Technical Question about being hacked

[Kovachut]

Hello, dear warmane users!


As the title suggests, I have a couple of questions regarding someone being hacked. Before I continue, I would like to state, that I have read the sticky post made by Mercy (http://forum.warmane.com/showthread.php?t=346180), but my question is not about the procedure. It's about the reason for something like this happening. Touch wood, I have never been hacked so far - neither during my warmane experience, nor when I played in other servers. But yesterday I was kinda bored and decided to browse through the forums. I stumbled upon a thread accidentally, where someone complained about being hacked (http://forum.warmane.com/showthread.php?t=406130) and some users accused OP for being responsible for this happening.

And this is my main question - why should someone be at fault, when their account gets hacked? Unless that person entered phishing sites or gave away their account information to other users (if this is the case, I agree that they should be held responsible), it's not like they put a huge sign near their usernames with the text "HACK ME, PLS" written on it and welcomed others interfering with their personal data. The following is an allegory, but if I have a house and I don't lock the door with a master lock or a bolt, why should I be held reponsible that another person decided to enter it without my consent? Because it's not illegal not to lock the door unproperly - it's illegal to enter another person's house without their permission. The only thing I would be rightfully accused of in that case, would be increasing the risk of getting burgled and minimizing the chances of receiving the needed aid (especially if I don't have any evidence for the latter thing happening). But like I said, just because someone isn't utilizing a good protection system, this doesn't mean that that person is actively inviting others to enter their building/account and let them do whatever they want.

In this line of thought, I would like to ask another question - in the sticky post Obnoxious says, that there is always a reason for getting hacked. What would that be, if visiting phishing sites and giving away your account info to other people isn't the case?

[Obnoxious]

#1. Read my post again, it says a reason to be banned.

#2. If you leave your home with the doors unlocked, if you tell random people in the street the code for your padlocks, if you go into a shady store and let them walk away with your credit card for five minutes, whose fault is it? Your mistakes are your fault. We offer more than one way to keep accounts secure, but it's up to you to make use of them. If you choose not to and something happened, it happened solely on your negligence's fault. Not really a difficult concept.

[Shred92]

Because when you get hacked it's always your fault.

Enable two-factor authentication on both your email and your WoW accounts and you will not get hacked.

[dolcokidol]

Yes, it is yours and yours alone responsibility to keep your account safe.
Comparing it to an unlocked house isn't completely fair since houses have insurance, private property is protected by the country/state laws. Meanwhile, video game inventory is not really protected by anything. You're not paying for wow inventory insurance. It is illegal for someone to put a keylogger or other malware on your computer, but that doesn't protect your inventory when the damage is done. If you know who did it, if the law allows you to (i.e. they're in your country), you can sue them.

If they did get your password from warmane database hack (very unlikely, they're probably encrypted, not in text form) then I guess they'd have all passwords and we could resort back to either webs or database rollback.
If they get it from a phishing site, which is far more likely, it comes back to the part of you suing them, but warmane does not cover that.

idea: wow insurance, pay a monthly fee, proportional to your wealth, and if you do get hacked you get everything restored.

[Obnoxious]

Comparing it to an unlocked house isn't completely fair

It's completely fair, since the scope is the negligence, not whatever else you might try to claim about laws or whatever.
It's still your fault if you do it, no one else's.

[Kovachut]

#2. If you leave your home with the doors unlocked, if you tell random people in the street the code for your padlocks, if you go into a shady store and let them walk away with your credit card for five minutes, whose fault is it? Your mistakes are your fault. We offer more than one way to keep accounts secure, but it's up to you to make use of them. If you choose not to and something happened, it happened solely on your negligence's fault. Not really a difficult concept.

Unless that person entered phishing sites or gave away their account information to other users (if this is the case, I agree that they should be held responsible)

Also, I didn't say that the doors of my house would be completely unlocked. In my original post I specifically used the adjective "unproperly", in order to indicate the lack of a good security system. The password acts as some sort of a locked door - it's not like I can enter my account with just a simple click. But enough with the allegories - I didn't accuse anyone for being too ignorant against victims of a hackery attack. I think, that it's also not a difficult concept to understand how the person, who does something illegal, is mostly the one to blame. In the OP I said, that I would be rightfully accused for increasing the risk of getting screwed and minimizing the chances of getting the needed help, if I don't secure my house/account well enough, but allow me to disagree that hacking an account doesn't happen "solely on a person's negligence's fault". Like I said, it's not like I leave a big sign with the following text "EASY TO ACCESS ACCOUNT. HACK IT IF YOU DARE" and pretend like I am completely innocent.

Comparing it to an unlocked house isn't completely fair since houses have insurance, private property is protected by the country/state laws. Meanwhile, video game inventory is not really protected by anything. You're not paying for wow inventory insurance. It is illegal for someone to put a keylogger or other malware on your computer, but that doesn't protect your inventory when the damage is done. If you know who did it, if the law allows you to (i.e. they're in your country), you can sue them.

If they did get your password from warmane database hack (very unlikely, they're probably encrypted, not in text form) then I guess they'd have all passwords and we could resort back to either webs or database rollback.
If they get it from a phishing site, which is far more likely, it comes back to the part of you suing them, but warmane does not cover that.

I guess you are right. Btw I am using two-factor authentication factor, so the original post doesn't concern me. I was just curious to hear out people's opinion on the stuff I said above.

[Obnoxious]

Also, I didn't say that the doors of my house would be completely unlocked. In my original post I specifically used the adjective "unproperly", in order to indicate the lack of a good security system. The password acts as some sort of a locked door - it's not like I can enter my account with just a simple click. But enough with the allegories - I didn't accuse anyone for being too ignorant against victims of a hackery attack. I think, that it's also not a difficult concept to understand how the person, who does something illegal, is mostly the one to blame. In the OP I said, that I would be rightfully accused for increasing the risk of getting screwed and minimizing the chances of getting the needed help, if I don't secure my house/account well enough, but allow me to disagree that hacking an account doesn't happen "solely on a person's negligence's fault". Like I said, it's not like I leave a big sign with the following text "EASY TO ACCESS ACCOUNT. HACK IT IF YOU DARE" and pretend like I am completely innocent.

Hackers act on something you allow to happen. They are to blame for doing it, you are to blame for giving them the means to do it, when you are provided the means to avoid it. The choice to be negligent is on the user, and that's what make it their fault. No amount of trying to shuffle things around, no amount of disagreeing, will change that. Not "daring" people to steal your account doesn't make you innocent, inaction is also on you.

[Kovachut]

Well... I guess I got my answers. Obnoxious, You can mark this thread as resolved (or tell me how to do it myself).