EVE Online devblog discusses account security
by Brendan Drain 
Mar 10th 2010 at 11:00PM
Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Economy, MMO industry
As part of Operation Unholy Rage in August of last year, EVE GMs also banned over 6200 accounts belonging to farmers known to be supplying the RMT industry. The effect on the market was instant, with the population in farmed mission systems like Ingunn disappearing overnight. Almost immediately, the farmers reacted with a spate of account hackings to claw back some ISK.
Account hijackings are a continuing problem for current and ex-EVE players. In a new devblog, GM Grimmi gives a run-down of some common sense security measures you can undertake to secure your account against theft:
- Do not use the same usernames and passwords for different games
- Change your passwords regularly
- Use strong passwords
- Do not share your login details with anyone
- Don't accept files from sources you don't know
- Regularly scan your systems for security threats with up-to-date anti-virus software
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
leahcimbulwark said on 1:58AM 3-11-2010
[quote]If you receive an EVE newsletter and click a link on it, always check that you're entering your login details into a page on eveonline.com or eve-online.com. Anything else may be a fake website set up to hijack your account.[/quote]
That is horrible advice. It should read, never click on the link, manually enter the address in your browser, and then you know that you are going to eveonline.com and not a spoofed site.
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Brendan Drain said on 1:51PM 3-11-2010
No, this is solid advice for a number of reasons. The first is that if EVE is running a promotional offer, it's often not easy or possible to find via the main website. If you have doubts about an offer sent via email, you should of course first enter the address manually and check if that offer is available via the account management page. Power of Two offers and such should be available here. However, I'm not sure that five day free reactivations are.
Secondly, depending on what mail reader or browser you use, javascript might be able to be inserted into a HTML email. That can fake the link on mouseover so that it looks legit before you click it and that's enough to convince a lot of people to click. The only advice which covers all circumstances is to always check the address bar once you get to the site and before entering any account details. Some fake sites even redirect you to the real login page after you enter your username and password so it's important to check before entering anything and not after.
Cinnamoon said on 3:56AM 3-11-2010
One of these days, these MMO companies will realize the futility of trying to fight the guerilla soldiers of the RMT black market. If they actually want to be rid of their RMT competitors, they have to turn the black market into a legal one that they can regulate and control.
They could also, you know, create games without time-consuming money grinds, so no one feels compelled to buy or sell gold to begin with.
Neither is likely, because paying lip service to this problem of their own making is a lot easier.
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Pedro said on 7:44AM 3-11-2010
you read that paragraph where the devs introduced the system where you can buy in-game currency by real money didn't you?
And in a game like EVE, which is a true sandbox and has grown incredibly because of their model it is just dumb to ask them to make a game without money sinks and no in-game currency trading at all. What should they do? Get rid of the death penalty?
And look at how successful games without economy are. There are other ways to fight gold sellers.
Joe P said on 9:30AM 3-11-2010
This isn't the first time I've heard this argument but I must confess it has never made sense to me. If a game makes it so you can easily buy and sell currency, then what's the point of the game? Should you easily buy and sell experience (or SP in the case of EVE) too? How about gear or weapons? Should we be able to purchase our way into the endgame, and then buy magic medallions to beat all the bosses and gain all the loot?
That being the case then what, exactly, is the point of the game?
GaaaaaH said on 8:27PM 3-11-2010
And then some people buy isk as a newbie and discover what a bad (and expensive) mistake that was.
Kalex said on 9:48PM 3-11-2010
Joe P, the goal in eve is user defined. It usually involves "making" money, or "destroying other peoples" money. So lets talk a bit about how buying isk plays into that...
Sure, if you were trying to setup a corporation or an operation thats goal is to make profits, you could just forgo that entirely and buy isk, but that eliminates the fun parts about trying to do it in game. (some pvpers, just buy isk, so they can skip that part and go right towards fighting).
Players do buy isk though usually, as a replacement for finding investors to start a corporation. Maybe as a new guy, you want to build particular types of ships but you need the money to buy the researched blueprints to get started, so you buy the isk to initially invest, and then your first goal is to make that back, and then make profits etc. It all depends on your business model. Or maybe you just need a little bit to get a really nice battleship, you'll then leverage that initial investment into making lots of money with the tricked out ship over time after your bought-isk-buyin.
The point i'm making is, most people leverage this in a myriad of ways towards reaching the goals they set, they don't use it to completely mitigate the purpose of ever needing to do those goals or anything in EVE online ever again. You could? Yes, but you are right, it then wouldn't be any fun.
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leahcimbulwark said on 7:03PM 3-11-2010
[quote]The only advice which covers all circumstances is to always check the address bar once you get to the site and before entering any account details.[/quote]
IE and Firefox are both susceptible to address spoofing (depending on versions, always keep them updated to help prevent this), so your address bar can read www.eveonline.com but you can be on any site of the adversaries choosing.
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