Wizard101| The TRUTH Behind the Hack & Why We May Not Be Safe

Well, KingsIsle finally came out with an official statement about why and how the hack related to the in-game developer messaging system happened in Wizard101. We still don't know WHO exactly was behind the hack, but at least it's been confirmed this is not a KI employee. There's a lot to talk about, from KI's lack of initial communication to the lack of 2 factor authentication and other security measures available for all players to keep our accounts more secure. I also think a lot of people are upset about the lack of decent birthday rewards this year, so KingsIsle following up their apology with free membership and benefits still doesn't quite sit right with everyone. Let me know what you think of the situation below!
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#wizard101 #w101 #mmo #gaming #youtubegaming #hack #hacker #kingsisle #KI # hacked #message #2factorauthentication #truth #developer #benefits #membership #safety #security

[@Zaepha]

What do you all think of the situation now that KingsIsle has officially responded to the hack? Do you think our accounts are secure? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

[@drewwolbert7506]

Yea I’d Like to have a second level of security for our accounts especially with the amount of time it takes to level up characters and gear and gardening etc that we put in. Also, just wanna say ur such a great content creator would love if u started streaming and uploading more been here since 2k❤️🫡

[@bear8950]

This situation reminded me of 2013, my grandmother had just spent over $100 on a membership and the Winterbane dungeon pack. A few months after getting all that, mine and many other people's accounts were stolen or firmly deleted. I spent 2 years emailing them back and forth, usually just waiting for them to have explanations since they said they weren't sure what had happened. I quit the game after that for nearly 4 years, before coming back with the account I only have up to lvl 98 now. I'd hate to see a repeat of that for kids of a similar age as I was. I think trying to give the entire community memberships is nice, but what about us players who already have memberships active? We get nothing other than an apology. I wouldn't go as far as our accounts are no longer safe, but that question of the possibility won't leave us for a long time, which can ruin the trust that is built by the developers and players over such long periods of time.

[@Zaepha]

@@bear8950 Yes, it's exactly this type of scenario that could potentially be prevented with extra security measures like 2FA. Very sorry to hear you had to go through that :(

[@bear8950]

@@Zaepha Thanks. It saddened me but I joined a year after my grandmother passed away, to remember what she gave me. So it became worth it in the end. Another thing that I had thought of was whether there is 100% truth in their explanation. You said in your video, "supposedly", and I partly agree to it. What organization, community, nation, or even a high school club, would ever admit to one of their own people backstabbing them? With a game as old as this one, as someone who has known the game since it's first year, I'd have a hard time accepting that, but can understand. When I left, the game got at least three new worlds in the time it took for me to be away cause I joined as I started college. I'm still in that first world. Instead of updating and making new worlds, I'd love to see them implement the 2FA and maybe other precautions. Can't be as high tech as what they have in Ready Player One, but I'd love something I know I can trust.

[@SammyJoFinn]

I don't think they owed us anything for this mishap because people will always find a way to do these things and we should be understanding of that however I agree strongly with what you said and we should have been given free memberships for the birthday month because it's a special occasion. This scenario reminds me strongly of what happened in 2017 or 2018 when the servers were brought down during that birthday month because of hackers/cyber terrorist/some random with too much free time using bots to bog down the servers to the point almost no one could login at all. All my plants died, and some people lost membership time. So they gave away crown codes. Honestly Ki should be rewarding the loyal players and encourage new players but at the same time now we've established a pattern where they face hardship during the birthday event and end up having to compensate people with some type of gift. It almost makes me think that they should just start doing it anyway like giving the robber your money so they can't take it. Maybe then people would stop doing this

[@VoiidAsp]

The only server message I received was *"dick and balls"* and to tell you I was rolling on the ground crying my eyes out in laughter would be an understatement.

[@Zaepha]

Honestly that’s another top tier one 😂there’s too many good quotes!

[@VoiidAsp]

@@Zaepha keep up the great content! Can you cover house of scales? People STILL don't know about it!

[@Zaepha]

I’ll add it to my list of ideas! Thanks for the suggestion! ❤️

[@jen_esse]

😂😂😂

[@Pystoria]

Honestly I think it might've been a mix of both, like it was a developer who got fired or let go at some point and wanted some kind of revenge. The situation is so messy and dumb overall and I hope Kingsisle improves in general because Wizard101 is my childhood and it keeps going downhill imo

[@ciberkid22]

Whoever this dude is will live in legend. Hope y'all enjoy the free membership plus benefits!

