Account Hacked... maybe.
I play Warhammer Online. Let's just leave it at that.
Anyway, I get an email from EA Mythic yesterday, telling me my password on my account has been changed. In fact I get two, one a 44 minutes past 4 pm, and another at 45 minutes past 4pm. I didn't change my password, so either these emails are fake, or someone changed my password that isn't me.
I'm at work at the time, so I get thinking about this, as there is little I can do being in the workplace. No one I know has that password. No one uses that account bar me, and even when there used to be two others using that account, I had changed the password since then. So if the emails are not fake, then logically I have been hacked...
I think about that for a second.
My password is more than a few characters, contains a number, lowercase and uppercase letters and a symbol. It's not a common word, or even looking like a common word - it's not leet speak. It has intrinsic meaning to me, but I doubt to anyone else. If I think about it, even if they knew all of that, they would still have 2.08 x1017 combinations to try (assuming standard password length, which it is longer than). If my calculations are correct, would take a single computer dedicatedly doing 5 million attempts every second 28.8 hours to crack - not counting account/password lock-out, which occurs after three incorrect attempts. That's a pretty damn secure password in anyone's books.
So I think it is unlikely my account is hacked, and that these emails are just fake.
When I get home, safe in the knowledge that some wanker was just trying to scam me, I go to log in. It fails.
I try to login to my account management page - which also fails.
Okay, now I am a bit on edge. I remember that I have still been getting emails - so I try the 'forgot your password' link. This emails me a password re-set authorisation, which I use to re-set my password. This logs me in to the account management site. That's better. I sigh with relief as I check my details. I save everything and log-out of the account management side. I break open Warhammer Online, and casually type in my new password. It fails. Shit.
Re-log into account management - that works - wtf? Change my password again, and change my account details too. Save. Log out. Login to Warhammer Online - it fails again. Fuck.
I look at my email - I received notices that I had changed my password, then changed my details, then changed my password again. All seems good. Maybe there is a delay? So I wait. I cook dinner. I read a few blogs. I watch a documentary. It's been a while - lets try again. Once again I can get into account management and not into Warhammer Online. Fuck-ass.
Time to contact Customer Support. Shoot email off, stating all of the above, and some stuff to let them know I am not just any loon. It is late - gotta get up and go to work again - so I go to bed. My phone lights up and buzzes during the night - it's gotta be 2 am - an email has hit my box, it tells me that Customer Support is not technical support, and I'd have to contact their tech support on this US telephone number between X and Y times.
I do a quick calculation. X and Y times in the US are just literally in the space of time that I am at work - with maybe a few hours before hand. Fuck - this means I have to get up early, and make a call on a telephone that doesn't have international dialling enabled, with a phone company who's customer support won't open till the time I should be at work to enable it. Thank fuck for Skype.
A few hours sleep, and I get up to minus fucking 6 degrees, and ensconce myself in front of the computer and dial the number on Skype. 10 minutes later I get off hold and talk to a fella who is entirely too chirpy for the time it must be over there, and for the mood I am in in my freezing sleep deprived state. He re-sets my password for me and says that they can login.
I open up Warhammer Online, and login using the password they gave - and lordy - it works. The dude tells me to get into the account management an re-set it to something I will remember and something more secure - to which I finish the phone call and do. I then decide to login while I have a few minutes and check some stuff out. It fails. WHAT THE MUTHAFARK IS HAPPENING?!?!
I can log in to the account management using this new password, but not the game - and it was working a mere minute beforehand with the password they gave me. See everything I have written above - I basically do that ALL again. Still, all I can get into is the account management, but not the game.
Skype open again, I angrily jab at the buttons till I get another fucking cheerful dude. This dude does exactly what the other dude did - but I don't let him go - I keep him on the line as I change my password again in account management, telling him what I am changing it to, and try to login to the game - it fails.
He tries it on his end - and doesn't say anything for a while. Then he says that they are going to change it on their end and what I would like the password to be. I give him a password. It is different, but has all the same elements of my last password - just longer.
I think to myself that this means it is a problem on their end - that passwords in account management are not flowing through to the game.
I ask him how this could have happened and what had been causing this problem. He said that he does not know why people hack other people's accounts, and neither does he know how it occurred - he is not a tech person.
Wait a minute.
The email at 2 am said they were not tech people, and to give these people a call, as they were tech people - but he's just saying that they are not.
Whatmotherfuckingmonkeyshavetheygotworkingforthemthen?!
Anyway - so my account works - but only because they re-set it at server side.
