2011-12-13, 08:50 PM
Around 1 month ago one of my mule accounts got hacked.
Abstract: Account was inactive had pretty useless junk on it I would think no one in their right mind would go through the trouble to hack for what was taken.
The strange part was that it was an account that I had not logged on to since around March, the account was originally made to store items long ago but was no longer used for that, additionally no one had the info other than myself. I logged on to it for the 1st time since then when the sidekick event started- to receive the welcome back ring. The highest level on the account at that time was 50 (f/p), I deleted I then used the ring to help level friends and in return got to do the sidekick exp leech for fun (didnt impact their exp until it got to around 90ish); at that point I just played around on the character for a while until it was 110- then helped friends @ LHC. By this point I decided to give it some better equips, I provided it with a 3rd unwelcome gest wand and a 2nd unwelcome guest shied for the intention of occasionally helping attack @ LHC despite incredibly tiny range, just for fun
. I was on it for one of the 2x events on a Sunday, logged on it the Monday after that, around the time people were starting to talk about items disappearing randomly. I noticed at logon that my shield and wand were missing... my initially reaction was ha-ha guess the items disappeared like people were describing- until I actually logged on where I found myself in the FM. Which is a place I will only go if I had a gun to my head, hate FM dont want to be near FM hate everything to do with the fm. So that was what clued me in that something was very wrong. Looked at inventory and nothing, my junk items were there only my weapon and shield missing (both unscrolled really dont care about the items at all easily replaceable). Then I noticed that a mastery book was missing- although it was a junk mastery book I remember having it. Mesos were untouched... as I only had around 400k if I remember correctly- no nx taken because it had none 
. By this point- it was pretty much assured that yup Ive been hacked. Proceeded to check other characters- they were seemly untouched, not in FM and their junk equips still all present and accounted for.
Now the part that disturbs me the most is that up until the sidekick event had anyone hacked the account they would have found pretty much nothing- I play the account a little and it gets hacked, I'm not trying to suggest that there is a direct correlation here but it all seems too convenient. For all the accounts out there why this one- I simply would have thought the account as a waste to anyones time to hack into. A little more background on the account the password was Alpha-numeric contained no symbols- and had not been updated since early spring of 2011. Computer is very clean- many scans run, if it was a keylogger Im sure they would have been more interested in draining my bank accounts than hacking a maple account (also I've loged on other accounts).
Since then I have been watching this thread very closely to see if anyone had a similar experience- and it would seem so. I didn't want to post because I was concerned of the typical absent minded responses to anyone being hacked. "shared info?, Keylogged?, put yourself at risk?" But seeing how this has been an on-going problem I have been really hoping to be fixed by some miracle patch which I fear may never come- I caved and posted. Even though this was only a mule It worries me increasingly that typical standards of security no longer hold- database leaks, these hackings that no one has identified the method or the cause and lack of any acknowledgement by nexon. It also worries me that of the increasing amount of acceptance by people that this is "normal", I am quite worried at this time every time. Every time I log on now say to myself "let's see if I got hacked today".
On a side and likely off topic- I have been considering moving to a desolate world, so that I can actually enjoy maple again (even if this is just an illusion of safety)- maybe play w/o fear. Getting tired of seeing hackers everywhere- taking people chs, and these "SALE OMG FM 1 CH18 GO GO GO" - just means some poor person in maple just got hacked and they are selling off the goods. People wonder how they can sell NX cheaper than face value- chances are is that its stolen from people like you and I. If there was a way to track NX I would not at all be surprised to see that 1 arrow people buy for all their NX winds up being sold to the people who actually buy from them - which directly supports the hackers and the continuing of account hacking. I cannot prove what I just said only a theory: however it seems that it would be very easy for the hackers to sell something of "no real world value" for less than "accepted real" value. I would like to see Nexon support some way to authenticate computers that you wish to play- similar to how iTunes works, but of course make this optional because I know many people (including myself) do not have access to some of the E-mail accounts that were used with the nexon account.
