Link GW game account to NCSoft master account - Guild Wars Forums

youknowho · Apr 20, 2009, 04:59 PM // 16:59

I want to know if this is a good idea for account security. The only relevant post I've found (http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...php?t=10178163) has one vote for and one against. It seems like linking would improve your account security, the only downside being that you can't use special characters in your password anymore. If you have been hacked was your account linked to NCSoft at the time?

Dinkytowner · Apr 20, 2009, 05:41 PM // 17:41

My guildie got hacked yesterday. He has his account linked to a master account. He is pretty sure that they got in from there. Apparently the master account allows you to change your e-mail address from there without any sort of conformation.

Bottom line:
He had a bird, and might not get his account back.
I don't think it's a good idea to link them at all.

lewis91 · Apr 20, 2009, 05:44 PM // 17:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dinkytowner

My guildie got hacked yesterday. He has his account linked to a master account. He is pretty that they got in from there. Apparently the master account allows you to change your e-mail address from there without any sort of conformation.

Bottom line:
He had a bird, and might not get his account back.
I don't think it's a good idea to link them at all.

Agreed with this. Mine got hacked but my account wasn't linked to master, got it back within 2-3 weeks.

Charnia · Apr 20, 2009, 06:19 PM // 18:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by lewis91

Agreed with this. Mine got hacked but my account wasn't linked to master, got it back within 2-3 weeks.

How CAN your account being hacked? Did you downloaded some stuff or just an easy pass?
I dont want to say you are stupid, just how you get hacked so it will not happen to me.

lewis91 · Apr 20, 2009, 06:24 PM // 18:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by Charnia

How CAN your account being hacked? Did you downloaded some stuff or just an easy pass?
I dont want to say you are stupid, just how you get hacked so it will not happen to me.

My sister downloads ALOT, and she probably downloaded a file with a keylogger hidden into it or whatever, mix that with Norton antivirus and you've got problems. Since then i've gotten a new pc, banned all downloads on it, got a reasonable anti virus and bam, no more virus'.

Thats the only method i can think of being hacked at the moment. Keyloggers are a bitch lol.

youknowho · Apr 20, 2009, 11:13 PM // 23:13

I go out of my way to prevent most/all ways at getting a keylogger onto my pc:

1. Use WinXP for games only, the rest of my work is done in Ubuntu
2. Don't use P2P software, don't download anything illegal
3. Use a restricted account in WinXP when I'm using it/playing games
4. No one else even uses my PC or knows the passwords to Windows
5. Won't download add-ons like the cartography title helper
6. Use AVG Anti-Virus

I think that's more than a lot of hacked people have done (if you've been hacked after taking similar preventative steps by all means let me know). I was hoping to find out if linking the account was another good idea for security: looks like the jury is still out on that one.

refer · Apr 20, 2009, 11:43 PM // 23:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by youknowho

I go out of my way to prevent most/all ways at getting a keylogger onto my pc:

1. Use WinXP for games only, the rest of my work is done in Ubuntu
2. Don't use P2P software, don't download anything illegal
3. Use a restricted account in WinXP when I'm using it/playing games
4. No one else even uses my PC or knows the passwords to Windows
5. Won't download add-ons like the cartography title helper
6. Use AVG Anti-Virus

I think that's more than a lot of hacked people have done (if you've been hacked after taking similar preventative steps by all means let me know). I was hoping to find out if linking the account was another good idea for security: looks like the jury is still out on that one.

That is pretty paranoid overkill though.

youknowho · Apr 21, 2009, 12:43 AM // 00:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by refer

That is pretty paranoid overkill though.

If I was doing all of the above solely to protect my GW account I would agree, but that's not the case. I use Linux as my main OS and Windows is only there for games. I listed my setup so if someone had a suggestion it wouldn't overlap with what I'm already doing.

Empress Amarox · Apr 21, 2009, 01:55 AM // 01:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dinkytowner

My guildie got hacked yesterday. He has his account linked to a master account. He is pretty sure that they got in from there. Apparently the master account allows you to change your e-mail address from there without any sort of conformation.

Bottom line:
He had a bird, and might not get his account back.
I don't think it's a good idea to link them at all.

You just have to supply the cd-keys associated with your account, and some other stuff, it's pretty easy to get your info back.

Quote:

Thanks for contacting Guild Wars Account Support. There are a couple of ways that we can assist you with this issue.

The fastest way for us to help you with your issue is for us to verify the following information. Please provide as much of this information as you can.

