WoW Insider interviews Blizzard on security
Big concerns require authoritative answers, and to get those, you often have to go to the top. That's what our friends at WoW Insider have recently been able to do, getting answers straight from Blizzard, the masters of World of Warcraft.
As issues go, it's pretty damn big: not concerns about class balance or content, but about the basic security of your account, the protection currently being provided against hacking, and what the Authenticator key actually does.
Blizzard, who actively sought an interview with WoW Insider following a (since contested) report of a customer allegedly having his account hacked while using one of the new Authenticators, explain the specific steps the technology takes to ensure security. They also address player concerns about how reliable the Authenticator is. The bottom line: '... we have no verified occurrences of an account being compromised that has a Blizzard Authenticator attached to it.' The full interview can be read at WoW Insider.
For those that don't know, the Authenticator is an optional item (now available through the Blizzard store) that adds an extra layer of security to one or more World of Warcraft accounts. 'It supplies a random digital code that must be entered at login, providing an additional layer of security to help prevent unauthorized account access. Each code is valid for a limited time and can only be used once, so the Blizzard Authenticator must be in the possession of the account holder to log in to the account.'
In short, even though a keylogger might be able to access an ordinary account password, they would not be able to get an Authenticator-generated code, since only the person in possession of the relevant Authenticator could do so.
Blizzard also decline to address the issue of why some GMs can apparently restore hacked gear while others cannot. Ostensibly, this is because the question doesn't pertain directly to the Authenticator. While this is technically the case, it's still something a lot of players would very much like an answer on.
