for those of you who play WoW

hehe, no wonder i don't like this game
Blizzard, I strongly urge you to promote transparency in your policing efforts. The public cannot be expected to trust a corporation that is hiding information from its own customers.
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do those gamers even understand a thing about this ? or do they just go on and play the game ?
 
what the new patch did is encrypt the data into a hash code which is not to a set algorithm. So, it is secretly sending and receiving data between client/server constantly, that is encrypted hash code. There is no way to tell what it is. So, it basically creates a back door to access your PC. Given a disgruntled Blizzard employee, or someone outside the company that compromises this technology now has back door access to 8 million WoW players.

The access is full read/write so they could steal any data off your computer and at the same time upload say a virus if they felt the need to do so. Any software you have for protection will be useless because it will be encrypted, so all the programs see is hash code, they don't see what type of files are being transferred.

No one is saying Blizzard is abusing this feature, they are saying that it gives other people the power to abuse it.

Just another reason not to waste your life playing a video game, but I figured the WoW players would at least want to know.
 
tlarkin said:
Given a disgruntled Blizzard employee, or someone outside the company that compromises this technology now has back door access to 8 million WoW players.

The access is full read/write so they could steal any data off your computer and at the same time upload say a virus if they felt the need to do so
No one is saying Blizzard is abusing this feature, they are saying that it gives other people the power to abuse it.

Just another reason not to waste your life playing a video game, but I figured the WoW players would at least want to know.
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agreed, wow, the access is full, what the f**k, but trust me tlarkin, when i say Wow gamers does not give a sh*t, they don't, those stupid addicts :P
 
i will tell a friend that plays wow and see if he cares or if he just want to keep on playing it
 
Well this sucks. I play WoW every now and then to get a break from the mindless studying of college. But I guess I will stop playing now that my computer is endanger of getting a virus. This makes me mad, what am I supposed to play now?
 
HumanMage said:
Well this sucks. I play WoW every now and then to get a break from the mindless studying of college. But I guess I will stop playing now that my computer is endanger of getting a virus. This makes me mad, what am I supposed to play now?
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how about go outside or read a book..?
 
HumanMage said:
Well this sucks. I play WoW every now and then to get a break from the mindless studying of college. But I guess I will stop playing now that my computer is endanger of getting a virus. This makes me mad, what am I supposed to play now?
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Ever heard of Tibia?
 
tlarkin said:
how about go outside or read a book..?
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Why would you want to read a book after you've had your face in a book for the past three hours? :D. Plus I get plenty of fresh air because of football (yes we still are in season).

Oh and Joe, no I have never heard of Tibia, what is it?
 
I think your statements are pretty biased and I think you should read the article more carefully.

The article states that Warden, or whatever programs it is, has the possibility of sending information from your system. You can say that, yes, a Blizzard employee can access information from you system, but in reality, a good hacker only needs one hole in any application the accesses the internet to get into your system. It was proven that a hacker was able to hack into an Apple computer, otherwise notoriously known not to contract viruses, through the Quicktime application in just 11 minutes. The risk of your information from leaking from this program is probably just as great as you shopping online with a credit card.

Yes, I don't approve of this feature, but, in reality, the risk of playing WoW is probably no different than say Internet Explorer.

Edit: If you also read, the comments on that page, they bring up some good points.

Blizzard already has your: first and last name, your credit card number, your address, and your e-mail. So in reality, you've already given out majority of your personal information right there, what else would they need to take?
 
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bumblebee_tuna said:
I think your statements are pretty biased and I think you should read the article more carefully.

The article states that Warden, or whatever programs it is, has the possibility of sending information from your system. You can say that, yes, a Blizzard employee can access information from you system, but in reality, a good hacker only needs one hole in any application the accesses the internet to get into your system. It was proven that a hacker was able to hack into an Apple computer, otherwise notoriously known not to contract viruses, through the Quicktime application in just 11 minutes. The risk of your information from leaking from this program is probably just as great as you shopping online with a credit card.

Yes, I don't approve of this feature, but, in reality, the risk of playing WoW is probably no different than say Internet Explorer.

Edit: If you also read, the comments on that page, they bring up some good points.

Blizzard already has your: first and last name, your credit card number, your address, and your e-mail. So in reality, you've already given out majority of your personal information right there, what else would they need to take?
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Well you should probably fact check these things before you make assumptions. Read post #3, where I clearly state that no one is saying Blizzard is doing anything wrong with their technology. I said that a Blizzard employee, or someone else who may be able to exploit it could potentially gain access to 8 million WoW users. So, right there is incentive enough to try to exploit it.

