Hack Attack!

You might have seen via Twitter on Thursday evening that I suspected a guilidie had been hacked. It turns out Hege had been hacked but she's now back and her account secure *phew*. It was quite the experience for me having not known anyone to be hacked since I've played with them (some had prior to me knowing them). So, here'd what happened...


The beginning...
I logged in Thursday evening ready for the guilds LFR run which we do every week. As usual I checked the guild log to see that the main character, B, of a guildie (Hege) had left the guild. Odd. She hadn't said anything along the lines of being unhappy - in fact quite the opposite. She's a very active member of the guild and an officer. I went to check my mail thinking that had she left she would have sent me some sort of explanation. Nothing.

I went to eu.battle.net and searched for the character on the armoury. There were several characters spread across the EU realms with B's name but none were DK's. Things were getting stranger. But I guess she could have name changed. But something didn't feel right. With that the LFR queue popped.



Back on the armoury!

The bank...
Once we were out of LFR I went to check the guild bank. The boyfriend had just got home and I explained the situation. He suggested a hack which I relayed to the guild. This sparked a discussion about peoples past hack experiences - none had known for a character to be deleted or name changed post hack. At the bank vault things pointed more towards the hack theory. B had taken the maximum number of stacks she could from every tab. This included a range of things from Neatherweave Bags to Elementium Bars and random gear. All seemed to be the best vendorable items per tab.

 

 

Alts
Hege's alts all seemed to still be in guild but I decided to check them out on the armoury too. Her two level 90s were naked - all their gear gone. Whereas the lowbies still had their gear. Hmm even more evidence of a hack.

The other guild...
I knew Hege had atleast one alt in our old guild so I contacted someone who still had access to it to chck things out there. Nothing had gone from the guild bank but a character had recently left. And you guessed it - it was her alt and it no longer appeared on the armoury (deleted).

Time to take action
I demoted all of Hege's characters as a precautionary measure meaning that nothing else could go missing from the guild bank. I then sent all her alts in-game mail along the lines of asking if she'd been hacked as things seemes a bit weird blah blah blah. Whilst all this was going on we were chatting about it in /g and Rob suggested that it would be wise to make a ticket - not only regarding the suspicious activity on Hege's account but to get the guilds stuff back. My ticket still hasnt been answered so I don't know if we'll get the stuff back.

The guild log from the past few days.

Return

Late Friday night / Saturday morning Hege had finally managed to sort out her account security etc. She whispered my Mark explaining it was a hack and to get invited back into the guild. I personally didnt speak to her until yesterday afternoon. It seems the hackers hacked her email account first and then her WoW. She was lucky enough to get her main, B, back and her level 90s gear that they had been stripped of. Unfortunately Blizz have said that they may not be able to get everything back for her. But I figure her mains better than nothing!!

To be honest I'm quite relieved that it was a hack. It seems mean of me yes but I rather that than thinking that someone I regard myself as knowing quite well robbing the g-bank and leaving without saying a word!! It turns out my gut instinct that Hege wouldn't do that was right. I also think as a guild we were pretty fast in investigating the situation and taking precautionary measures. I'd hate to think we did nothing about it. I think we were also fairly lucky that our guild controls are fairly strict. Had my account been hacked (as GM) we would almost certianly be in a much worse situation!! Where we did fail, slightly, is not knowing how to contact Hege outside of WoW and vice-versa. First names are not a lot to go by but we have now exchanged skype (which although I dont use it much would provide that extra means of contact).