In the past, when an exploit was discovered by LL, the grid has been taken down for the time that is required to fix it.
Why hasn't this been done this time ? Is it because of the ties that exist between LL staff and the LibSL effort ?
Until now, what has LibSL brought us ? God mode and Copybot. What will be next ? FreeMoneyBot ?
Other games that use proprietary protocols PROHIBIT reverse engineering to avoid exploits. If you want an open protocol, you need to add security to that protocol. Until SL has some form of secure communication layer, you MUST declare reverse engineering as against the TOS.
There is no way SL can be considered a serious platform for business applications until there is some built-in security in the protocol.
In my opinion, what LL must have done to face this security threat is:
- Bring down the grid and get to work on securing communication. Even if this takes a couple of weeks, it would at least show that you are taking the issue seriously.
- Declare that reverse engineering is against the TOS.
- Make it so that only LL certified clients can connect to your servers.