Account Security & Hacking
From DFI Wiki
The term hacked is thrown around quite a lot and is used incorrectly a awful lot of the time hopefully the following will explain how to keep your account safe as well as what to do and suspect if you have been 'hacked' as well as reasoning for our actions.
[edit] Avoiding being Hacked
There are several ways to get your game account compromised
1) Hacking into the server is the most unlikely, although it is what most people seem to assume has happened. The server is not something in some ones back room - it is in a data center, and those places have very good security. For arguments sake, if some one managed to do this, YOUR account would almost certainly not be touched when they would have admin accounts up for the taking. Why even bother looking at yours? This is why we are sure this does not happen. If it did, DFI wouldn't be what it is today.
2) Hack into your client by sending you some software to install: It will be your responsibility if you lose your account in this way. Hacking your client through keyloggers etc. - I guess this is 3rd most common way, but still not all that common as key loggers - whilst quite easy to make - are still quite a lot of hassle to make use of correctly. And whilst it's good to do spyware sweeps, I could make a keylogger that would work and not show up on any spyware scan for months, if ever, so don't come saying you defiantly don't have one.
3) Spy on your communication with the server: quite unlikely... Well, if you're on a network and you don't trust your admin, then you have more problems than just your UO password - although I doubt this is all that common.
4) You tell your account details to other people: It will be your responsibility if you lose your account in this way. And this is the most common way - by far - of how people lose their accounts. Remember to set and change you magic word and not to buy accounts off people as they will have the magic word still unless they didn't set one.
5) Guessing due to stupid passwords is also up there with number 4. This can also be known as bruteforcing and well, we do keep logs of who has tried to log onto what account so don't go trying this as we can find you easily.
6) Using same passwords on different shards. There has been shards set up for a month or two in the past that was just used to farm passwords. The owners then tried them on other shards and ruined a lot of accounts.
Conclusion: The phrase "Someone Hacked into my account" is MISUSED 99% of the time. Correct phrase should be "Someone took my account due to my stupid mistake"
Source Staff member Wolf and several forum users
[edit] What to do if hacked
message taken from Forums by Light
I deal with the hacking cases on DefianceNET, X Lord X does not deal with them, his job is not technical stuff.
Hence why my name says "Technical" and his says "Project Manager", if you have a problem in regards to account security, as stated a BILLION times over the forum.
1. PM me. 2. Send me an email to devemg@defianceuo.com
The main issue with hacking issues, is when someone gets hacked they usually instantly get angry with Defiance, and the staff - doesn't matter if I Deal with it for 3-4 hours, -EVERY- Player who gets hacked seems to think the injustice is against them, and they deserve everything they lost back, no matter what, dupe it? who cares right? you donated? NO.
Welcome to reality, we can't just dupe items on the shard because you got hacked, doesn't matter if you donated $1 or $100, you get treated the SAME as everyone else, we have an economy to maintain, and if 1 person get's their items duped and given back, then everyone will want it = end of shard.
Hacking case generally can take up to about 2 hours to investigate, we simply cannot invest that amount of time everyday to *attempt* to trace the items back.
Look at - EVERY OTHER GAME - online, no one deals with hacking issues, because as stated in this thread, it's YOUR fault if you get hacked, if you want to take risks in life, that's fine - but don't expect other people to pickup the pieces for being self complacent.
It doesn't take even half a brain to protect yourself and your account, all it takes is being vigilant, AND DON'T TRUST PEOPLE ONLINE.
Follow that very very simple logic, and you won't get hacked.
People seem to think that running an Anti-Virus and a Firewall gives you 100% protection, fact is, that gives you about 10% protection, the 90% is up to you, by not sharing your account details, using a real password and not something like "dog" or your characters name.
We will not invest hours of our time, our FREE time a day to investigate why someone has been compromised, because in 99% of cases it's always the same thing "..whoops my account password was my account name, sorry."
In the first few months of the shard being up we use to deal with hacking cases, but it's just NOT POSSIBLE anymore.
We will only log IPs and trace the hackers if you get hacked, but you will not get ANYTHING BACK, this should be a MASSIVE incentive for everyone to protect themselves, I mean...is it that hard to protect yourself? no it's not.
But again, all hacking cases go though me, and me alone. You contact devemg@defianceuo.com (for emergency issues only)
Or better yet, send me a PM on the forum saying "I'VE BEEN HACKED!" or something similar to catch my attention.
Source Staff Member and Technical Support Member Light
