• Rapscallion

It's listed on the EU blizzard store, but is sold out. Have to love that $1 = £1/€1 exchange rate

 

Ukerric

The tokens are available in Europe. Alas, it's out of stock (they all sold at WWI in the first hour).

 

Rerox

Actually they were never "in stock" in the EU shop.

The original Press release from Blizzard states:
So just hold your breath a little longer, it will become available soon.

My guess is that they want to check the response from WWI first and see if any technical problems come up before they dump thousands of these tokens into the market.

 

Zurgat

Since it's called the "blizzard authenticator", I wonder whether it'll be useable on your Diablo 3 account as well.

-= Random Ravings - RSS Feed =- Rogue and Hunter stuff here. As well as guides to get you trough your spare time.

 

Rerox

Most OTP tokens come with an integrated "life time" battery that can not and need not to be replaced, since the power consumption of the device is so low that even if you use it several times a day it will not run out of power in years.

Some modern tokens even use piezoelectric effects to power the device simply through the force used to push the button so those tokens don't need a battery at all (although I doubt Blizzard is using such a modern technology device, the token looks quite cheap and old-fashioned).

Nevertheless, even if the authenticator would run out of power, you would have to handle it like if it was broken, so you would have to contact billing support and get a new device.

 

• Kaacee

What company is manufacturing these? I want to buy some stock.

 

SenorPez

I would hope so. WoW, battle.net StarCraft 2 login, Diablo 3, all tied to a single authenticator? Would be very cool, and their customer support group is probably thinking the very same thing!

 

◊ Cadfael

It looks like Digipass Products: Digipass Go 6 only with custom logo. Can't say for sure though.

 

Angyarr

Anyone else like me who was able to buy an authenticator this weekend?
I added it to my account and now is asks me for a token-id everytime i try to login to account management like it should be.
But I can login with my password into the game without having to enter a tokencode. Anyone else does have this behaviour?
I don't see any option in the account management to tweak it. It's just on or off.
I asked this same question on blizz's technical forum but it seems they have a holiday today and no support is up.

 

• Chicken

It's very likely the game will need to be patched first before they'll work.

buff /bʌf/ Pronunciation[buhf]
–verb (used with object)
- to reduce or deaden the force of

 

Bodhidharma

To a previous poster who said he didn't get charged shipping, must have gotten lucky, or it's based on your address. I just got the default Ground shipping, and am paying $8.80 total. Shipping seems a little excessive for such a small thing, but still worth it in my opinion.

# Item Subtotal: $6.50
# Sales Tax: $0.00
# Shipping & Handling: $2.30
# Total: $8.80

 

Oneiros

I didn't get charged shippping either, and I bought two of them. Not sure why but either way its still a great bargain. I'll post regarding the "will one authenticator work for multiple accounts even if they don't have the same name on them?" question in a week or so.

I believe in Harvey Dent.

 

Bodhidharma

That question was answered in the FAQ:
To Blizzard, the Authenticator is just a serial number. They're saying you can tag that serial number to any number of WoW accounts. You just have to that that exact Authenticator available for all of your accounts that it's attached to though.

By the way... my shipping is to Kansas. Maybe it's a surcharge for living out in the middle of nowhere?

 

Yenadar

I didn't get charged shipping for either of my 2 (purchased at the same time). $6.50 each, $13.00 total charge, Rhode Island destination. Not sure what the difference will be between yes/no on shipping charge.

And Blizzard certainly isn't making a 'cash haul' profit on these. They -MIGHT- be breaking even, but likely are taking a loss up-front in order to saturate as much of their player base as possible with them to relieve customer service costs associated with hacked accounts.

And I have never been hacked, neither has my wife. I practice safe surfing, regular scans, etc... The simple fact remains however, no amount of safe surfing practices, software blockers, scanners, or sweepers will ever protect you against your bitter ex-girlfriend/wife that hates you for ignoring her to raid, and had previously gotten or guessed your password.

Having the ID fob on your key chain at work while she hacks up your room with your frost-mourne replica will at least keep your account safe... and hopefully you have homeowners insurance for the rest.

(Yes, I know someone that this happened to...except she deleted his toons, parental-locked the account for 24hr lockout, and canceled the subscription)

 

beefkitten

Once you early birds get your deliveries, would you be so kind as to do a little review? A couple areas I'm keen to look in to are how well made these fobs are, and perhaps whether you can change the batteries (I know my work stuff can). I'm sure any other insights would be welcomed!

 

• Tharas

Just for my curiosity, which model do you have at work that has user-accessible batteries? Having the power pins easily tapped is actually a security vulnerability on a device like this, and I am curious who is selling such an item for commercial/business applications.

 

Shakes

I know someone who works for Vasco so I can confirm this.

 

beefkitten

I pm'd you about this.

For the rest of you public folks, I wish to re-qualify my question regarding battery replacement. If your battery dies in the fob, it would result in a fob replacement and reassignment of the NEW fob to your account. Apologies for this, I should have been less hasty with my comments.

 

Rerox

What I am still wondering is: is the authenticator only used for accessing the "account management webpage" or is it also used to log into the game itself?

From what I read in the FAQ and here it seems to be the first option, while many players expected it to be the second one.

 

Ukerric

Dunno where you read that from the FAQ. The FAQ says explicitely: "the Authenticator token will be required to log in to Account Management or to the game"

 

Rerox

You're right, I somehow missed that part or mixed it up with what someone wrote here that it's not working in the game right now ... whatever. Thanks for helping me read.

 

Angyarr

Just tested it and upon entering your password you get a box asking for your tokencode.
Seems they needed to update the servers.

 

Chalkdust

I was thinking the same thing. I bet this will become an industry standard. I am sure that we will soon be able to buy personal authenticators and register them with any game.

 

Bodhidharma

Blizzard store page is now showing these as "Sold Out".

 

Knaughy

I'm really familiar with Vasco products. Really, really, really familiar. I don't own any stock though. Vasco don't have an employee stock plan. Maybe these things are related, maybe not.

Vasco haven't been allowed to do a press release yet.

I can confirm it is a Vasco Digipass Go-6

Custom branding is an optional feature, most of their big banking customers use this (they have over a thousand banks using these and similar tokens). Pretty much every bank that does two-factor uses Vasco.

Vasco make the Versign VIP tokens, the Ebay tokens, and now the Blizzard tokens (as well and the banking ones).

To answer a few questions and correct a few assumptions.

It isn't made by RSA. RSA have a patent on tokens without a button, that change number every 60 seconds. So Vasco's ones have a button, and change numbers at some interval other than 60 seconds. GG, US patent system... Pretty sure the Blizzard ones change every 36 seconds.

It has a clock inside, the clock drift is synchronised at the server end. Typically, the server allows for a few minutes of drift.

The battery isn't replaceable. For starters, the case is electronically welded shut (so it's waterproof). Even if you can get it open, it erases itself if you removed the battery. Security feature. They last 7 or so years though... you still going to be playing WoW in 2015?

They're not hackable or reverse engineer-able. They use 3DES or AES based on the current time and a random seed value to calculate the OTP code. If you can crack those, you can take over an ATM network. Why bother stealing fake gold if you can steal real money? Also note: 1k banks using Vasco tokens, none hacked. See poi