NCsoft’s GSU Team Speaks About Account Security
Greetings, all. I’m Scott Jennings, otherwise known as GM Luminary, working with NCsoft’s Game Surveillance Unit (GSU). I’ve been asked to take some time to speak for a bit on the fallout from the war that we’ve been fighting in our games against real money trading (RMT) companies and others trying to violate your account security, and how you can help in the fight.
Make no mistake—it is a war. One that you, our players, see the effects of whenever you play our games or visit forums related to our games. Many of you have noticed the decrease in bots, farmers, and gold spammers as a result of our efforts.
In the game industry, we have also seen an increase in attacks by third parties in an attempt to steal your account information by any means necessary, including phishing, obtaining passwords from third party sites/systems, and using account information provided by those engaged in power-leveling services and other prohibited activities. Recently, the number of these attacks has risen dramatically.
As a result, our game support queues have drastically increased, with thousands of support tickets from players who have lost access to their game accounts and are suffering extended wait times for help. Our game servers, account databases, and support sites are under constant attack and being probed for any vulnerability. It’s a war that by no means is over.
Our enemies are playing for high stakes—the estimated $2 billion dollars that RMT companies earn off the back of game developers and players like you. And we are playing for high stakes as well—the right that we believe we have as a company, and you as players, to play games that are free from the corruption of in-game currency sales and all that results from that.
It’s a war that we’re committed to winning, but one that we’ll need your help with to achieve a real victory. I’ll describe first our responsibility to you to provide a safe and secure gaming environment, and then what you can do in return to protect yourself.
