Account Security in GW2: Use of Authenticators?

Well,
I am sure you all are aware of some of the challenges Anet was facing with breached accounts etc. I am bringing this up because the other day I saw a friend of mine play WoW (and before anyone says anything :-)). The interesting thing is that in order for him to log in, he not only had to use a regular username/password combination, but also had to use an authenticator. For those of you who don't know what it is: It's a device that upon request sends you an additional dynamically created password each time you want to log in.
All this gave me to think: How should account security look in GW2? Would you be ok with an authenticator? There are other schemes as well used in European online banking sites as well? Would you prefer those? Or perhaps a combination of both? How much security measures would you be willing to put up with to protect your own accounts?|||We had a big survey here a while back that might be interesting to you.
http://guildwars.incgamers.com/forum...d.php?t=492702

SecurId authenticators are great btw. It's not just for WoW but the new battle.net. This means one authenticator will protect your WoW account, SC2 and (someday) Diablo 3. I'm sure plenty of folks that have multiple NCSoft games would love to have their GW, CoX, and Aiion accounts protected too.|||Authenticators are optional in WoW.
I'd be happy if there was an option to get an authenticator for GW2, especially if I can use the same one over multiple accounts. I'd get one for sure. I'd want it to work for web access as well.|||I would like an atom powered authenticator (battery powered would also work). A smartphone app like the one mentioned in this blog post could be a decent alternative.|||Quote:








IA smartphone app like the one mentioned in this blog post could be a decent alternative.




I can't imagine that anyone who goes to the trouble to add an authenticator option to the game won't provide a smart phone app. Blizzard provides an app for theirs too. I believe they price it at $1 for the app or $6 for the physical device.
Alaris brings up a good point that the Blizzard authenticator protects not just your game client but also web browser access to account management type things. I would like to be able to protect my playNC master account in addition to my GW accounts.|||It may seem cool, but there is a potential problem with having an authenticator application on an infected smart app device though...|||Smart apps can be infected? You mean, like a smart phone can get a keylogger?!? o.O|||Quote:








Smart apps can be infected? You mean, like a smart phone can get a keylogger?!? o.O




What I am saying is:
Applications residing on flexible (mobile) platforms (like Android phones, or itouches, ipads, or even just PCs) are be hacked. When passwords reside on these platforms, the passwords can be captured as they arrive on these platforms. It is also possible for malware to inject themselves into the applications themselves.
This is the reason, I would be more cautious about supporting "apps" for android or iphones. Convenient? Sure. But safe? I would hesitate to say yes.
And to answer your question: Smart phones can get keyloggers. Right now it may not be very widespread, but if you think about it, smartphones have a lot of the functionality encoded in software. That's what gives these devices a lot of flexibility. But software may have "hidden bugs" which can be exploited to take control of these devices in different ways - including injection of keyloggers. As smart phones become more widespread, I am sure these things will pick up because:
a.) more and more people do online banking using these phones (rich source of information)
b.) smart phones currently have NO security (no firewall, heuristic malware detection, no sandbox etc.)|||Have they said if they'll be able to recover individual accounts for GW2 yet?|||Yes please to authenticators. And character locks.