[@everline_]

They were worried more about making the game so mf play to win rather than working on their own security.

[@Zaepha]

That's my concern too - all these marketing tactics to get us to buy buy buy, but why isn't that money being invested in security for their loyal players?

[@RoadToXyon]

@@Zaepha devs want early retirement

[@thawkade]

@@RoadToXyon It's funny that you assume most of that money is even going to the devs. Realistically, it's going to the suits.

[@moonlitumbreon716]

Bruh being online during this was crazy. I was in the middle of a dungeon and trying to go through during this was crazy

[@Zaepha]

I was offline when it happened, but I kind wish I was online LOL I saw screenshots on Twitter and thought people were just joking at first 😂

[@Jimins__Pookie]

This is hilarious. Honestly, the ex employee slayed.

[@adamrainbowpants9525]

Wasn't a KI employee

[@willoux_]

TEA

[@saehtnyS]

@@adamrainbowpants9525 it probably was

[@TheFr3nzyGamer]

This! 💯 I agree that the disappointing thing about this being response wasn't as timely, lack of more info about security measures (at least mentioning 2FA) to reassure players their account safety is the top priority, and even with the benefits like cool and all but I agree this should've been a thing from the jump considering it's their birthday. To go more on 2FA, this is an industry standard, and the fact KI is falling extremely behind on doing the bare minimum for player security (by doing nothing), it's sad to see. Genshin had the issue of also not having 2FA, and after numerous reports and requests for this, it was added in a few months, KI hasn't done this in 10+ years...

[@Zaepha]

Very good point about Genshin Impact being a prime example of quickly recognizing an issue and fixing it (I actually play Genshin too!) KingsIsle could improve a lot by looking at how other similar companies in gaming have handled this. As you said, it's an industry standard at this point!

[@slivex676]

1:36 hits hard rn

[@zoobaguides2584]

Intense

[@andyking894]

I've always thought the account-level security needed more, well... security. A master password to prevent purchases using mom's credit card just isn't enough. Having said that, I do think that having multi-level authentication at the game level seems a bit much. The login process of reviewing every single game file for updates is enough of a challenge for those of us with slower machines. But if that's what is necessary, I hope they do some kind of cookie system like you described so it recognizes your normal login, like a bank. Also, they need to sell a potion to expand the banks.😁

[@Zaepha]

Yeah, I’m talking about a 2 factor pop up only when an unfamiliar computer logs in to your account. Normally, if you use your regular computer you don’t need to go through 2 factor each time once you’ve established your identity.

[@hectorramirez34]

@@Zaepha that's technically already a thing, you account gets "locked" when you login from a new computer, this however can be bypassed if you launch the client from a outside the launcher (using command line argument). Also file integrity can be bypassed by launching client externally.

[@hectorramirez34]

@@ZaephaSpeaking about security up till the Karamelle update game traffic was not encrypted so all communication between server and client was easy to read with very little work. This encryption however has already been bypassed a long time ago, and with very little work one can read the client server communication. Also on that note, all the messages sent between client and server, are included in easy to read xmls inside the root.wad file, so anyone can pry those open and see how the communication takes place.

[@Zaepha]

Yikes, that’s not great. I had no idea.

[@person6613]

Yeah, I totally agree. I’ve heard the argument of people saying that adding this new way of security would require them to recode a lot of the game which I simple think isn’t true. If KI can create a whole new loyalist system, guilds, new packs, release old mounts and bundles, etc. Then they sure as hell can add in extra security measures. I definitely think KI is trying to hide information from us- bring so vague and not explaining how this security breech may have happened and go into more detail as to how they resolved it and what new measures they took. But I think the main issue (not sure if others see it too) but KI just doesn’t care. It seems like anything they add these days had to been monetized. I can assure you that I’ve been wanting KI to add in new options for the magic mirror (name, and gender changes) and the 2FA as well but since they couldn’t really monetize it - I don’t think they’ll add it in: (How messed up would it be if KI made you pay to change your gender because you don’t identity with the wizard you once created.) Or they just may not care. With this being said, KI seems to not really care and giving us all these new membership benefits and bringing back packs to try and detour attention about this situation is wrong and exactly what they wanted to do “Let’s give them a free memberships because we can’t really say what happened” Let me know what you think too!

