Blizzard policy changes in reaction to account security concerns

WoW.com has learned through sources close to the situation that after our series of posts describing some questionable internal policies at Blizzard concerning account administration and security, as well as the likely introduction of mandatory authenticators, a few of these policies have been changed this evening.

First, the abilities of billing representatives to directly roll back characters to previous states has been more or less removed, preventing the onioning exploit we spoke about earlier. Account administrators still have the ability, of course, but it should prevent people from being able to game the system over the phone. We do not know if this ability will be returned when billing representatives obtain the proper training and tools.

Second, the care package deal has been sweetened. We're not exactly sure how, only that it's been improved from what it was this morning. World of Raids was tracking the response to these stories on the Customer Service Forums and found a post by CSF blue Syndri detailing some specifics of the care page as it stood earlier today. We cannot be sure Syndri's post applies to the package now or not (given its changes), however it's probably safe to assume that it does. We have also learned that managers are being directed to ensure everyone is presented this care package as an optional alternative to full restoration, something we understand was not consistently happening before.

Syndri's enumerations after the break.

From Syndri:

• The "care package" you're referencing is simply an offer, and its goal is to provide those affected by compromise the opportunity to get back into the game more quickly. For many players, depending on their play style and how greatly their characters were affected, this offer is ideal. For others, it's not. We understand this and so have ensured that this offer is not a mandate; it's simply another option.

• The offer itself can be declined. Should you decline such an offer, your account will be placed back into the restoration queue in its original place, and you will be provided a full restoration afforded to you by our departments. It may take a bit more time before your restoration is complete, however, as a more in depth investigation will be required.

• If you opt to decline this offer, please be sure to reply to the email within 24 hours, as instructed. In addition, do not claim any of the offered gold or Emblems from your in-game mail. We'll recoup those ourselves whenever we process your full restoration.

• This offer is not character-specific. If you accept the offer on one or a few characters, you are effectively accepting the offer in-full and additional restoration may not be provided. Consider this a "deal or no deal" sort of situation.