There is currently unrest in the MMORPG Black Desert Online. Due to a security vulnerability, account names and passwords have been made public. Now the accounts have been locked – players need to identify themselves with photos of their IDs in order to be unlocked, according to the Black Desert forum.
This is what Black Desert says: There is a forum post about the incident (via BlackDesert). GM Rhotaaz stated that they are aware that account information from a “number of players” has been posted publicly on various platforms and sites.
Now they want to explain to the players what they plan to do about it:
- They have reset the passwords of all affected accounts
- and they have locked all accounts until the original owner can identify themselves
This is what you need to do to be unlocked:
- Players should get a new email address and contact support with it
- they should provide the email address of the old account
- locked players should take a photo of their ID with a current newspaper or in front of a picture of the open ticket. The ticket must then be attached to the email.
- Players should redact the number of their identity card
This is how players are reacting: On reddit the news is causing a stir. They are surprised that the operators of Black Desert apparently stored “unencrypted passwords, emails, and cash history” somewhere.
That players now have to submit a photo with a newspaper is seen by some as “crazy” – no one buys real newspapers anymore.
Some are upset about it, while others take it easy and say that this is exactly how one must proceed to restore accounts on Facebook.
This is still unclear: It is not known how many users are affected by this incident and whether it also affects players who play Black Desert on Steam.
How the incident exactly happened is also not known.
Black Desert: Not our security vulnerability
Update 21.6. 18:44: There is another statement from Black Desert (via reddit). It is now stated that the vulnerability did not originate from Kakao itself, but that there were security vulnerabilities on other websites.
Due to these vulnerabilities, data from players who use the same account name and password for everything have become known. These players have been locked by Black Desert.
The data that Black Desert has stored is said to be securely encrypted in a manner that meets the latest technologies.
Players are advised to enable two-factor verification and frequently change their passwords.
