... You know, sometimes it's really infuriating if people start blaming someone else for things which are beyond that person's control, or when it's due to his own fault.
Being a software engineer myself, let me highlight some stuff which most of you may be ignorant of:
1) DDOS attacks cannot, and is impossible to prevent. The only steps a company can take is to take action and get the server back up/filter out those attacks after they have started. You can't prevent them, and you need at least a few hours to react. Law enforcement is extremely tricky and impossible especially if the culprit is in another country.
2) SE employees will never be able to access your password even if you killed them. Your passwords are most likely being encrypted even at their side, and if you think that decrypting stuff is easy without the key, think again. There's always a 1% chance that the developers slack off and don't implement an encryption feature, but we're talking about about a very big international product, so chances of that happening is almost nil, esp. when SE's name is riding on this. Anyway, why would SE even need your items when they can simply "magic" out all the gil and items their characters need?
3) The main reason why you guys' accounts are hacked is because you either save your passwords, or have some virus/spyware/etc on your computer which tracks your keystrokes and/or lets anyone have access to the files on your computer. Choose a good password. "password", "1337u$3r", "lucky88" and "loverboy" are not good passwords. Playing FFXI in a LAN gaming centre is a good way of telling the world your password too.
Hope this helps. In short, it's not SE's fault, but YOUR own fault if your account gets broken into, and they can't do much about the the idiot DDOS attackers as well. Be glad the entire FFXI system did not go down with the attacks; it's a sign that they already have some system up.
Edited, Fri Jun 3 05:49:33 2005
PlayOnline Viewer Update (Jun. 2)
At the following time, we will be performing a version
update of the PlayOnline Viewer.
There will be no PlayOnline server maintenance during this
version update. The use of PlayOnline and
FINAL FANTASY XI will continue as normal.
*The client software will also be updated at this time. The
version update process will automatically begin upon login
after the time stated below. Please follow the instructions
that appear on your screen.
[Affected Period]
Jun. 2, 2005 from 1:00 (PDT)
[Important Update Details]
- Several issues with the Login screen, such as member lists
being deleted and PlayOnline passwords not being saved at
times, will be addressed (Windows version only).
Tags: FinalFantasyXI, News