly, I even wondered whether or not this was going to scare him away from WoW.

I know, how horrible of me.  Lus’ account is hacked, his characters stripped, his stuff gone… and I’m worried about losing a playing buddy.  Classy, huh?

And really though, it just infuriated me that some scumbag mouthbreather was profiting from the armor, the gold, the mats, that Lus had earned, saved and had access to.  And THEN some other scumbag mouthbreather is buying the gold and not feeling the slightest bit guilty for it.

Before I had to run out the door to work, I told him, “I’m very sorry that this happened.  We’ll get it figured out.”

And since we’re an honest blog here, I’ll continue being honest – as I was driving to work, I also wondered why he didn’t apologize to me.

AND just to let you know that I’m not really an unfeeling horrible person, I didn’t EXPECT him to.  I know that if I were in his position, I would be pretty devastated, seeing my characters stripped and used in that manner.  I’d be worried about getting control of my account back.  I think I would also feel guilty about what happened to the guild bank too.  It’s kind of a “it’s the thought that counts” type thing, you know?

Part of that is also a “you should have had an authenticator” thing.  Getting an authenticator is such an easy thing to do now.  Part of why this is such a ridiculous thing to have happened is that Lus has an iPhone.  It’s free for iPhone users!  You just need to download the app and take a few more seconds logging in.  I’ve had mine for months and months now, I’ve told Lus that he ought to get one, but he didn’t want to bother with it.

’cause everyone thinks it won’t happen to them, right?

That’s what I thought too, I’ll be honest with you.  That’s why I didn’t get one the second that they came out.  But I still got one – the very day before the corehound pups came out, actually.  I tried to entice Lus into getting one with promises of a puppy that will dig holes in the ground and be fiery and cute and stuff.  But nothing doing.

But who would actually come out and say “I’m sorry that I didn’t have the sense to get a free security device that would protect my account”?  No one.

Before I even got this post past “naked gnome” he had someone on the phone from Blizz to unattach the bad authenticator from his account and to get the password changed so he could login and further assess the damage.  The woman he talked to said that they would try to restore as much that was taken as possible and it might take about a week.  We’re choosing to be optimistic and hope for it actually being about a week, since he really wants to play his warlock.  The plan we have is to look at quests that will give useful rewards to replace what was taken, that way he has at least some gear, even if it’s not as nice as what he had on before – then he’ll be able to run dungeons to get his gear back.

Also luckily, one of the managers at work also plays WoW, so she understood why I was 10 minutes late to work and also why I wanted to go home.  Third luckily, she had made a mistake in scheduling so we had too many people this morning but no one to close tonight, so I got sent home so that I could feel in the loop and as if I was helping, even though there was nothing I could do.  There’s nothing worse than being away from someone that you care about when they’re upset, even if it’s something like this.

“Even if it’s something like this.”

That’s another thing I thought about on the way to work – how was I going to explain why I was late?  There are two managers at work who play and a third who used to play but quit.  (I was amazed that anyone at all played, but that’s neither here nor there.)  I was hoping against hope that one of the managers who played was there so that I could explain that there was a crisis that needed dealt with and that I wasn’t some slacker who shows up late to work.  If it wasn’t a manager who would understand WHY it was a problem, nay a mini crisis, that Lus’ account had been hacked, could I have explained it well enough?  Probably not.  It seems like unless you play the game, it’s just a waste of time and a stupid one at that.  It’s not as if your real life possessions were stolen, your car broken into, your bank accounts emptied, right?  But these characters and accounts are very valuable to us, even if they’re not something that are “real life” possessions, something tangible that anyone can relate to.  We spend time on these characters and in this online world and of course we become attached to them.  It takes time, determination, skill and effort to get characters where they are.  Dedication.  It’s perfectly plausible that we assign value to what we play in the game.

But, luckily I didn’t have to explain to a non-playing manager.  So, I can be thankful that she was there and she understood what we were going through.  She gave some helpful tips that, even if they turned out to be unnecessary to do, it felt like I could contribute advice to help Lus’ cause, and she was a soundingboard for me.

See, even I can find a silver lining in all this.  It may be a little one, but I found it.  So there.

Now, I guess the plan is wait and see how long it takes for Lus to get his stuff back.  Get the Gnome warlock some quest gear.  And FARM SOME HERBS AND ORE.  That will probably be the majority of my playtime for the foreseeable future.  Plans are helpful for rebuilding.  We have one.

If you don’t have one already, GET AN AUTHENTICATOR.  Whatever reason you have for not getting one will seem stupid and insignificant if you do happen to get hacked, so just save yourself the time, worry and trouble and get one now.  Do it.

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