This would certainly be an easier way to get the authenticators out to existing subscribers, and is an excellent idea.

*If* it were enforced, I think this would be the way to do it.

However, I don't want it to be enforced. I properly keep track of my passwords. I don't share my account. I don't visit sites like www.honduranmonkeyse.cx either.

I don't want to *have* to have an authenticator on hand at all times just to log in.

That's a good idea. I just recently ordered one just to be safe, but including them in the cost of Cataclysm would assuage some of the complaints about it (and the inevitable complaint about the cost of the expansion itself). Plus, I'd much rather have a Cataclysm themed authenticator than the SC2 themed one I will be getting in the mail.

@Darias

I agree with you, and take most of the same security precautions, however I was still hacked a couple of months ago. It turns out one of my addons included a keylogger, and that slipped by the folks over at Curse.com. Think you're safe? Think again.

I wholeheartedly support the idea of mandatory authenticators bundled in a future expansion.

@Darias:

While i would've agreed with you 2 months ago, i got hacked in the meantime, there was a keylogger in the TomTom addon for QuestHelper i downloaded from curse. It took blizz 1 week to restore gear to my druid alt and another week before they gave me back my deleted death knight main, without him having any enchants on his gear and my maxed JC & Mining both reset to 1. That was a true pain to restore afterwards. A authenticator would've kept my account secure.

And the places like the country where I live in would be fucked.

We aren't even on the map, I can't use half the options in my wow account (Resurrection scroll, recruit a friend). This would be a NIGHTMARE for us.

Sorry, you are free to downrate me, I didn't mean to reply to this message...


A bundled authenticator would be awesome.

daan.leijen

You can not get key logged through an addon. In order to be key logged through an addon you have to manually run a file in the addon you downloaded over the internet. Chances are you didn't actually download it through TomTom, or if you did, you ran an exe file yourself.

@MountainLynx: You cannot get keylogged by an addon. Addons are run sandboxed in WoW and their syntax doesn't even allow for that type of functionality to begin with. Only way for an "addon" to keylog you is if you download an exe from some shady site. Please educate yourself before spouting nonesense about addons and Curse. You were probably keylogged because you use Internet Explorer or don't use Adblock/NoScript and got infected by a compromised ad or went somewhere you shouldn't have.

Daan speaks truth.

Bundle it with Cataclysm, then you have an easy way to get it OUT to the end-game people (without, what, shipping it?), you only spend money on the people WITH large amounts of gold who will get hacked, and people who have spent $100 on WoW expansions plus monthly fees for years, aren't probably going to quit over a mandatory authenticator.

I've never been hacked, don't really like the idea of peering at a tiny screen for numbers whenever I log in... but if it really makes the GM queue times go down, I'm all for it.

@ Mrdonut125:

I ran a spybot detection after i got hacked, both panda and Spybot S&D only found one spybot in my entire system: in the Questhelper folder were TomTom was located. Mind you i installed both QuestHelper and TomTom using the curse client (the free version), So i can't think of another location it could've been, except if both Panda and Sybot S&D didn't know the coding.

There is one solution for all these people claiming they are teh invinciblez and can never be hacked: Just allow for people to turn off the authenticator option, but in so doing you forfeit your right to GM support for a hacked account.

Problem solved. Now you don't need your authenticator, but if you get hacked, you're screwed and no one will be obliged to feel any sympathy for you because you intentionally reduced your own level of account security.

I for one am quite happy to have my authenticator. $6 to protect an investment of $15 a month, plus whatever value you place on the time you play is well worth it to me. I would hope that if it's mandatory with Cataclysm that they do offer a version without the authenticator cost factored in for those who already have one though.

Daan, addons are not executable files, they are only instructions for the limited lua interpreter embedded in wow. This interpreter cannot listen to your keyboard and it cannot communicate any information to a third party.

If you were hacked, it was not through the addon, although there might have been a malicious executable file in the addon directory (an "installer" or "updater" perhaps.)