Play WoW? Blizzard is spying on you!

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Thread: Play WoW? Blizzard is spying on you!

  1. #1
    LOLWUT ImaNihilist's Avatar
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    Lightbulb Play WoW? Blizzard is spying on you!

    http://www.tgdaily.com/2005/10/24/wo...are/index.html

    Here are the good, or rather frightening, snippets if you don't want to read the whole thing:
    In it, he discusses having thoroughly examined The Warden, discovering it to be a process that runs every 15 seconds, running the Windows API function GetWindowTextA() to retrieve the title bar contents of all running processes on his computer. Next, he reported, The Warden sniffed out the e-mail addresses of his MSN correspondents, the URLs of all open Web pages in his browser, and the Registry names of all running processes, including minimized programs and toolbar functions.
    All the collected character strings, Schneier reports, are passed through a hashing function that generates derivative values, or "hashes," that are compared against other hashes of the titles, brand names, or handles of known 'bot programs. Next, he observed The Warden accessing his e-mail client and his PGP key manager, which is used to encrypt messages and authenticate senders.
    And you thought Microsoft was spying!

    All of you WoW addicts out there might want to consider NOT downloading your porn in the background while playing WoW. A Blizzard employee might see it.
    Last edited by ImaNihilist; 10-25-2005 at 02:07 AM.

  2. #2
    Mako Shark PriMaTe's Avatar
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    wow that's pretty crazy, hopefully people complain enough to make blizzard stop spying.

    maybe more people will switch to eq2

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  3. #3
    Catfish morrow's Avatar
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    yeah that information flooded the wow forums about 2 months ago.


    looks like you're just going to have to put those plans to blow up the world on your other computer....
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  4. #4
    Awesome. Kamakazie's Avatar
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    This is to stop cheating though, they're not going to report you for downloading 20GB of PC games.

  5. #5
    Mako Shark Boneycat's Avatar
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    I still don't like it. They don't need to be looking into any of my other folders.

  6. #6
    Catfish jestr62's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kamakazie
    This is to stop cheating though, they're not going to report you for downloading 20GB of PC games.
    You hope Big brother is watching
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  7. #7
    Defiant Shark Johnmcl7's Avatar
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    This part amused me:

    "Whether a virtual court of appeal exists for virtual people pretending to be virtual characters for the sake of virtual ill-gotten gain, is virtually unknown."

    I was wondering how effect this process really is, what's to stop people producing the third party programs giving them the name of a legimate program?

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  8. #8
    Tiger Shark
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    I just dont have the time to play WOW anymore but having seen what hackers did to Diablo 2 years ago, I think it is a necessary evil. I even remember in Everquest how frustrating it was in pvp when people used speed/ghost or even teleport hacks.

    I really wish it didnt have to come down to this, but if anyone has my anger it is the people that hack the game. I would spend so much time on my character, it isnt right that someone can just run a hack or program to get gold or items in a few minutes.

    Maybe people can suggest other ways that would be effective to crack down on the hacks?

  9. #9
    BozoKiller
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    Quote Originally Posted by ImaNihilist
    And you thought Microsoft was spying!
    thought ?
    ummm - rethink that one - this just adds to the pile of pooh

    but this is absolutely insidious - and any idiot who still uses that crap deserves to have their Credit Card #'s stolen along with their identity. Can you even believe that ppl are actually 'supporting' this crap ?

    freakin amazing - the bozo factor never ceases to amaze me

    The thing that really pisses me off is that this is all being done in the name of having fun and playing games. I'm supposed to give up my Fourth Amendment rights in order to ax a bunch of warriors controlled by teenagers in Milwaukee? No thanks...Do you realize the government would have to have a warrant to get the kind of information Blizzard claims it has the right to suck out of your computer to stop cheaters? Doesn't that seem a wee bit wrong?
    thank goodness for ppl like Bruce Schneier
    Last edited by I4one; 10-25-2005 at 07:25 AM.
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  10. #10
    "Watches You Sleep" Shark taggart6's Avatar
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    I'l be intersting to see if Blizzard's actions produce a trend, and if any other MMORPGs adopt a Warden-ish type program. I think that scares me more then anything...


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  11. #11
    Defiant Shark Johnmcl7's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by I4one
    thought ?
    ummm - rethink that one - this just adds to the pile of pooh

    but this is absolutely insidious - and any idiot who still uses that crap deserves to have their Credit Card #'s stolen along with their identity. Can you even believe that ppl are actually 'supporting' this crap ?

    freakin amazing - the bozo factor never ceases to amaze me



    thank goodness for ppl like Bruce Schneier
    It's quite a credit to your intellect that you resist playing WoW despite being a diehard MMORPG fan.

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  12. #12
    Hammerhead Shark GetCarter's Avatar
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    No I read about this too. It's hilarious. If you make up like a plain txt file and rename it to something like WoW!Inmate or something, leave it open while playing WoW, you will get banned. Haha.

  13. #13
    I don't roll on Shabbos! Timman_24's Avatar
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    Seems like they are going a little too far to stop cheating. The whole time I played the game (lvl45,) I never had a problem with cheaters ruining the game. I think it is bogus.
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  14. #14
    Mako Shark SaturnBeat's Avatar
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    Well, wasn't expecting to hear this from Blizzard but... lately they've been crap. And not only WoW. I got my account on Diablo 2 temporarily kicked only cuz I was joining games too fast. What the hell?! It's rediculous. They don't actually do anything to prevent cheaters, spammers and whatever else there is. So if you dare join 3 games in 5 minutes, you risk getting kicked from the realm. And that's just Diablo. Star Craft servers have been acting up lately too. It kinda got fixed for me at some point, but now it's crap again. Don't have any complaints about WC3 yet, hopefully it stays that way since it's the game I play most.
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  15. #15
    "Watches You Sleep" Shark taggart6's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sex-Machine
    Star Craft servers have been acting up lately too. It kinda got fixed for me at some point, but now it's crap again.

    For the last few weeks the starcraft servers have been real crappy for me and my fiends. Even 1 on 1 games are slowed to a crawl.
    If we hit that bull's eye, the rest of the dominoes will fall like a house of cards. Checkmate.

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