Good news, everyone! And now that you’re hearing Professor Farnsworth reading this article in your head, you’re paying attention. Account theft has always been a problem for MMOs, even from the days of Ultima Online. When your account gets stolen, it’s like a sucker punch to the gut. It’s a hell of a thing to log on to find that everything you worked so hard to obtain is now gone, and you’re dancing naked on top of a mailbox
With a player base of over 12 million users, Battle.net has always had a particular problem with account theft. It’s just too large and tempting a target to pass up. Specific trojans and viruses have targeted World of Warcraft, attempting to log the username and passwords of tens of thousands of subscribers. For several years, Blizzard has offered a second line of defense to thwart even these particularly nasty methods—the Battle.net Authenticator (formerly the Blizzard Authenticator.)
Initially, it was a small key fob you purchased from Blizzard for a few dollars, which added two factor authentication to your account. Now instead of needing username and password, you also needed the Authenticator, which generated a six digit number that was then compared to Blizzard’s servers. If those two numbers didn’t match, the login failed. But these fobs were frequently sold out, and Blizzard seemed to have trouble keeping them in stock at many points.
So Blizzard introduced the Mobile Authenticator, originally available only for iPhone and iPod Touch. This took the fob, turned it into a mobile application, and offered it for free. Simply associate your Authenticator application to your account, and enjoy the same protection as those of us who bought or received the key fob version—which currently costs $6.50. (I’m still using mine from Blizzcon ’08.)
Today, Blizzard took it a step further. No longer do you have an excuse for not having an Authenticator associated with your account. You can now get the Mobile Authenticator application for your iPhone, iPod Touch, Android based phone or tablet, BlackBerry, and Windows Phone 7. And just as always, the Mobile Authenticator can be associated with any Battle.net account, be it World of Warcraft or StarCraft II (or the upcoming Diablo III) and is available for the low low price of free.
You can get your Mobile Authenticator direct from Blizzard here as of today, or if you prefer, from Apple’s App Store, Android Marketplace or BlackBerry App World.
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