Also, the OS X exploit you are referring to was not remotely compromised. It was a java exploit, that required a user to to go to a malicious site and get the exploit downloaded to their computer. It was fixed with the next patch and is over with. To this day no one has been able to remotely exploit a Mac. All the exploits out there are proof of concept and require user interaction. The quicktime codec was from a non secure third party site (non apple) and directed users to download and install (meaning they let the application run as admin) and got exploited. There is nothing that any OS can do against those type of social engineering attacks.

Also, since it is encrypted all your tools for security are useless because they can not decrypt the files. It is more about personal privacy in my views. I doubt blizzard wants to steal credit card information from its user base, that is just bad business. So you will never know if it is the real deal or an exploit you just have to trust the fact that it is the real deal. That being said and with the large user base of WoW I am willing to bet it becomes a target. I will laugh my ass off if players start getting in game pop up ads.
 
I'm not going to argue with you but consider this......

The government and law enforcement has information of you that you don't even know you had.......... You gunna ban the government now or turn down the help of law enforcement?
 
bumblebee_tuna said:
I'm not going to argue with you but consider this......

The government and law enforcement has information of you that you don't even know you had.......... You gunna ban the government now or turn down the help of law enforcement?
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The government is also a cluster f**k of information. I mean I read recently that the IRS in Ohio was keeping off site back ups on thumb drives given to interns! Guess what, the intern lost the thumb drive and the article made Fark.com. I work for the government and I was subjected to a mandatory background check. It took them over a week to get the information from the other states that I lived in. The government is just so inefficient when it comes to this type of thing. Also what the government has is either mandatory or I have given it to them. Socials, Driver's License, birth certificate are mandatory and are government records. The government does not have access to my hard drive and they are not sending/receiving encrypted files at will.

I am not paranoid by any means, i am just saying that if I played WoW I would be mad about my personal privacy rights. I don't have anything sensitive on my computer besides a few tax records, which the government already has anyways, but I don't want other people reading my financial data.
 
Try FBI or National Security.......

Heck, they might have an organization that is actually a secret........

You're taking the matter to the extremes....... What if an meteor hit Earth? It's possible but probably not going to happen...... Just like if a Blizzard employee steals info from your system. Could happen, but probably won't........ The most you could get upset about is the morals behind this software but other than that, it's not really that big of a deal........

Edit: If you're so paranoid, (of which you are), why don't you get an external drive and put all your personal info on there? That way, you can remove it from your computer and ensure that no one would be able to look at it.......
 
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I bought WoW, and played it for a week and a half. I got bored and canceled my subscription. Even If I were still playing it, I don't think I'd be worried about this, it's just another possible danger of using the net, and when there are countless improbable risks, what's another?


I don't even like MMOrpg's, but it's not irrational fear like most people have towards the genre. I will commend humanmage in his last comment, I swear with all the blind bias and stereotyping with WoW players, I'm surprised you kept your cool so well, nice one! :D People, remember that more than just lifeless nerds have access to a credit card, and like fantasy games. I for one, And about a dozen people I used to know, girls being among them. "Shut up hermeslyre, there are no womens on the internet!"
 
I don't think you guys are getting what I am saying....

You can't compare it to a meteor hitting earth, because there is no threat of a meteor hitting earth. However, with this new technology in play it is just a matter of time before someone cracks the algorithm, then you will have carte blanche to all the WoW users. This is a very real and very possible scenario, where as a meteor hitting earth is greater odds that one winning the lottery or getting struck by lightning.

Blizzard isn't going to do anything bad, but hackers have already cracked pretty much every type of encryption the gaming business world has developed. I mean look at how easily games are cracked?

I am not even saying that anything will happen, read post #3 again like I said earlier. I am saying that it is a violation of personal privacy because the user has no control over it and can't even see what is happening, and it leaves potential for those who would use it for wrong doing back door access to your computer. It is really a moral thing for me. I think it is wrong they are doing that to their customers.
 
tlarkin said:
This is a very real and very possible scenario, where as a meteor hitting earth is greater odds that one winning the lottery or getting struck by lightning.
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History update, hundreds of meteors have hit earth, and another one is predicted to in 100-1000 years XD now if u wanna try for 100 years playing 1 loto number and winning, ill go with the meteor :)
 
Using a meteor was a bad example as it is diverging from the subject.

The conclusion is that with this 'root' or Warden has the possibility, and I emphasize possibility, of having a Blizzard employee or, in the rare case, and I emphasize rare, someone outside the Blizzard company of abusing and/or utilizing the root to freely access any system with Warden installed, undetected, for the practical use of viewing private information.

The fact is that it is highly unlikely that anyone would be able to utilize this root maliciously and, even if it does come to be, any one account is just part of collection of over a million accounts, lessening the likelihood that your own personal information would be at risk.

It is a risk to have World of Warcraft installed, but, it is calculated risk with the odds highly in favor of the individual.
 
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