[@Red_Eyed_White_Rabbit]

Finally! I Was Waiting Forever For You To Cover This!!!! 😬😬😬😬 🤦🏼‍♂️🤦🏼‍♂️🤦🏼‍♂️🤦🏼‍♂️

[@Zaepha]

I was just waiting for KI to actually release a statement 😉

[@SwissCheetah]

finally more membership free!! i have been waiting to start marleybone and grizzleheim

[@Zaepha]

Do it while you can! This is a great opportunity to play ❤

[@SwissCheetah]

@@Zaepha your tutorials help a lot with gold farming and stuff thanks for all the things you do for us

[@naonuk1743]

The game getting hacked was more fun than the new updste which just made it impossible to get gold keys reliably

[@sonnieaaron]

I've always thought of Kingsisle as being brought to us by folks who are a bit naive -- which is to say they've been thinking more about us and our enjoyment than about business issues like security. I can easily imagine them thinking of players as being so happy and grateful that we would never do anything like that. As I don't logon at consistent times, I missed this whole thing; didn't know a thing about it until you talked about it. You make some very good points about upping security and I'm sure that's what they're working on right now. I had noticed we weren't getting all the birthday "gifts" we have in the past. I was thinking it might be because some gaming KZbinr gave the game a harsh review. He liked the gameplay, characters, and storyline. He was not thrilled about some things in the Crown Shop and he had a huge bug up his nose about fizzles (among other things.). If it wasn't that, maybe they had just gotten very confident that the regulars (some of whom had bugged the KZbinr to do the review) really do enjoy the game on a basic level and wouldn't need celebratory gifts to stick around -- Then, this hack happened. We can only know what they tell us. So we may never know everything you you want to hear. But I have faith in them that they'll take good care of us.

[@Psychzei]

Lmao they don't care about us. They care about our money. To get that they need to make you think they care to at least some extent. Promise they don't. 😂

[@itslui8853]

the boss's asshole one takes the cake it was too funny

[@fatherjimbo]

Thanks for covering this. I stopped playing awhile ago but still enjoy your content. Kings Isle is just too predatory with their gambling targeted at kids for my liking. And the MXT have just gotten out of hand. Loved the game but it was too much for me.

[@Druncle_Titus]

I'm so sad I wasn't online for this

[@RenMochi]

I absolutely agree with everything you said. I used to play since I was a kid and I'm 20 years old now and I've only stopped playing a year ago or so once I realized how greedy of a company KI is. It's just unacceptable. Even other more popular companies give more to the free to play players. KI just focuses on adding more to the game and more ways they can force people to waste their money instead of focusing on a good updated foundation. It took them years to update Wizard City's graphics yet they kept adding new worlds and new stuff for the players that were able to pay but all the free to play players were forced to play the very visibly old version of the game with barely any new content. The difference between newly added worlds and old ones graphic wise is like day and night. I initially thought the only issue with their outdated foundation and marketing practices was the fact they'd focus only on keeping old, paying players hooked by adding new worlds and would work just for them as they seemed to be their target audience, instead of better improving their game overall so they can attract new players and entice newer ones to keep playing and not get tired of the same thing. I used to think the game would eventually collapse because, think of it as a building. They kept adding new floors without having updated the overall foundation of the building which had already started deteriorating due to how old it is. How do they expect to be successful with adding new things if their game itself can not support it? In what world will adding a new world attract new players? I've spoken to so many people who got bored and left before they got to the newer worlds because of how outdated the old worlds are in comparison. They just try to milk the old players as much as they can without updating and improving their game. They don't understand that they NEED new players for their game to remain in the spotlight. On top of that they are super money hungry and WILL force you to pay if you want to enjoy the game at its fullest capacity and I don't mean just buying membership. Now, I've realized the issue goes even further than everything I initially thought which is mentioned above. This incident betrays the fact that everything about KI is outdated, including their security system. For a game targeted towards kids and for a game that claims to be free to play this is beyond disappointing. Honestly they should thank the hacker/employee for all the press they gave them because this is the most attention the game has gotten in years. I'm so sad my childhood game is going downhill and I do miss playing it but I just can't go back. Rant over.

