Diablo 3's online service has not been hacked, Blizzard says

Responding to a rising tide of hacking concerns, Blizzard officials took to their forums early this morning to walk Diablo 3 gamers through their security measures and insist that they have not been hacked.

Responding to a rising tide of hacking concerns, Blizzard officials took to their forums early this morning to walk Diablo 3 gamers through their security measures and insist that their servers remain uncompromised.

"We'd like to take a moment to address the recent reports that suggested that Battle.net and Diablo III may have been compromised," Blizzard community manager Stephanie "Lylirra" Johnson's message starts. "Historically, the release of a new game -- such as a World of Warcraft expansion -- will result in an increase in reports of individual account compromises, and that's exactly what we're seeing now with Diablo III."

Hours later, Blizzard community manager Micah "Bashiok" Whipple was a bit more direct about the situation in the currently 70-page long thread.

"We've been taking the situation extremely seriously from the start, and have done everything possible to verify how and in what circumstances these compromises are occurring," Whipple wrote. "Despite the claims and theories being made, we have yet to find any situations in which a person's account was not compromised through traditional means of someone else logging into their account through the use of their password."

Johnson's thread-starting message goes on to say that both the Battle.net Authenticator and the Battle.Net Mobile Authenticator apps for iPhone and Android devices "continue to be some of the most effective measures we offer to help players protect themselves against account compromises."

Blizzard also recently introduced a new Battle.net SMS Protect service which allows you to use your text-enabled cell phone to unlock a locked Battle.net account, recover your account name, approve a password reset or remove a lost Authenticator. You can even use the service to have it send you a text message whenever it spots unusual activity.

"We know how frustrating it can be to become the victim of account theft, and as always, we're dedicated to doing everything we can to help our players keep their Battle.net accounts safe -- and we appreciate everyone who's doing their part to help protect their accounts as well," Johnson wrote.

Anyone who does think they have been the victim of an account compromise should head over to the Help! I've Been Hacked tool, she wrote.