A security question

I was pondering the latest in the hacking news related to gw and the ncsoft site. Are these peeps who are getting their accounts hacked using their email addresses as their master account log in names? Would something as simple as changing their ncsoft master account log in name be effective for stopping unnecessary account hacks? If this isnt the place to ask this please feel free to move it.
Sia

The problem is knowing how people are getting hacked. As far as I know you can't change your NCSoft login (Which is one of the reasons people are so upset), and you can't change the e-mail you log onto Guild Wars with, either. The only real advice we can give you is to use secure passwords, do not click any strange links in E-mails claiming to be from NCSoft or Arena Net, do not give your password to anyone.

The more paranoid you are, the better.

YES something as simple as letting people change (or unlink) their master NCsoft account would be a good step in the right direction.Many people, especially when the game was still new probably linked their account not knowing when they did that, that they will never be able to change their info or unlink their account ever again.

Except for the stupid people giving away their account info by simply doing stupid stuff and most of the time not even realizing it,like say for example have their password being the name of their pet.And then they make "friends" in the game and one day be talking about their pet and give out its name.
Most of these problems are most likely coming from people forcing the NCsoft password.(WTF no confirm email before you can change info?)


PS are you a Anet person in disguise?Come on you can tell us.

I'm very sure I've changed the email address I log into Guild Wars with.

I believe once you link your account, you can no longer change it,I think it sends you to the NCsoft site to change it which that site doesn't allow you to change it.

Yup you're right, once its linked you can't change your email address.

Well my password was changed less then 10 hours ago im submiting a support ticket i guess been getting emails and stuff... Im guessing all my stuff is going to be gone when i logged on and I have no idea how or why they did it i havent played in a year and I rarely play now just started up sorta in the last month had over 50 ectos 125 shards cool looking armor and over 800k ( Once I get it starting out im saying my farewells to guildwars and unistalling it and never playing again and waiting for guildwars 2

Fixed that for you.

after some recent...umm...studying, I believe that quite a few of the "syndicates" are all tied in together more-so than one might think . (I'm sure the powers that be already know this)

There's probably no need to get overly paranoid about the security of your ANet or GW accounts. Most of these hacks are the result of people's own lack of security. As has been said:
- use a good, unguessable password - edit: and only use it for GW
- don't buy gold from gold farmers.
- don't click on strange links in e-mails
- don't visit hacking sites (duh)
- don't give your login info to anyone, and don't leave it lying around where roomates, etc., can see it.

For those of you out there that are curious as to this as well.

If someone would ask me if I was playing my main account and then ask me what my first toon I ever made was...they would then have my account name.

the way Anet set things up in the beginning is that they would default the account to the name of the first toon that you made.

When I went to get my Fire imp from the online store.. I noticed the name of my first toon that I had deleted so very long ago. I was like? my account name is that? well its logical I guess.

So if you could get my password - you can try as much as you want without it shutting down gw on your computer.. then you already had my account name for anet and once your in ...your in and I am out.

So I went to change my account name.. it would not let me.

I was like DAM this is stupid. Someone reassured me that the Anet account and the gw account were separate but some how I think that this is how people are getting hackeronied.

I just had someone last week ask me about my first toon that I ever made. I was like why the frig do you want to know? I might have over reacted but then again..my account is not hacked.

Also for your password do not use real words. SO like you could use un5ergr0un5 as your password. (thats underground) where the 5's are d's and the o is an 0

the programs for cracking the passwords use real words so this is almost 1mp0ss1bl3 to crack.

Out of curiosity, how many people reading this thread also play AION or any other subscription NCSoft game?

How many have given their (or their parent's) credit card number to the NCSoft store?

That is what I'd be worried about. Losing a GW account would be a bad deal, but getting your (or your parent's) card info stolen would REALLY be a tragedy.

If people are losing GW accounts through keyloggers or however they are getting taken, it raises the question of how secure the IMOPRTANT information is.