Possible hacked accounts explanation

#1 - Jan. 11, 2013, 8:06 p.m.

Recently, the Dept. of Homeland Security issued a warning about a major Java vulnerability that may expose computers to hacks and keyloggers. This may help put all conspiracy theories to rest as to why players got their accounts hacked, when they say they’re fully secure. I wanted to share this with the Guild Wars community, because all of us players should be mindful of problems like this.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/11/tech/web/java-vulnerability/index.html

Gaile and other Anet reps have stated that the servers are secure, and I’ve always believed that they would be forthcoming if there was a breach. If a forum moderator or Community Manager feels this warning should belong somewhere else, I apologize in advance.

MikeLewis

#3 - Jan. 14, 2013, 4:14 p.m.

The Java vulnerability is certainly something worth being aware of, and it’s definitely true that everyone should take precautions against such system-wide security issues.

However, I just wanted to point out that this has no direct relation to GW2. No part of our game or web services is based on Java (not to be confused with JavaScript – Java is to JavaScript as car is to carpet). Any malicious persons or programs which exploit the Java vulnerability are doing so independently of GW2’s technology.

anonymouse is, for better or worse, completely correct; GW2 account compromises are – with only rare exceptions – generally due to poor security practices on the part of the account owners. To be fair, being truly secure (versus just feeling secure) in the modern online universe is extraordinarily difficult :-)