The newest gadget in the gaming world
In a world where criminals are constantly “looking out” for other people’s money, security is the foundation of life on the Internet. How often are we told to protect our identity? To keep our passwords complex and hidden from others? To watch out for anything that seems “not right”? After all, if you leave your valuables in plain view, someone else will be the richer for your error.
Some years ago, we researched network signon security at work, just because we could. I even went so far as to receive an evaluation kit from one firm, that contained these nifty keyring gadgets that generated pseudo-random numbers. About the same time, I spoke with a relative in high finance, and he assured me that such tokens were commonplace in the real world. Sadly, our site didn’t adopt the strategy, just because we could.
Today, while checking out the announcement of Diablo III for one of the gamers that live here, I noticed that Blizzard has also announced (at the same trade show in Paris) that they will now make a keyring Authenticator available at a very reasonable price to any client who wants to make sure that their account data remains unhacked. I am duly impressed!
Impressed and a little sad at the same time. If Blizzard users are facing the same criminal miscreants as those that have money, then the gaming world has evolved a little too close to its realtime counterpart. As well, it speaks volumes for the amount of money that Blizzard is trying to protect. Current estimates put the number of WOW players at somewhere close to ten million subscribers, if the Guinness Record Book is to be trusted. With monthly fees running about $15, there is serious cash flow within the “planets” of Azeroth and Draenor, and I understand why fraud could be seen as worse than Lord Kazzak. Money is important; just ask those who “farm for gold”.
We’ll probably have some of these nifty Authenticators around the house, and I’ll never again be caught short for lack of a random number.
