World of Warcraft: 6 Scary Things Blizzard Don’t Like to Talk About

6. That Account Hack Was Probably Not Your Fault

A couple of years ago, you couldn€™t leave your WoW character to make a coffee without your account being hacked, your toon stripped of his or her gear and your gold being shipped off into the ether €“ unbelievably annoying for some, and life shattering for the more addicted players out there. If you contacted Blizzard on the matter, you€™d have most likely been told that it was all your fault. That you€™re computer isn€™t safe enough, that you€™re browsing choice was too dodgy and invited a hacker or that you€™ve been pirating and accidentally sucked in some malware in the process. In truth though, unless you were heading to sites with URL€™s like €˜www.freehotboobs(notavirus).org€™ on a regular basis, account hacks dating to around the 2010 €“ 2011 mark probably weren€™t your fault, despite what Blizzard might have told you. According to this, in 2010, Blizzard was the victim of a massive security breach to their protected data, leaving thousands of players€™ accounts at risk of being hacked. And of course, you might remember that thousands of players€™ accounts were hacked. The moody thing is, Blizzard covered it up. It was called something else, along the lines of €˜Reputation Management€™ but really, when you get to the nuts and bolts of it, they lied. But their customers are generally so indoctrinated with the manufactured image of Blizzard HQ being this magical fairy-dust powered grotto of wonderfulness, that even if you had been fed a shit-smelling line about the hack being due to your poor security, you€™d have most likely ate it up like it was sugar-coated. It happened to me, and I know I did. But you can relax. In truth, there€™s a very good chance it was actually Blizzard€™s fault. Corporations do this daily; if you€™d known that your private details were potentially in the hands of some fraudster and there was nothing they could do about it, you€™d have most likely closed your account at the time. A justifiable lie? Maybe. Bullshit? Definitely.
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Stuart believes that the pen is mightier than the sword, but still he insists on using a keyboard.