[News] Another Reminder to add to the Safety Reminder

[AirmidCecht]

Your account safety goes both ways.

A customer service representative should NEVER ask you for your account password.

It is okay to say NO. They do not need your password to handle your account issues be it finding your account or help linking your accounts. A few might be feeling a little desperate with the impending House Decay reactivated but if you are asked please tell them no and more importantly ask for someone who is familiar with the Ultima Online migration issues.

*wipes brow*

 

[UO News]

Three wekes ago, we posted a reminder about account safety and mentioned the option to set up a secret word to add extra security to your account. The secret word will identify you as the true owner of the account in case your details got lost or changed.

• If you don't have a secret word, you should go to the account center and add it to your account right now.
  
  
• If you don't remember your secret word, send an to email [email protected], supply them with your account name, email address, cc info, and any other information (e.g. game codes), and request to have the secret word changed.

Please make sure that nobody else knows this word.



More...

 

[silent]

I don't see an option for shared secret?

 

[Ezekiel Zane]

Yeah and we told you then that there is no such option on the Account Management website pages.

For ****s sake you don't even know how your own damn website works.

FAIL!

 

[aarons6]

unfortunately it has NOTHING to do with the actual website..
its the CS people that cant figure out how to work anything.

anyone can just call in and "pretend" to have forgotten their password and 9 out to 10 times a CS guy will just GIVE it to you on the phone..

they shouldnt even be able to READ your password..

NON ENCRYPED PASSWORDS ARE WHAT IS CAUSING THIS....


when i had my account problems the CS even TRIED TO LOG IN FOR ME...
yes that is right, they HAVE MY PASSWORD ON THE SCREEN.....

the only option the CS people should have is to resend the secret code to reset the password to either the primary email (witch should be unchangeable unless called in and in witch case it gets emailed saying it was changed.. this does not currently happen), or PHONE NUMBER....

 

[Ezekiel Zane]

It has everything to do with the website and the database. They designed the damn thing and they don't even know how it works. There is no freaking option to enter a "secret" word.

The CS people couldn't pull up and SEE any account's password if the system didn't allow it. That's not the CS's fault. It is that they are too untrained to NOT give it out, but it's not their fault it's right there on their screen staring them in the face.

I've been on the fence for a year now whether to keep paying EA to play UO. It's **** like this that just makes me more and more frustrated every day.

 

[Thunderz]

Were is the option to add a secret word?

I can see it anywhere

Thunderz

 

[Ezekiel Zane]

Were is the option to add a secret word?

I can see it anywhere

Thunderz

There isn't one. Never has been. Supposedly there has been a way to do this as some players have reported they got this option somewhere. It's in one of the other threads on this topic.

The Account Management pages though, for existing and already linked accounts has never had this option.

These people are brain dead. Someone posts this crap and never follows up. We told them that last notice, that there was not way to put in a "secret" word on the Account Management pages. Did they listen? Obviously not.

 

[Flutter]

I think by secret word, I think they mean the answer to the secret question. (There are things like "name of your first pet" or "Moms middle name" etc)

 

[Apetul]

Maybe im wrong, but when i created my master account i was asked for a secret word.
Yes, there is no way to change the secret word, but maybe that makes sense.. otherwise if someone stole an account it will be easy to change the secret word. Again, maybe im wrong but the secret word was per master account and not for each UO account, so i guess its still useless.

BTW, a secret word is used on account management systems when the password is encrypted. Its like a 2nd password but its safe that a customer tells that word to the CS guy just as an extra validation. The secret word should not be encrypted but the password must be.

Another security enhancement is that the account system should send two emails when a customer changes it. One for the new email address and another for the old email address. That way if someone is being hacked, there is a chance to quickly contact CS and inform them about that.

 

[Ezekiel Zane]

Maybe im wrong, but when i created my master account i was asked for a secret word.

You may be correct. The problem though is that this is now the SECOND time they've made this announcement and told us to go in and setup a secret word, when there is no option to do so. We told them that, here on Stratics, the unofficial official forums, when they made the first announcement.

The second problem is they don't freaking listen. Some CS trainee posts this, has no idea what he's talking about and obviously they just post it and forget it because nobody follows up.

So nobody, not a dev or any other person from EA/Mythic read the other thread from the first announcement and passed along to the account management web people to fix this.

See how frustrating this **** is?

 

[NBG]

Setting up a secret word is great and all but please Make sure your CS personnel ask for it as account owner verification?

Kind of pointless if they do not use it@!

 

[Jynxx]

Setting up a secret word is great and all but please Make sure your CS personnel ask for it as account owner verification?

Kind of pointless if they do not use it@!

A few weeks ago I spoke to 3 different CS reps at EA over a week period (none of them solved my issue either)

Only 1 of the 3 actually asked me for my secret word.

 

[NBG]

A few weeks ago I spoke to 3 different CS reps at EA over a week period (none of them solved my issue either)

Only 1 of the 3 actually asked me for my secret word.

This is exactly what I am talking about and there are issues of CS people freely giving out account information to callers as well!

We need people to start stepping forward and point out EA's CS department issues and provide examples. There are previous posts in recent past that throws up warning flag all over the place.

We as players must stand up and say something has to be done! This is not some minor petty issues about game changes. This is about EA's ability to fail time and time again and have their CS department people hand accounts over to callers that uses social engineering to gain access to player accounts(phishing for account information by repeated calling)

We want actions and responses to these out stand account security issues!!! Not the standard, please remember to set up your secret word for your account (please spit less in our face and do more about cleaning up your department's short comings).

