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Players and Friends,

Even when you are in the business of fun, not every week ends up being fun. This week, our security team found an unauthorized and illegal access into our internal network here at Blizzard. We quickly took steps to close off this access and began working with law enforcement and security experts to investigate what happened.

At this time, we’ve found no evidence that financial information such as credit cards, billing addresses, or real names were compromised. Our investigation is ongoing, but so far nothing suggests that these pieces of information have been accessed.

Some data was illegally accessed, including a list of email addresses for global Battle.net users, outside of China. For players on North American servers (which generally includes players from North America, Latin America, Australia, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia) the answer to the personal security question, and information relating to Mobile and Dial-In Authenticators were also accessed. Based on what we currently know, this information alone is NOT enough for anyone to gain access to Battle.net accounts.

We also know that cryptographically scrambled versions of Battle.net passwords (not actual passwords) for players on North American servers were taken. We use Secure Remote Password protocol (SRP) to protect these passwords, which is designed to make it extremely difficult to extract the actual password, and also means that each password would have to be deciphered individually. As a precaution, however, we recommend that players on North American servers change their password. Please click this link to change your password. Moreover, if you have used the same or similar passwords for other purposes, you may want to consider changing those passwords as well.

In the coming days, we'll be prompting players on North American servers to change their secret questions and answers through an automated process. Additionally, we'll prompt mobile authenticator users to update their authenticator software. As a reminder, phishing emails will ask you for password or login information. Blizzard Entertainment emails will never ask for your password. We deeply regret the inconvenience to all of you and understand you may have questions. Please find additional information here.

We take the security of your personal information very seriously, and we are truly sorry that this has happened.

Sincerely,

Mike Morhaime

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Force Heal is a community-based, healer-oriented fansite for the Star Wars: The Old Republic MMORPG. Similar to our World of Warcraft sister site, Plus Heal, we at Force Heal are dedicated to bringing together a friendly and helpful community where healers of all stripes and levels of experience can seek help, explore ways to become better players, and engage in discussion with our peers.

Over the past 6 months we have managed to become one of the key sites for discussion Star Wars: The Old Republic, particularly in the areas surrounding healing, and we're just getting started. In the coming months we are planning on bringing even more of the community together through integration with the blogosphere and the bloggers therein, and we fully intend to continue building more features into our forums and website to ensure a rich experience for the years to follow. All this is thanks to sites like Plus Heal and others who paved the way for Force Heal and what it has become today. ;-)

So, whether you're just taking your first jump into online gaming or you've been around since the fledgling days of the MUD; whether you're just looking for a little fun or seeking to be the absolute best of the best; whether you're a proud citizen of the Republic or a loyal soldier of the Sith, if you are interested in playing a healer in Star Wars: The Old Republic, Force Heal can help you, too, find your home in a galaxy far, far away. Join us by signing up at http://www.forceheal.com and/or follow us on Twitter @forceheal.

See you, space cowboy!

-The Force Heal Team

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