Source: http://habrahabr.ru/post/228219/ (via world-of-ru, LJ user Wisejew)

An interesting article appeared on the abovelinked portal about World of Tanks payment security. In it, a Russian programmer of payment portals takes a look at the security of various paying portals, including – yes, you guessed right, the Wargaming premium shop. The author states that he analyzes weaknesses of various payment systems and runs over and over again into the same vulnerability, called… and now, I have no idea how to translate it, because I am not a programmer. In Russian it’s “инкрементальные айдишники” – in English, it would be something like… incremental ID’s? If there is a programmer amongst the readers, please explain to us what that means :)

Anyway, back to World of Tanks portal. After making an order, the client redirects the user to an URL in following format:

http://aggregator-domain/ok.php?payment_id=123456

Which in turn redirects the client to the URL of the game in following format (decoded by the author for easier reading, from Russian server eg. the currency is Russian):

https://online-game-domain/shop/?…amount=32.86…&currency=RUB…&user=user_email@gmail.com…&item_name=1 day of premium account

The author states that if you figure out the value of the payment_id parameter, you will be able to see login of the user in the game, their purchases etc.

Wargaming shop is just one of the examples, cited by the author. He concludes the post with a statement that due to sloppiness of programmers, in the case above, a possibility is introduced for hackers to mine personal and account data from the purchases. He also comments on the solution (to use something called “token” and “an arbitrary string”). From there on (especially the comments) it gets technical. I wonder though – how much are our data really protected and since Wargaming already had some large account data leaks (remember that “change your password for gold” event? That wasn’t just because Wargaming is nice and cares about our security, it was because on RU server, a certain amount of account data got leaked (and the accounts got hacked)).

Hello everyone,

this was posted on Yuri Pasholok’s blog – pretty interesting video overall, but the really interesting part starts at 6:40 – StuG III, followed by Panzer III and Panzer IV (and Kettenkraftrad :))

This list of changes is almost certainly not complete, so take it with a grain of salt.

French tank changes

- AMX50B: gun aim time buffed from 3s to 2,5s

German tank changes

Aufklärungspanzer Panther

- reload time of 7,5/5,5 cm Waffe 0725 for turret VK 28.01 Ausf. C buffed from 4s to 3,4s

Indienpanzer

- aim time for 9 cm Bordkanone buffed from 2,9 s to 2,7 s
- reload time for the same gun buffed from 7,5 s to 7,2 s

Leopard 1

- 105mm gun reload time buffed from 9 s to 8,7 s

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Again, in shorter “snapshots” format and this time not exactly with a WoT tank…

Mrwanwan’s RNG video, episode 3 – enjoy :)

Hello everyone,

today, several players have sent me e-mails about the difference between American and European July missions. I mean, the Americans have to have it better, since they are getting the LTP, right? Or… do they?

USA:

Random battles only, tier 4 and above vehicles

- get 5k XP once per day while being in top 10 of your team XP-wise: 2 gold fire extinguishers
- get 10k XP once per day while being in top 10 of your team XP-wise: 2 gold medkits
- get 15k XP once per day while being in top 10 of your team XP-wise: 2 gold repair kits
- repeat the 15k XP part 7 times: 3 days of premium (can be done only four times)
- repeat the 15k XP part 28 times (!): get the tier 3 LTP light tank

Total maximum value: 28 x 6 = 168 gold consumables (3360k credits worth), 12 days of premium, tier 3 light premium tank

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Thanks to Vollketten for this one! A wartime video, showing the American soldiers examining the Japanese tanks and its weaknesses.

There is still the myth going on about the Japanese tanks being completely terrible – the truth is however, even this very light tank (a tankette in fact) was completely sufficient against the opponents it was intended to fight, the Chinese, who had practically no armor of their own and lacked anti-tank capabilities.

Since it’s not yet on the EU server…

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Source: http://cyprus-mail.com/2014/06/29/war-games-and-the-banks/

Thanks to Vakahn for this one.

An interesting article appeared on the Cyprus Mail website, that mentions Wargaming. Gonna repost it here. It’s a bit longer though.

Author: Angelos Anastasiou

IN A DRAMATIC last-minute intervention last November, reminiscent of plot twists found in Hollywood dramas, a highly profitable gaming company doled out €40 million to buy a 30 per cent ownership stake in the then-undercapitalised Hellenic Bank.

On the face of it, internet gaming companies, no matter how successful, and banks make for peculiar bed fellows. Buying a bank is no simple task, not least because it’s an expensive sport, nor because running one is hard, tricky business. As banks pose systemic risks to national – and even regional – economies, whoever wants to control them is heavily scrutinised, closely monitored and tightly regulated by competent authorities. Entities buying banks typically fit a standard profile, which usually includes prior involvement in money markets or financial industries.

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