Fuckers.
Anyway, I get an email from EA Mythic yesterday, telling me my password on my account has been changed. In fact I get two, one a 44 minutes past 4 pm, and another at 45 minutes past 4pm. I didn't change my password, so either these emails are fake, or someone changed my password that isn't me.
I'm at work at the time, so I get thinking about this, as there is little I can do being in the workplace. No one I know has that password. No one uses that account bar me, and even when there used to be two others using that account, I had changed the password since then. So if the emails are not fake, then logically I have been hacked...
I think about that for a second.
My password is more than a few characters, contains a number, lowercase and uppercase letters and a symbol. It's not a common word, or even looking like a common word - it's not leet speak. It has intrinsic meaning to me, but I doubt to anyone else. If I think about it, even if they knew all of that, they would still have 2.08 x1017 combinations to try (assuming standard password length, which it is longer than). If my calculations are correct, would take a single computer dedicatedly doing 5 million attempts every second 28.8 hours to crack - not counting account/password lock-out, which occurs after three incorrect attempts. That's a pretty damn secure password in anyone's books.
So I think it is unlikely my account is hacked, and that these emails are just fake.
When I get home, safe in the knowledge that some wanker was just trying to scam me, I go to log in. It fails.
I try to login to my account management page - which also fails.
Okay, now I am a bit on edge. I remember that I have still been getting emails - so I try the 'forgot your password' link. This emails me a password re-set authorisation, which I use to re-set my password. This logs me in to the account management site. That's better. I sigh with relief as I check my details. I save everything and log-out of the account management side. I break open Warhammer Online, and casually type in my new password. It fails. Shit.
Re-log into account management - that works - wtf? Change my password again, and change my account details too. Save. Log out. Login to Warhammer Online - it fails again. Fuck.
I look at my email - I received notices that I had changed my password, then changed my details, then changed my password again. All seems good. Maybe there is a delay? So I wait. I cook dinner. I read a few blogs. I watch a documentary. It's been a while - lets try again. Once again I can get into account management and not into Warhammer Online. Fuck-ass.
Time to contact Customer Support. Shoot email off, stating all of the above, and some stuff to let them know I am not just any loon. It is late - gotta get up and go to work again - so I go to bed. My phone lights up and buzzes during the night - it's gotta be 2 am - an email has hit my box, it tells me that Customer Support is not technical support, and I'd have to contact their tech support on this US telephone number between X and Y times.
I do a quick calculation. X and Y times in the US are just literally in the space of time that I am at work - with maybe a few hours before hand. Fuck - this means I have to get up early, and make a call on a telephone that doesn't have international dialling enabled, with a phone company who's customer support won't open till the time I should be at work to enable it. Thank fuck for Skype.
A few hours sleep, and I get up to minus fucking 6 degrees, and ensconce myself in front of the computer and dial the number on Skype. 10 minutes later I get off hold and talk to a fella who is entirely too chirpy for the time it must be over there, and for the mood I am in in my freezing sleep deprived state. He re-sets my password for me and says that they can login.
I open up Warhammer Online, and login using the password they gave - and lordy - it works. The dude tells me to get into the account management an re-set it to something I will remember and something more secure - to which I finish the phone call and do. I then decide to login while I have a few minutes and check some stuff out. It fails. WHAT THE MUTHAFARK IS HAPPENING?!?!
I can log in to the account management using this new password, but not the game - and it was working a mere minute beforehand with the password they gave me. See everything I have written above - I basically do that ALL again. Still, all I can get into is the account management, but not the game.
Skype open again, I angrily jab at the buttons till I get another fucking cheerful dude. This dude does exactly what the other dude did - but I don't let him go - I keep him on the line as I change my password again in account management, telling him what I am changing it to, and try to login to the game - it fails.
He tries it on his end - and doesn't say anything for a while. Then he says that they are going to change it on their end and what I would like the password to be. I give him a password. It is different, but has all the same elements of my last password - just longer.
I think to myself that this means it is a problem on their end - that passwords in account management are not flowing through to the game.
I ask him how this could have happened and what had been causing this problem. He said that he does not know why people hack other people's accounts, and neither does he know how it occurred - he is not a tech person.
Wait a minute.
The email at 2 am said they were not tech people, and to give these people a call, as they were tech people - but he's just saying that they are not.
Whatmotherfuckingmonkeyshavetheygotworkingforthemthen?!
Anyway - so my account works - but only because they re-set it at server side.
Fuckers.