Rift Implements Innovative ‘Coin Lock’ Security Feature

It’s not too often that an MMO developer releases a new security measure that’s cool enough for me to think about two seconds after reading about it, but Rift developer Trion has made one of the rare exceptions. Unfortunately, not long after Rift’s public launch a couple of weeks ago, the game’s forums were being littered with people claiming hackings, and for that reason, Trion took some quick action.

A week after the game’s launch, Trion posted in its forums to clue people into the leading cause of being hacked, and in its research, it discovered that a staggering 80% of people were hacked due to being infected with keyloggers (I can’t link to the original forum post as it’s since been overwritten with more recent information), which to me, is a rather jaw-dropping number. The lesson to learn? Don’t download ANYTHING from a website you’re not familiar with, and even if you are, be sure to scan it first.

The fact that Trion was up-front with the hacking issue impressed me quite a bit, because I hadn’t quite seen another MMO developer willing to dish out details like that. But in a patch released just the other day, the company took things a bit further, from simple word-of-mouth, to a real implementation of increased security.

Because most ‘hackings’ aren’t hackings at all, but rather people gaining access to accounts with keyloggers, Trion has implemented a feature called ‘Coin Lock’, which in essence is a complete lock on a character for anything currency-related. Coin Lock is activated if your account is logged into via a vastly different IP address or location. Typically, most of these account breaches happen because gold farmers want to deplete accounts in order to sell the cash elsewhere, so this seems like a good start.

If the account is in a Coin Lock state, A) Money cannot be traded, B) Auction house privileges are lost, C) Ability to sell to vendors is lost, D) Ability to salvage or Runebreak items is lost, and most importantly, E) Ability to send mail is lost. There are some other lost abilities, but these are the most important, and should do well to prevent ‘hackers’ from being able to cause too much damage.

If you’re legit and signing in from another location, Trion will simply send you an e-mail with a code, and after that code is typed in, you’ll be good to roll. And in case there are any issues related to not receiving the code in good time, you’ll still have the ability to earn money in the game; you simply lose the ability to do much with it until the account is settled again.

If only Rift implemented a feature similar to World of Warcraft’s authenticator, we’d be all set.