KI Employee Gone Bad

[Phenoixblizzard]

I wonder if it's taking them this long to confirm whether or not everyone's accounts are safe because they're checking every part of their system to see exactly what's been compromised. They're probably even checking their security systems to see how it failed. I think (and hope) that's the case since these were in-game messages being sent in game and not through emails. I'm far from knowing anything about how computer systems and game servers work, but it's possible that this is on the administrative side of the game since these messages acted like the ones that pop up to let everyone know when the test realm is going down.


I think the best we can do for now is to keep a close eye on our accounts until they decide give us an answer about whether our accounts are safe or not (I doubt that they'll keep quiet on that part). We might need to be a little patient since I bet this is going to take them a while to sort out (not to mention if they need to get the police or whoever they'd need to contact for stuff like this involved). If anything, passwords can always be changed for those who are really concerned about their accounts.

[Dylan Windwalker]

I think a part of what Kingsisle is trying to do is to simply let it come and pass, for everybody to simply get over it and move on, starting with simply not awknowledging the incident and not having any public statements from the staff. And I kind of feel like this has been the move of habit that Ki has been relying on for quite some time because we let it happen. We can complain all we want, speculate who's responsible, and what Ki should do about it like a responsible company would. But at the end of the day, we're leaving Kingsisle to do what is best with their own company and we're simply letting them make poor decisions as though we have been talking to a brick wall the entire time. It's like when my dog is off a leash and won't listen to me as they're minding their own business.

What more could we do if what we're doing doesn't work? Emails don't work, complaints don't work, constructive criticism doesn't work. And they're clearly trying to follow their own agenda that is not in the player's best interests. Is it the player's responsibility to take further action than we have been, or are we simply going to let this go again? I'm not completely sure.

[LookitLight]

We can complain all we want, speculate who's responsible, and what Ki should do about it like a responsible company would. But at the end of the day, we're leaving Kingsisle to do what is best with their own company and we're simply letting them make poor decisions as though we have been talking to a brick wall the entire time. It's like when my dog is off a leash and won't listen to me as they're minding their own business.

What more could we do if what we're doing doesn't work? Emails don't work, complaints don't work, constructive criticism doesn't work. And they're clearly trying to follow their own agenda that is not in the player's best interests. Is it the player's responsibility to take further action than we have been, or are we simply going to let this go again? I'm not completely sure.

So, are you suggesting WE should try to do something? Because I'm not sure what we would have the capability to do in this situation either.

[ValdusWildheart]

So, are you suggesting WE should try to do something? Because I'm not sure what we would have the capability to do in this situation either.

There are a few things you can/should do:

• I reported my credit card lost/stolen that I've used to purchase W101 membership. I'm getting a new one. Even if you don't choose to "save" your cc information they do retain it to recharge for renewals. So, there's that.
• I would also say to change your passwords asap, and ESPECIALLY if you reuse them like most people do (even though we all know we shouldn't). Change on W101, change on any other accounts that are the same/similar. Sure, passwords shouldn't be discoverable with even the basic cybersecurity, but we all know from past hacks that many companies don't bother with even that.
• Understand your account may truly be hacked in the future with their poor security polices and KI will ban you for life with no recourse regardless. It's all part of their stellar customer service plan. I'm willing to continue playing as I view the purchase as time played, not an investment in any kind of asset that I have future rights to. Many don't feel the same way though. Choose future purchases wisely.

I don't expect we'll see anything else from KI other than what they are legally forced to disclose. This is pretty much the end of the discussion.

[Dylan Windwalker]

So, are you suggesting WE should try to do something? Because I'm not sure what we would have the capability to do in this situation either.

I'm saying somebody should. We're right now unclear if this is a one time thing, like if the individual in question had some special access that allowed them to breach the security of the game to type up these vague messages or if the individual was a small time hacker but either way, things like these may happen again if somebody doesn't do something different and the next time could be far worse than this situation we're dealing with now.

