Hacker Didn’t Break This Game, He Helped Fix It

New MMO game Rift has had a few problems since launch, one of them being a percentage of user accounts having been compromised. Luckily, an ex-hacker has been able to help plug the leak.

A user with the handle ManWitDaPlan was able to identify the issue with the game – which the developers describe as “a very subtle bug in error checking of our login validations” – and have the issue resolved.

“All totalled up, under 1 per cent of accounts with characters have had characters impacted. However, 1% of a surprisingly large number is still very noticeable” said Rift developers Trion. “We’d definitely like to thank Mr ManWitDaPlan for the well-timed assist,” the studio added. “Sir, we salute you and offer our most heartfelt thanks.”

Turns out ManWitDaPlan is a career programmer, who currently runs “a small security-software company specializing in secure data destruction”. In a previous life, though, he was involved in cracking PC games, which gave him skills he uses today to help fix games instead of steal and/or break them.

What the world needs now isn’t more love, sweet love. It’s people like ManWitDaPlan, who use their powers for good, instead of jackassery.

Ex-Hacker Finds RIFT Account Flaw, Talks to ZAM [ZAM]