-- What date of birth did you use when you created the account?
-- What are all the retail access keys currently registered to your Guild Wars game account? (Please include the retail access keys from each campaign.)
-- What is the e-mail address currently associated with your Guild Wars game account? (If you are unsure, please provide all possible e-mail addresses.)

If you don???t have this information, please reply and include a phone number where we can reach you and a convenient time for us to call, and we'll do our best to help solve the problem.

Thank you,
Shane
Guild Wars Account Support

..I couldn't figure out my PlayNC username/password awhile back.

As per the OP: If you link your account, you can't change your e-mail from GW at all, you have to go to the PlayNC website and use your PlayNC master account to login (which is different than your account one), so it's an extra layer of security. If someone hacked your account, and even your GW associated e-mail address and didn't know your PlayNC account info, they wouldn't be able to change your e-mail associated with your account, so you would be able to do password recovery to get it back, no problem. Then you'd of course clean your system of all the poo that got it stolen, and change the password ASAP, using something a lot stronger than before... Like a password generator with the max characters allowed for gw with alpha+ALPHA+Num, with some symbols and/or alt codes thrown in possibly. And never type it... Never. Download Password Safe and store your passwords encrypted in that, that way keyloggers can't do crap -- and you could let your account auto login I suppose.

I generate them here: http://rumkin.com/tools/password/pass_gen.php
And use this: http://passwordsafe.sourceforge.net/

youknowho · Apr 22, 2009, 06:52 PM // 18:52

Thanks for the links, those will come in handy. Will someone with a linked account answer this question for me: What is involved in changing your GW and master account emails? I created an un-linked master account and it looks like you can change that email without any confirmation which seems dangerous. Is the same true for the GW game account?

At least with my un-linked account if someone tries to change the email address associated with the game I will get an email about it...

phoenixtech · Apr 24, 2009, 10:10 AM // 10:10

Yeah I totally agree, with the OP. I intentionally avoid the XTH and the free zkeys just so I can keep my higher level security password and longer account names, I mean why does NCSoft have such weak password protection in the first place?

Apr 20, 2009, 04:59 PM // 16:59	#1
youknowho Ascalonian Squire Join Date: Jan 2009	Link GW game account to NCSoft master account I want to know if this is a good idea for account security. The only relevant post I've found (http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...php?t=10178163) has one vote for and one against. It seems like linking would improve your account security, the only downside being that you can't use special characters in your password anymore. If you have been hacked was your account linked to NCSoft at the time?

Apr 20, 2009, 05:41 PM // 17:41	#2
Dinkytowner Frost Gate Guardian Join Date: Apr 2006 Profession: Mo/	My guildie got hacked yesterday. He has his account linked to a master account. He is pretty sure that they got in from there. Apparently the master account allows you to change your e-mail address from there without any sort of conformation. Bottom line: He had a bird, and might not get his account back. I don't think it's a good idea to link them at all. Last edited by Dinkytowner; Apr 20, 2009 at 06:11 PM // 18:11..

Apr 20, 2009, 11:13 PM // 23:13	#6
youknowho Ascalonian Squire Join Date: Jan 2009	I go out of my way to prevent most/all ways at getting a keylogger onto my pc: 1. Use WinXP for games only, the rest of my work is done in Ubuntu 2. Don't use P2P software, don't download anything illegal 3. Use a restricted account in WinXP when I'm using it/playing games 4. No one else even uses my PC or knows the passwords to Windows 5. Won't download add-ons like the cartography title helper 6. Use AVG Anti-Virus I think that's more than a lot of hacked people have done (if you've been hacked after taking similar preventative steps by all means let me know). I was hoping to find out if linking the account was another good idea for security: looks like the jury is still out on that one.

Apr 22, 2009, 06:52 PM // 18:52	#10
youknowho Ascalonian Squire Join Date: Jan 2009	Thanks for the links, those will come in handy. Will someone with a linked account answer this question for me: What is involved in changing your GW and master account emails? I created an un-linked master account and it looks like you can change that email without any confirmation which seems dangerous. Is the same true for the GW game account? At least with my un-linked account if someone tries to change the email address associated with the game I will get an email about it...

Apr 24, 2009, 10:10 AM // 10:10	#11
phoenixtech Frost Gate Guardian Join Date: Jun 2006	Yeah I totally agree, with the OP. I intentionally avoid the XTH and the free zkeys just so I can keep my higher level security password and longer account names, I mean why does NCSoft have such weak password protection in the first place?