Grid attack responsible for problems?

SL's fearless and informative blog mentions nothing of it, but this article does:

http://www.secondlifeinsider.com/2007/07/30/what-is-wrong-with-the-sl-grid/

"Well, the issues with the grid are now quite clear. The Patriotic Nigras (or someone claiming to be them - honestly, it's all so childish that it's hard to tell - most griefer groups spend more time wailing on each-other than anything else) have used a form of a privilege escalation exploit on a number of objects around the grid to overload the communications systems.

It's unlikely that the Nigras themselves are actually responsible for the work, as most of them are 'script kiddies' (people who cannot create or modify software) and this sort of thing seems to be well above their usual displayed capacity (usually limited to screaming obscenities, using cage-guns or employing the work of others). Most likely, their eagerness to cause trouble is being exploited by someone else.

As for the exploit itself, it was reported at least as early as February 12, 2006, and apparently remains unpatched to this day. It is relatively simple to take advantage of and as such, we'll not be publishing the specifics at this time.

The exploit takes advantage of a feature-by-design, and as-such, is going to be tricky to fix without (a) breaking the actual intended feature, and (b) breaking something else - That said, there are several possible points at which the exploit can be closed.

Looking forward to a more stable grid soon."

Yeah I read that this morning, have you ever heard of that group? The thing is the article then goes onto suggest that they don't think that group are capable of such an attack so I took it all with a pinch of salt.

true or not...
I wonder why there are still medical experiments using animals when griefers could be used instead :devil

I've never heard of them but I don't hang out in sandboxes waiting to be caged.

Gambling ban, Ginko and WSE down, can't teleport, search, buy items or see friends list. In other words, just another Monday in SL.

I have seen a few PN attacks on Furnation, and heared about them wanting to attack Northstar. They mainly seem to be anti-furry greifers, but I have not heared of them attacking SL in general? I have heared them about going after fur communities and they target FN in SL because of its sheer importaince to the furry community, its a very large fur community. They are very low life script kiddies, and I think to stop lots of greifer attacks LL should impose a sign up fee of roughly $25, they will lose sign ups, but also lose the greifer activity and multiple accounts because generally greifers will NOT want to pay for all their new accounts.

They're quite notorious, I believe they grew out of Something Awful. I seem to recall hearing that they griefed a rl furry convention last year.

Broccoli

Possible disinformation campaign to distract from the real problem.

Yes I have heared about them griefing a furry con. I also remember someone telling me he saw one of the RL PN people, step on a kitten's head and crush it.. these people are fux0red up.

Try 4chan.



That'd explain my problems with vendor splits, actually.

Well .. I think it is ridiculous how LL can sit idly by and watch it happen. I was informed by a friend of mine last night that the sim where she had a store had been attacked by PN. They are an anti-furry, anti-neko, anti-gay, anti- anti- anti- .. pretty much anything that is different.

This is the same old bias that is generated in real life. FEAR! Fear out of that which is different. It happened in South Africa where I was born and grew up, it happened in the US .. where certain racial groups were suppressed and are to this day still persecuted by minority so called white supremacists.

Makes me sick to my stomach thinking I have to share the same skin colour as these sick a-holes but there you go.

Was in fact on Live Chat with LL last night and was told "File abuse report" ... which is kinda difficult when the griefers employ automated bots to do the dirty work and you dare not go nearer cos the knoweldgebase answer to getting shot/orbited is ... "sit down".

I do not want to get my freinds together and start an SL "war", as that will give these tards ammunition to say "Look, told you they was dangerous". But I cannot stop what may end up happening.

Once again, as I have posted before, an SL resident run police force with the powers to actually DO something would be a fantastic addition to SL. It would for one take the load off the backs of LL having to try and deal with situations like these and there will be many more people available to try and resolve and combat problems such as this.

Oh well ... the way LL is lately I'm not surprised if this falls on deaf ears. Be interesting if there would ever be a response from anyone at LL.

A resident run police force will never happen. Residents don't want other residents having the ability to disrupt their lives. It only takes one power mad person in that force to cause havoc.

LL has stated clearly that they want "the community" (whoever the hell THAT is...) to deal with the problem. This is an incredibly lame way to pass the buck for the behavior of those who choose to use the company's platform to cause grief. In a way, LL created the griefers themselves. Shades of "Serenity".

I'm thinking we all go to Washtown, recruit some bitter browncoats, and hell...GO to war. LL wouldn't have a leg to stand on in that instance...after all, wouldn't it be "the community" taking matters into its own hands?

Or...they could actually DO something about the problem.







Nah. I think I'll hang out with the browncoats.