[@fredcoleman6594]

This has got to be the funniest thing ever in wiz now wiz is in more CHAOS then before this'll be remembered for YEARS on end

[@Dopsche]

I understand the concerns, but I also understand why KingsIsle acted like they did. I have a 10 year background in IT Security, so I want to offer a few points of thought here. 1) Why haven't KingsIsle put proper measures been up in the first place? Security is for the most part reactive if we like it or not. Otherwise Antivirus scanners wouldn't get daily updates. Yes there are Intrusion Detection systems who make their best-educated guesses if something looks like an attack but in most companies they facing onlo the outside. In other words, when you put up security measures there will be someone who will try to sneak around these security measures. It is a bit like the hare and the hedgehog. 2.) Why haven't we heard from KingIsle sooner? It is a policy in most companies not to issue a statement before the incident isn't resolved internally. Nothing is worse than issuing a statement and then having to backpaddle or announce additional action necessary from the user side as the investigation made it clear that the issue is bigger than previously determined. Unfortunately investigation need time, especially that when it comes to security you have to double- and triple check nearly everything Imagine they have came back the same day with a statement that In Game Messaging system has been compromised but we fixed it and all is okay. And 2 days later there would be another statement - oh by the way we seen that there was also a breach into User Passwords. Please change all your passwords. 3.) Why is there no MFA(Multifactor Authentication)? That is indeed a bit strange. Of course MFA comes with a cost (for Kings Isle) depending on the User base but they are usually negible. On the other hand I would say Wizard101 is not a very attractive target for hacking. As there is no way to transfer Gold, Crowns or Items to another account (at least none I know of.) Of course hackers with access could delete the Wizards but HAckers who are able to pull stuff off like that are usually after something. Never the less MFA would indeed be good

[@OfficialToxicCat]

a year late but, i have played MMO's like Lucent Heart, Dragon's Nest, and Eden Eternal where they make players set up secondary passwords or passcodes just to login to the servers and access your backpack/inventory space. two factor authentication doesn't seem half bad.

[@wizzzard999]

This smells like a classic PR move, a serious issue occurs within the company and they say it was someone else.

[@Zaepha]

I hope they wouldn't lie that directly, but yeah the thought crossed my mind too that there could be some form of cover up happening due to PR concerns... I would really like to know who really did it.

[@wizzzard999]

@@Zaepha Well a middle ground would be an ex employee, possibly recently quit/fired, who still had access somehow. The fact that they didn't comment on the messages alluding to their alleged connection to the hacker in any way whatsoever is still somewhat suspicious.

[@StampVanefy]

1:11 I can’t ignore the fact of how casual u said it like it was just an everyday thing 😂

[@reflex9238]

IT WAS F**K HILAROUS ! Like I'm not condoning what the guy did as he illegally hacked the servers for a company, but the messages were fricking funny as heck.

[@jdizzledaplaya2986]

I thought this was a meme. I didn't know this actually happened. The fact that it did makes this even more hilarious!

[@bruhbruh1195]

10:30 yea and frustrated on why this happened in the first place and no clarification on what to do next or in the coming days.

[@overtheanimetop5744]

I feel like maybe, just maybe, this was a publicity stunt and it turned out great for them and they could make use of that free membership and benefits to draw new players in. Mind you, Wiz101 was hacked before for their birthday several years ago, sooo, maybe seeing a pattern there. 👀

[@phenomsairam1350]

Imagine some time later Mr.Beast upload 'I paid a random hacker $10,000 to hack my childhood game'

[@Zaepha]

That would actually be hilarious though

[@sylverserf2174]

Time to upgrade fishing, crafting, and garden spells. Don't use phone for security, I don't have one.

[@Gothmon]

wait if u have membership does that continue to next month free?

[@wildfire5838]

Lmao I wish I was there just to read that chat. In one of those screenshots, someone said, “server dude that wasn’t very toony of you.”☠️

[@robertneagu5891]

as far as I am aware of the broadcast system, it must be accesed using an activated account so probably an ex employee decided to pull up some jokes by using his account if it was still active and use some sort of VPN to access the KI IP Database area

[@divinerydia8765]

Yeah, time to buff security... We will see how the future holds after this.

