Account security is everyone’s problem according to Mike O’Brien, the executive producer of Guild Wars 2 and president of ArenaNet.  In a recent blog post, O’Brien goes into to detail explaining how hackers attack your account and what you can do to protect yourself.

He also talks about what ArenaNet is doing to protect player’s accounts, and how email authentication system and two-factor authentication are key components to their success.  O’Brien describes how blacklisting passwords will be instituted to protect future accounts.

ArenaNet is asking for all players to change their password to something unique and verify their email.  These are the actions you can take to protect your account.

 Today it’s critically important to use a unique password for each account you care about and want to keep.

Here are some best practices from the post:

  • “Phishing – If an email links you to a site that asks you to type in your password, don’t type in your password. It could be a fake site. Go to the real account management site by typing “account.guildwars2.com”, or use a bookmark.
  • Social engineering – If someone claims to work for ArenaNet or NCsoft and asks you for your password, don’t tell them your password. Our customer support team doesn’t need your password.
  • Trojan horses and spyware – Don’t download and run software, or open files attached to emails, from a source you aren’t 100% sure about. Malicious software can install a keylogger on your system to record your passwords and transmit them.
  • Email security – Keep the email address associated with your Guild Wars 2 account secure, just like you keep your Guild Wars 2 account itself secure. Use a strong, unique password there too, which you’ve never used anywhere else.
Read the whole article here.