[Sierra SeaSong]

Excuse me? I see zero reason we need to be patient, stop carrying water for their failures to communicate. This is totally unacceptable, they had all weekend to work on their "excuse".

- - - Updated - - -

This sure seems to be the case. I'm gonna try to post again, because I need to know. They can't keep the state of our account security from us.

Apparently, they can.

[AluraMist]

There are a few things you can/should do:

• I reported my credit card lost/stolen that I've used to purchase W101 membership. I'm getting a new one. Even if you don't choose to "save" your cc information they do retain it to recharge for renewals. So, there's that.
• I would also say to change your passwords asap, and ESPECIALLY if you reuse them like most people do (even though we all know we shouldn't). Change on W101, change on any other accounts that are the same/similar. Sure, passwords shouldn't be discoverable with even the basic cybersecurity, but we all know from past hacks that many companies don't bother with even that.
• Understand your account may truly be hacked in the future with their poor security polices and KI will ban you for life with no recourse regardless. It's all part of their stellar customer service plan. I'm willing to continue playing as I view the purchase as time played, not an investment in any kind of asset that I have future rights to. Many don't feel the same way though. Choose future purchases wisely.

I don't expect we'll see anything else from KI other than what they are legally forced to disclose. This is pretty much the end of the discussion.

Thank you for posting this. Considering what happened last week, rather than sit around and wait for something else to happen (to my accounts), this is very sound advice. I just finished changing the password on all of my Wizard101 accounts.

In case anyone hasn't done this recently, it is quite easy. To change your Wizard101 account password, do this:

1. Go to wizard101.com and login. Then,
2. Click on:
- My Accounts, then
- Change Password. On the next screen, follow the instructions to change your password.

When you are finished, click on the Wizard101 icon in the upper left corner to return to the Message Boards.

Don't forget to write down your new password. Better safe, than sorry. Take care everyone!

AluraMist

[LookitLight]

I would also say to change your passwords asap, and ESPECIALLY if you reuse them like most people do (even though we all know we shouldn't). Change on W101, change on any other accounts that are the same/similar. Sure, passwords shouldn't be discoverable with even the basic cybersecurity, but we all know from past hacks that many companies don't bother with even that.

Understand your account may truly be hacked in the future with their poor security polices and KI will ban you for life with no recourse regardless. It's all part of their stellar customer service plan.

Done, thank you kindly for suggesting that.

So ends the password that I had there since time immemorial... thing was long overdue for a changing of the guard, anyway.

[Arwen Mythweaver]

There are a few things you can/should do:

• I reported my credit card lost/stolen that I've used to purchase W101 membership. I'm getting a new one. Even if you don't choose to "save" your cc information they do retain it to recharge for renewals. So, there's that.
• I would also say to change your passwords asap, and ESPECIALLY if you reuse them like most people do (even though we all know we shouldn't). Change on W101, change on any other accounts that are the same/similar. Sure, passwords shouldn't be discoverable with even the basic cybersecurity, but we all know from past hacks that many companies don't bother with even that.
• Understand your account may truly be hacked in the future with their poor security polices and KI will ban you for life with no recourse regardless. It's all part of their stellar customer service plan. I'm willing to continue playing as I view the purchase as time played, not an investment in any kind of asset that I have future rights to. Many don't feel the same way though. Choose future purchases wisely.

I don't expect we'll see anything else from KI other than what they are legally forced to disclose. This is pretty much the end of the discussion.

I haven’t seen this mentioned anywhere on this thread, but the morning after the incident I awoke to find that I was locked out of my account.
I had to change my password to get back in. Coincidence perhaps? I’m not sure that I always believe in those. I couldn’t find anything wrong with the account after I regained access.
I changed the password (to 15 characters this time) and changed my credit card info.
There’s not much else I can do except to continue to monitor the account.

[Sierra SeaSong]

And now unscheduled maintenance at 2 am? Nothing on KI alerts. No server going down warnings.

Odd.

Wait, it gets even stranger, looks like its back up, shortest maintenance in history?