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

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.

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.

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...

1:36 hits hard rn

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

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.😁

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

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

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 RU-vidr 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 RU-vidr 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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wake up gamers, Zaepha uploaded again 🙏

Old game gets hacked yea not surprised

Do you playing wizard101?? 🤔

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

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

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.

why is this in my feed again lol

Lmfao I'm glad I quit

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

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

This is hilarious. Honestly, the ex employee slayed.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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!

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

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. 👀

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.

Thing is I'm not complain about the bonus

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.

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

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

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

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.”☠️

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

I thought the bear minimum was 2 factor verification

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

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

It was funny!

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

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.

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

It was pretty funny tho

Amazing vid!

HI Zaepha

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

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