Posts with tag authenticator

If you're concerned about account security, there's a new feature Blizzard want you to know about. They've been reminding us all about this feature via the forums, and have posted this informative, if somewhat bizarre video to tell us all about it.

The new feature, introduced a few months back, is Battle.net SMS Protect. It's a free service, as long as your mobile phone service provider doesn't charge you to receive text messages, in which case text messages would be charged at the usual rate. SMS Protect cannot use any type of messaging other than text messaging, and doesn't require a smartphone to work -- all your phone needs is the ability to receive SMS text messages, making this a nice feature for those players who don't have smartphones.

There have been mixed reports on whether it works with prepaid mobile phones, but where it hasn't been working that's usually because carriers don't allow the receipt of SMS text messages.

SMS Protect is not designed to replace the authenticator, either the phone authenticator or the physical authenticator. Rather, it is an alert system, designed to warn you about suspicious activity on your account, and allow you to perform certain actions with your phone. Hit the break for more information!

If you do not have an authenticator or mobile authenticator on your account, Blizzard has just introduced an alternative. The Dial-in Authenticator, now available for those without authenticators, is a new Battle.net feature that will hopefully help those players who don't have some sort of authenticator already on their account.

Here's how it works. When you sign up, you'll be asked to make a toll-free call from a specific phone of your choosing to authorize login attempts with the battle.net account. You get to assign the phone number that is used, and if there is something unusual about the login attempt on your account, you'll be asked to call the toll-free number to verify you are you. An example of unusual activity would be playing from a different location than you normally do. In other words, if a keylogger gets hold of your account information and attempts to log in, they'll be prompted to call the number -- and they won't be able to go any further, because they don't have your phone and they don't have your PIN. You will only be asked to call if it's an unusual login -- otherwise, you can continue to log in and play with no worries.

The Dial-in Authenticator is currently only open to U.S. residents, and it only covers World of Warcraft accounts -- although Blizzard may update it to cover more countries in the future, as well as StarCraft 2 accounts. In order to sign up for the Dial-in Authenticator, you must log into your account on Battle.net, then go to Security Options and choose to add the Dial-in Authenticator. If you already have an authenticator on your account, you must remove it in order to sign up for the dial-in service; you cannot use more than one security method at a time.

For more information on the service, check out the official FAQ on Blizzard's website.