[@GazeboPelt]

Thanks for the coverage, but can we talk about that mount? That's awesome, what's the name of it?

[@Zaepha]

They were released as part of the birthday celebration! There's three, but two of them are related to how long you've had your wiz account. The bookmobile (blue) is for everyone, the Story Lorry Mount (green) is for five year or older accounts, and the one I'm using, the Roaming Tome (brown), is for ten year or older accounts 😉

[@rexnoct5810]

I'm honestly more surprised that it took 14 years to have someone hack the game like this. 2 step authenticator and buffier security are the most important things they should be thinking about now.

[@benwurzbacher6470]

I lost my old account to a hacker and wizard didn't notify me about it and when I went to play the next day I was banned and fought wizard for 2 years trying to get that account back and they wouldn't give it back I lost everything all my maxed wizards at the time all those reagents I farmed everything and now this I'm concerned that something going on wizard ain't telling us

[@theblaze2324]

Thing is I'm not complain about the bonus

[@bruhbruh1195]

1:20 I think the word she was looking for is resemblance.

[@ivailoivanov01]

Amazing vid!

[@Matthewmistcloud]

I thought the bear minimum was 2 factor verification

[@Cherrypitbullpupper]

I do kind of think, now that wiz is blowing up. What if it gets hacked worse than that?

[@kungpaochicken3215]

nice vid you make good ones, the gold one was lit ha

[@TheFr3nzyGamer]

Wake up gamers, Zaepha uploaded again 🙏

[@Zaepha]

It's a miracle, I know 😉

[@brzblake]

the more layers of security the better tbh - Cyber security student

[@KikonSketches]

yeaaaah, its sad that it has to take a hacker to get KI to decide to give players more benefits, especially on the birthday month. just goes to show you they're an extremely greedy company and know their fan base will pay regardless of what happens, I personally would have liked at least 2,500 crowns per account as consolation for their fuck up, to be honest the entirety of Wizard city should be free from the get go, then have Grizzleheim and krokotopia on free weekends, sucks that ive had people interested in the game just to be turned away because of the paywall.

[@Havoc2k.]

Do a updated best pet for every school video Please trying to get back into wiz‼️‼️🥺

[@iwonderwhatmydognamedme4000]

It’s obviously just some troll I wouldn’t worry about it too much.

[@playerr2932]

The game should be free more often then if they cannot provide provide a safe and secure network work who's to say that hacker hasn't already shared his information winformation with other hackers and they're being more than one hacker

[@saehtnyS]

hearing you swear is so strange but i think this whole thing is super funny i woke up, got on wiz and say "dick and balls" and logged off funniest shit i've experienced in years

[@D3mi_Glaz3]

I don't think they are gonna come after our data, I think this is a coding troll who happened upon access to their announcement system. They were definitely going for the older generation of wizards and trying to be funny

[@lilcheesyfry]

Old game gets hacked yea not surprised

[@crackbabyz1915]

Do you playing wizard101?? 🤔

[@JS-ti3zo]

Nannybot went rogue lol. Ki has a lazy flowchart programmer problem either way.

[@momiji3600]

HI Zaepha

[@Zaepha]

Hi 😉

[@cooki3th1ef]

honestly, it's more funny than anything i understand there are the two kids that play this game but like, what kid isn't already exposed to that language anyways

[@ivo8150]

why is this in my feed again lol

[@duaneanderson6130]

Pentagon level access. Presidential level clearances. Continuous new logins. Both Passwords. And, Usernames. Photo I’d Scans, Fingerprint identification, Face and, voice recognition. And, a direst line to the Joint Chiefs Of Staff lol Just kidding all, Just kidding.

[@nathanpadilla9584]

it's really weird hearing you curse....lol

[@tigerlily6763]

It was funny!

[@ZackMuffinMan]

It was pretty funny tho

[@Reeses7501]

Lmfao I'm glad I quit

[@user-lb4tn1pb5i]

Great marketing on kingsisle to get players to come back for free membership

[@kingtroop5486]

Thd hacker was right tho game starts to suck they need to make the worlds free bcuz wtf