U.S.A.
Everyone Else
Health
Science
Business
Technology
Sports
Video Games
Entertainment
Future
Humour
NEWS > GAMES > MILLIONS OF NERDS STILL WORRIED BLIZZARD HACK HAS REVEALED ALL THEIR PERSONAL DETAILS
MILLIONS OF NERDS STILL WORRIED BLIZZARD HACK HAS REVEALED ALL THEIR PERSONAL DETAILS
August 13 2012
Irvine, CA – Despite years in development and many, many joke about the project being ‘vapourware’ when ‘World of Warcraft’ was finally released back in 2004 it was an immediate hit that continues until today. Adding to the already impressive slate of games created by Blizzard, which includes the Diablo and Starcraft series, WOW sent the company to all new heights both in terms of wealth and popularity.
With all of that, and being a part of the biggest video game publisher on the planet, one would have thought that the company would have taken great care in protecting its greatest asset, it’s players, from the type of hacks that have become common in the industry.
That, unfortunately, did not happen. Las Thursday Blizzard finally admitted that there had been a breach of their network a week earlier and that some user details had leaked. While they reassured users that sensitive information such as credit card details were not leaked users, still nervous after last year’s Sony Online breach, have been understandably nervous that someone out there might know they actually play World of Warcraft, how much they play the game, and that they probably haven’t been laid in years.
“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,” said Blizzard President Mike Morhaime. “We take the security of your personal information very seriously, and we are truly sorry that this has happened.”
Morhaime again made it clear that no personal data aside from email addresses had been leaked, a very similar message to the early days of the Sony leak.
Thus far no users have reported increases in irritating spam emails though Blizzard fans are notorious for their reclusiveness.
“Having this kind of thing happen once, back when it happened to Sony, was enough to call the entire infrastructure into question and probably prompt more than a few people to become nervous about putting their personal information online. To have it happen a second time, that’s just going to make even more people nervous and keep some away permanently,” said Scrape TV Gaming analyst Graeme Hawthorne. “I mean probably not the Blizzard fans who can’t seem to keep away. No matter what might have been leaked I’m sure they will stick around but for other players who see something like this, well, it’s got to be frightening.”
Online gaming and purchases in those games have become an increasingly important part of publisher revenue.
“You won’t lose the Call of Duty guys because they think the game they play is cool and don’t really care who knows it. People who play WOW though, especially those on the fence about continuing to play, I wouldn’t be surprised if they did ditch the game,” continued Hawthorne. “Blizzard’s other games will likely be fine but WOW could suffer some erosion. People don’t even want to risk family members or employers finding out they play these games, this one in particular, and this kind of thing will likely be enough to scare them away.”
Blizzard is apparently doing nothing to compensate the players whose accounts were hacked because they know they’ll be back.
Douglas Havermore, Games Correspondent
NEWS > GAMES > MILLIONS OF NERDS STILL WORRIED BLIZZARD HACK HAS REVEALED ALL THEIR PERSONAL DETAILS
LINK IT! http://scrapetv.com/News/News%20Pages/Games/Pages-2/Millions-of-nerds-still-worried-Blizzard-hack-has-revealed-all-their-personal-details-Scrape-TV-The-World-on-your-side-2012-08-13.html |
TWEET IT! http://goo.gl/D3wZu |
BOOKMARK IT!  
|
|---|
Scrape Store
