Hacked - Watch out!

wilsongalucho

Hello fellow developers,

After releasing my Vikings game some pirates have got hold of my apk and have been distributing it online for free.
I managed to contact the sharing websites and they took it down, along with some Youtube videos that had links to pirate sites.

As if this wasn't enough, today I found out that a hacker managed to hack into one of my hotmail accounts and deleted the account. He then managed to get access to one o my gmail accounts which was connected to one of my google developer accounts where he published 2 Apps which are probably full of viruses. I reported this to google ... and after endless calls to Microsoft regarding my hotmail account I'm still trying to recover the email account that the hacker deleted..

tatiang

So sorry to hear this happened to you!

Hotmail is notoriously unsecure. I know people who use it for their small businesses and I always advise them against it.

As for Gmail and other accounts, consider a password manager such as LastPass (there are many others as well) where you can set secure and unique passwords for all online services.

DigiChain

Very frustrating!

Unfortunately pretty much every game I've created has been hacked and distributed for free across the internet and there's not much you can do about it - if it's taken down it'll tend to popup again elsewhere. I've just come to accept it!

However, last week two of my games were hacked and put on sale on Amazon. I didn't notice for a week by which time they had chart positions and were clearly making sales... so it pays to be vigilant.

AlchimiaStudios

@DigiChain said:
Very frustrating!

Unfortunately pretty much every game I've created has been hacked and distributed for free across the internet and there's not much you can do about it - if it's taken down it'll tend to popup again elsewhere. I've just come to accept it!

However, last week two of my games were hacked and put on sale on Amazon. I didn't notice for a week by which time they had chart positions and were clearly making sales... so it pays to be vigilant.

Yep. Had about a 50% piracy rate in the past for my game. Can't do much but hope the pirated copies at least add to your fanbase in the future.

Sucks about the hacking though @wilsongalucho

wilsongalucho

@DigiChain said:
Very frustrating!

Unfortunately pretty much every game I've created has been hacked and distributed for free across the internet and there's not much you can do about it - if it's taken down it'll tend to popup again elsewhere. I've just come to accept it!

However, last week two of my games were hacked and put on sale on Amazon. I didn't notice for a week by which time they had chart positions and were clearly making sales... so it pays to be vigilant.

Whoa! they actually put your game on sale!?! that I would never expect! Yeah looks like you really need to keep your eyes wiiiiide open!

@tatiang said:
So sorry to hear this happened to you!

Hotmail is notoriously unsecure. I know people who use it for their small businesses and I always advise them against it.

As for Gmail and other accounts, consider a password manager such as LastPass (there are many others as well) where you can set secure and unique passwords for all online services.

Yeah I heard this before too, that hotmail its not secure, however the hacker also did hack one of my gmail accounts though.. Yeah one my friends also uses a software like LastPass looks like I need set that up too..

Dues

Seems like Android is the worst when it comes to piracy.
If I remember correct, @BlackCloakGS talked about that they have made some changes that would it harder to reverse engineer out games, but Im not sure.
I have read a bit about it and most developers just seem to accept it.
There is no way we can protect our selves completely against hacking. If someone want's it, they are going to take it. But it still sucks.

Ustwo who made Monument Valley posted this on their Twitter.

"Interesting fact: Only 5% of Monument Valley installs on Android are paid for. 40% on iOS. There’s a sneak peak of data!"

BlackCloakGS

We put in encryption to protect you published GameSalad project not the apk or the IAP. So if some one gets a hold of your app they can't reverse engineer you project logic or art.

GeorgeGS

On the hacking note, it's worth it to use two factor authentication whenever you can. No guarantees they can't hack around that too, but it's another layer of potential safety.

Dues

@GeorgeGS said:
On the hacking note, it's worth it to use two factor authentication whenever you can. No guarantees they can't hack around that too, but it's another layer of potential safety.

Example?

GeorgeGS

@Dues said:

@GeorgeGS said:
On the hacking note, it's worth it to use two factor authentication whenever you can. No guarantees they can't hack around that too, but it's another layer of potential safety.

Example?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Authenticator