Another thing, the lack of ability for players to setup the secret word at account management site needs to be fixed first!

 

[NBG]

Also might not be a bad idea to start a automated process where the phone system will do caller id verification so it can tell if the caller is calling from a preset phone number that is tied to the account's billing.

Some other phone customer services uses this to raise a initial flag to go for further verification of account owner. I doubt people trying to gain access to your account would be able to call from your personal phone number.

 

[lucitus]

Three wekes ago, we posted a reminder about account safety and mentioned the option to set up a secret word to add extra security to your account. The secret word will identify you as the true owner of the account in case your details got lost or changed.

• If you don't have a secret word, you should go to the account center and add it to your account right now.
  
  
• If you don't remember your secret word, send an to email [email protected], supply them with your account name, email address, cc info, and any other information (e.g. game codes), and request to have the secret word changed.

Please make sure that nobody else knows this word.



More...

There is no option for this or?

 

[THP]

just checked there is ...no secret word option.....LOL..

 

[startle]

I don't mean to "single-out" Ezekiel Zane here for any reason other than he has already said EXACTLY what I've been thinking - so here:

Yeah and we told you then that there is no such option on the Account Management website pages.

For ****s sake you don't even know how your own damn website works.

FAIL!

There isn't one.... The Account Management pages though, for existing and already linked accounts has never had this option.

These people are brain dead. Someone posts this crap and never follows up. We told them that last notice, that there was not way to put in a "secret" word on the Account Management pages. Did they listen? Obviously not.

I'd like to add these images for furthur clarification:

PRIMARY Account Management Page...

Hmmm, nothing there ^^^^... So let's try Contact Info:

Oops, nothing there either... Ok, let's try the Password tab:

Hmmm, still nothing.... (don't bother with any of the other options, they're just a waste of time too - except one of them - click on the UltimaOnline tab and you'll be re-directed here

 

[Ezekiel Zane]

This is awesome. So they implemented the "Security Challenge Question" in 2007.

UO Herald archive! - Ultima Online Stratics TGN.TV - Get more views!

Account Security and the Security Challenge Question

Jeremy Dalberg

11 Sep 2007 14:33:51 EST

UPDATED 11:55AM PDT - Added a final step to the process for clarification.

In order to add an extra layer of password security, new accounts are required to choose a security challenge question and answer. However, existing accounts can also add this - and we strongly recommend that all our players do so. Instructions after the jump:

To add a security challenge question to your account, please do the following:

- Visit the Account Management page.

- Select "Create Account." (Yes, this is counterintuitive.)

- Select "Already have a member account" and log in using your EA member account. NOTE: this may be different than your UO account name - in particular, older accounts may follow the pattern "uo_youruoaccountname."

- The next screen should give you the option to select a security question. Follow all prompts to create a security challenge question and answer. Type carefully, and choose an answer that only you would know.

- Hit "Cancel" - unless, of course, you want to actually create another UO account The security question will be applied to your account.

This security question will be used whenever someone requests a password for that account. If you forget your answer, you will have to contact Customer Support to get it reset. We strongly encourage everyone to take advantage of this feature!

Now we have the "Secret Word".

Neither of these two functions actually exist, to be added, for existing accounts.

 

[THP]

Big Fail- no secret word option still

 

[Nails Warstein]

Perhaps they intend to make a 15th Anniversary Gift you can select, or a veteran reward, please add secret word and encrypted password. It would prevent players from quitting. Security is key in our society, and no nothing is fool proof, however addressing a concern that has existed for the whole age of UO would be priceless.

At this point if you own anything valuable, open a newbie account, never share its name or password with anyone, put a house on said account, lock down all your prized possessions, then co-own your main accounts, and finally delete all character on this newbie account. This way if its ever hacked, the hacker won't know which shard you play, or where your house might be. Its like paying for security that should already be insured by EA.

 

[LordDrago]

Guess I should have read the entire thread instead of wasting the past 20 minutes looking for the secret word button. Then I would have known to not even bother since it doesn't exist.

 

[Kirthag]

I know this has been a serious point of contention for the longest time. And yes, there has been some gaps in the communications.

There are two accounts we deal with as UO players:
1. The "Mythic" account page where our UO account information is managed.
2. EA's Origin Store, where EA keeps track of our purchases

The Secondary Question thing mentioned through this thread is actually located on the Origin side of the equation:


To access this via the web:

1. Visit EA.com, and login to the Customer Portal:


2. A popup will appear for your credentials. This is NOT your UO account information!


3. After logging in, the page will refresh and you will notice your Origin account name up top (I blotted mine out). To view the area for the Security Questions, click "My Account"


4. You will be taken to a rather blah account page, you will want to click on the "Security" option on the left:


5. Now at this point things may differ than what I can show. I've already set up a secondary password, but I have _not_ set up Security Questions. So I'm going to click on the blue "Edit" link:


6. To change anything, you must know the answer to the security question. If you have _not_ set up the security question, you will be asked to do so.


7. After answering that question accurately, you will then see the Manage Account Security box. Click on "Security Question" and you can set up more questions:


7. There is a long list of pre-formed personal questions you can choose from...


**I will note here, when I attempted to add more questions, I got an error page so it may not be working if you already set one up:



Hope this helps everyone.