Abstract: Account was inactive had pretty useless junk on it I would think no one in their right mind would go through the trouble to hack for what was taken.
The strange part was that it was an account that I had not logged on to since around March, the account was originally made to store items long ago but was no longer used for that, additionally no one had the info other than myself. I logged on to it for the 1st time since then when the sidekick event started- to receive the welcome back ring. The highest level on the account at that time was 50 (f/p), I deleted I then used the ring to help level friends and in return got to do the sidekick exp leech for fun (didnt impact their exp until it got to around 90ish); at that point I just played around on the character for a while until it was 110- then helped friends @ LHC. By this point I decided to give it some better equips, I provided it with a 3rd unwelcome gest wand and a 2nd unwelcome guest shied for the intention of occasionally helping attack @ LHC despite incredibly tiny range, just for fun
. I was on it for one of the 2x events on a Sunday, logged on it the Monday after that, around the time people were starting to talk about items disappearing randomly. I noticed at logon that my shield and wand were missing... my initially reaction was ha-ha guess the items disappeared like people were describing- until I actually logged on where I found myself in the FM. Which is a place I will only go if I had a gun to my head, hate FM dont want to be near FM hate everything to do with the fm. So that was what clued me in that something was very wrong. Looked at inventory and nothing, my junk items were there only my weapon and shield missing (both unscrolled really dont care about the items at all easily replaceable). Then I noticed that a mastery book was missing- although it was a junk mastery book I remember having it. Mesos were untouched... as I only had around 400k if I remember correctly- no nx taken because it had none . By this point- it was pretty much assured that yup Ive been hacked. Proceeded to check other characters- they were seemly untouched, not in FM and their junk equips still all present and accounted for. Now the part that disturbs me the most is that up until the sidekick event had anyone hacked the account they would have found pretty much nothing- I play the account a little and it gets hacked, I'm not trying to suggest that there is a direct correlation here but it all seems too convenient. For all the accounts out there why this one- I simply would have thought the account as a waste to anyones time to hack into. A little more background on the account the password was Alpha-numeric contained no symbols- and had not been updated since early spring of 2011. Computer is very clean- many scans run, if it was a keylogger Im sure they would have been more interested in draining my bank accounts than hacking a maple account (also I've loged on other accounts).
Since then I have been watching this thread very closely to see if anyone had a similar experience- and it would seem so. I didn't want to post because I was concerned of the typical absent minded responses to anyone being hacked. "shared info?, Keylogged?, put yourself at risk?" But seeing how this has been an on-going problem I have been really hoping to be fixed by some miracle patch which I fear may never come- I caved and posted. Even though this was only a mule It worries me increasingly that typical standards of security no longer hold- database leaks, these hackings that no one has identified the method or the cause and lack of any acknowledgement by nexon. It also worries me that of the increasing amount of acceptance by people that this is "normal", I am quite worried at this time every time. Every time I log on now say to myself "let's see if I got hacked today".
On a side and likely off topic- I have been considering moving to a desolate world, so that I can actually enjoy maple again (even if this is just an illusion of safety)- maybe play w/o fear. Getting tired of seeing hackers everywhere- taking people chs, and these "SALE OMG FM 1 CH18 GO GO GO" - just means some poor person in maple just got hacked and they are selling off the goods. People wonder how they can sell NX cheaper than face value- chances are is that its stolen from people like you and I. If there was a way to track NX I would not at all be surprised to see that 1 arrow people buy for all their NX winds up being sold to the people who actually buy from them - which directly supports the hackers and the continuing of account hacking. I cannot prove what I just said only a theory: however it seems that it would be very easy for the hackers to sell something of "no real world value" for less than "accepted real" value. I would like to see Nexon support some way to authenticate computers that you wish to play- similar to how iTunes works, but of course make this optional because I know many people (including myself) do not have access to some of the E-mail accounts that were used with the nexon account.