If LL structure it correctly and put controls in place to prevent abuse of these powers .. I don't see why it shouldn't happen. I'm not talking about just dishing out certain privilidges to gun-toting fools, but looking at, for example, allowing say residents with active accounts older than a year, with no abuse report history against them having the ability to be a member of the police force with certain restrictions and caveats in place .. then there shouldn't be any cause for alarm.

Since LL removed the Live Chat feature on the client it is now IMPOSSIBLE to get a Linden to show his/her face anywhere in world. And currently that would be the only effective method at curbing these idiots.

Not on my land....

Morwen.

Or mine.

They can come on my land if they have a warrant signed by Philip Linden. Otherwise, the eject and ban button will be used.

Me three.

Pure Speculation of course -

Do Lindens orbit as high as mere mortals?


---

Police in SL for anything other than maintaining the grid are a bad idea.

So we dont need Police - we just need grid repairmen.

They did a great job on the grey goo stuff, I think.

Give them a chance to fix this, If thats what it is.

Add me to the list of "not on my land".

*signs the list of no Resident Police*

And I run a security firm in SL ROFL.

The only person(s) that can handle SL security are the landowners themselves and people THEY designate to help them. Usually as part of the land group or as Estate Managers.

ANY group or person that goes onto another's land, without express concent of the landowner, in order to "police" griefing, is nothing more than a griefer themselves.

The grid-wide problem with griefers is usually not on private lands, but is on Linden Owned Land. Why? Because no Linden actually takes care of their land, so it is a free-for-all for griefers.

Now, a group to take care of Linden Land might be an idea, but the problem there is LL needs trustworthy persons to do that. How do you maintain "trustworthy" over the net where identities are kept private?

LL ~could~ run background checks on each person that applies to be a "Trustee", but each check costs 15,000-30,000 USD to complete (and I'm not sure about going out of the coutnry. I've only dealt with checks within the USA).

I think a compromise would be the best solution, and have LL to maintain their more "public" lands. Sandboxes, Welcome Areas, Help Islands, Orientation Islands, and Linden Village. In this I do not mean comming by every 5th Tuesday to check on the land, but to have a Linden online and THERE at all times.

It's not unfair to ask this, because this is what LL tells us to do in-world on our lands. ie handle it ourselves.

IMO, I feel that any time you get griefed on Linden Land, not only should that person be ARed, but so should Govenor Linden for LL's lack of attention to their land and customers. Accomplice by negligence.

~Jessy

I have to say, the new G-Team liasons Socrates Linden and Plexus Linden have been incredibly helpful when the public sandboxes have come under attack by griefers with ties to the PN and other groups. Response time has been good when the situation is critical with the sims close to crashing, which is a GREAT improvement over the past. Kudos to the G-Team!

A check on that level would not be appropriate. It's not as if they can kill somebody, steal money or goods, or do any real damage.
In the event of not being able to talk down an asshat/griefer, what "ultimate" powers could a "Trustee" possibly have?
Perhaps when all else failed, they would be able to suspend an account for a very limited time - say a few hours and certainly not more than a day, with automatic account reinstatement unless a Linden intervenes to make the suspension more permanent.
Overview of their activities would be essential. Penalty for abusing "Trustee" powers = banning.

I'd say that a check based on an exchange of emails and a review of the applicant's SL history would be sufficient. The account would have to be older than some reasonable age.
Would there be enough Premium accounts interested in becoming "Trustee"? If so, then put that as a condition.

The Abuse Report is your friend, use it. If you do not know how to AR someone or something, learn how. When you see evidence of griefing, file and get others to file, a half dozen AR's usually gets response. Be specific in the AR as to the type griefing, location, time and person responsible. When AR'ing objects, list the owner, not the creator.

There are several resident groups in SL who already patrol Linden sandboxes, etc though I will not name them here. Still, don't be complacent, participate. Don't wait for someone else to solve the problem for you, stand up and be active.

What possible powers could they have without a background check?

Easy. Any a$$hat griefer could join the group and use those powers to grief teh hell out of people. Yes, they themselves could be ARed for that, but in the meantime they could ruin a lot of people's Second Life and drive off potential new Residents.

And with throw away accounts, who cares if they get banned or not. It's not like that has stopped griefing as it is. If banning the "bad cop" would work, then so would banning the "criminal".

Doesn't work either way.

Acount banning needs to stay SOLELY with LL and said employees.

LandBanning/Ejection needs to stay SOLEY with LandOwners and their 'employees'.

Anything else is too wide open to explotation.

~Jessy

It's a tough call... people liken SL to the Wild West, but even the Wild West had sheriffs, marshals, deputies, judges, etc. Yeah those people had to have really really good judgement and not all were perfect, but in the long run, they DID help maintain order. I don't think an actual 'police force' would be appropriate, but maybe a 'marshal' or 'sheriff' for every X number of sims?