'World of Warcraft' Hackers Steal Millions in Gold

 Adventurers in the online game "World of Warcraft" generally have to worry about bandits and dragons, but their most dangerous threat this week comes in the form of gold-hungry hackers. By exploiting the Web and mobile applications for the game's Auction House (which allows players to buy and sell items), malefactors have stolen millions of gold pieces, but players who use two-step authentication are relatively safe.

For those who have somehow avoided almost every form of pop culture for the last decade, "World of Warcraft" is a massively popular online game from developer Blizzard that casts players as heroes in an intricate high fantasy world. As players complete quests and triumph over mythical beasts, they gather in-game gold pieces, which they can use to buy supplies and equipment.

The issue came to light on June 22, when a user named "Abidah" realized that almost 200,000 gold pieces had disappeared from his account for three unauthorized purchases in the game's Auction House,. He posted his plight on the Blizzard forums, where other users shared similar experiences. Blizzard investigated, and discovered that while "World of Warcraft" itself had not been compromised, its Web and mobile Auction House apps had. On June 23, Blizzard acknowledged the hack.