Alright, I have to admit it – I’m a geek. With my background it’s probably not much of a secret anyway. I can build a computer from scratch, reliably quote 90% of the original Star Wars movies verbatim (although I still struggle with some of the alien languages,) sift through the internet for background information on a company before I go talk with the CEO, and play World of Warcraft whenever my girlfriend doesn’t have other plans for us. In fact, this article is actually inspired by Warcraft (or WoW) – or more precisely by their use of “authenticators”.
What’s an Authenticator?
An authenticator is an optional security measure some players (sometimes referred to as “uber” or “leet”) use to protect their World of Warcraft account from being hacked. Some people look at WoW as a kids first hobby that has monthly dues, others see it as a digital drug that keeps the Y2K generation out of their hair like television did for my parents. The point is, WoW players invest a lot of time developing their various “characters”, and the game has a monthly fee. Over the course of a few years, World of Warcraft has developed over 12 million subscribers worldwide. At $15 per month, that’s just a bit over 2 billion dollars in annual revenue – pretty good for “just a game”.
Although I don’t have the time to invest in developing the super characters some players have, I’m always one for additional security. Besides, who wants to invest time building anything just to have someone else come along and steal it? So I got an authenticator for my cell phone, registered it, and connected it to my WoW account, all for free. Now, whenever I want to log in and play the game, it requires my ID and password, then asks for my authenticator code. This is an eight-digit code that is never the same, and changes every 30 seconds or so. If the code changes while I’m entering it, I have to put the new code in.
The last time I logged in, though, I got to thinking about some of the recent high-profile data breaches like Citigroup, Comerica, and Ocean Bank. I found myself wondering why I can get an authenticator for my video game online, but there’s no implementation of this technology to process banking transactions. The technology readily available, obviously works well (I have never heard of anyone who had an authenticator having their World of Warcraft account hacked,) and our personal finances are obviously more important than a $15 per month game.
Your guide is of the mindset that it would be far better to prevent money from being stolen from an account, or have unauthorized transactions take place, than to traipse off to court after the fact, pay for scores of hours for legal representation, argue, debate, fault-find, and generally get embroiled in some legal dispute with a bank that is supposedly looking after your financial best interests. One would think that banks would be of the same mindset. Their costs are the same to defend themselves from the lawsuits, which they may or may not win – but they also suffer the loss of public opinion every time their name comes up in another article about a data breach or hijacked bank account.
While IdentityHawk shows 84,527,737 more records compromised in the first half of 2011 than the entire year of 2010, our elected officials scramble to create new laws that will make sure we get to find out about it after it happens. Folks, this has been a problem for a decade, and the real causes aren’t even being addressed. Almost all the current laws are focused on bank accounts and credit cards, and things are still falling apart.
So I’ll call some worthy company tomorrow and have a conversation with some important person about this idea, and who knows? Maybe someday soon you’ll be able to protect your bank account with an authenticator the way I do with my World of Warcraft account… now that would be something worth saying “WoW” about.
