Strong authentication service comes to gaming

The World of Warcraft is introducing 2 factor authentication to its players. Players will have the option to protect their accounts with the use of a $6.50 one time password generator. Users of the Blizzard Authenticator still need a username and password, and then will need to enter the 6 digit number displayed after they press a button on the token. This is pretty cool - not enough social networking types of places have this type of support against impersonation.

First some background for us older generation folks ... The World of Warcraft is a "massively multiplayer online role playing game". It is a huge game, with over 10 million paying subscribers world-wide. If your kids aren't players, they undoubtedly know someone who is. The rough idea is that a player creates a character which they then guide through a pretend world using brain and brawn to overcome obstacles, challenges, and encounters with fellow players. A character's wealth, measured primarily by experience and possessions, is accumulated over the life of the character. If somebody steals your login credentials you may lose years of effort if your character dies or they simply lose your most hard to find possessions.

Here we have an example of consumer security that is not being driven by compliance. Perhaps the people that are war gamers are more security conscious, or maybe the corporate entity behind the game needs to protect its brand. I do sense that security is important to the Warcraft community by the actions of the authenticator token offering and the presence of items such as "Account Security" on the list of quick links on the homepage. Thumbs up here!

From a technology standpoint, here is a company offering a security product for $6.50 and prepared to support a huge number of users. I would like to see RSA SecurID offered for that price. Perhaps the time is right to re-examine secure identity services to drive down administrative costs to make deeper penetration of two-factor authentication a reasonable business expense for organizations. If World of Warcraft can find a way to support strong authentication at $6.50 per user, why can't enterprises?