Over the extended holiday break, I played a little bit of WoW. However, being on a system that was less than optimal, was not playing much Wrath content.  I did have the unfortunate experience of watching a guild-mate get hacked and lose a lot of his stuff.

I am sure that he will get much of it back, by Bliz or the guild pitching in and helping out, but it is still chilling.

So I am going t o beat on an increasingly worn drum, in hopes that it makes one person who reads this blog take action.

GET THE BLIZZARD AUTHENTICATOR

Here is the link to the US Version

If you live outside the US, Click here

Now Go.  I will wait right here until you order it.

Why should you do this?  With this device, you could give your password away on the street corner (or the virtual equivalent) and still stop people from getting into your account.  It generates a random number that is synched with a secure server and when you log in, it gives you the number that will allow you access, which is DIFFERENT every time.

What?  You have a very secure password?  Did you know that blizzard passwords are not case sensitive?  Don’t believe me?  Go check.

A secure password doesn’t protect you against hacks like keyloggers or the recent IE Exploit (which spilled over to other browsers, by the way)  which was SPECIFICALLY looking for game passwords.

For six dollars it is the best piece of mind you can buy.

Now, you may be curious about how it works and oddly enough someone over on the EU side posted a more eloquent explanation than I could put together today.

I work in DC and MANY of the government contractors have to have these for the jobs they do for the Department of Defense and Federal Government.  (Now if only the Government required that level of security internally, but that is another rant entirely..)

So PLEASE go get one.  Ask for one as a gift for a birthday or President’s day or your dog’s birthday.  Just get one.