The Lindens are advising us that we will have an extended period of region restarts starting Monday Oct. 3.
Watch the Grid Status item HERE.
For details on what’s going on check out the server news. In the top menu click THE STUFF > SL Server Related.
Restarts will start at 5 AM SLT/PDT. They will tell us more once the work is about to start.
In the Windows world I see fake AV programs as a common part of everyday life on a Windows machine. I’m putting this up for those of you that are Apple/Mac based.
Check out:
I’ve been busy the last couple of days fixing client’s computers that have been infected with the latest Trojan. It is the newest in a line of extortion Trojans to infect computers. Yes, this is another Windows Trojan. Read on to learn what it is, how to recognize it, protect your computer and how to remove the MS Removal Tool Trojan.
Extortion Trojans are the ones that tell you how horribly infected your computer is, usually reporting dozens of virus. They then promise to remove them, if you pay some money to buy their software. If you don’t pay, you basically can’t use your computer. The problem is you computer is infected with their Trojan. Paying them is like paying a blackmailer, never ending and ineffective.
MS Removal Tool's Fake Report
WARNING!!!
In Second Life we have a minor crisis today. There is an exploit that someone figured out. They are griefing the grid with it now. It is unclear how long this exploit has been around. You need to take action now.
Red Hat Security Advisory is out. See: https://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2009-1561.html This is an old issue as it was first found 2009. I suppose it just recently came to the Linden’s attention when someone figured out how to implement the exploit in SL.
If you are not a Linux user, you may not know that Red Hat is a flavor of Linux. They broke the news on the exploit.
The problem is in a part of the viewer code library libvorbis. It has runtime libraries for programs that support Ogg Vorbis. A type of sound file compression that SL uses. Presumably Windows users are the primary risk. But, the exploit door is in a library that Windows, Mac, and Linux use.
Multiple flaws were found in the libvorbis library. A specially-crafted Ogg Vorbis media format file (Ogg) could cause an application using libvorbis to crash or, possibly, execute arbitrary code when opened. (CVE-2009-3379)
While all the stuff about RedZone has been bad enough, now we find out that the misuse of the database is even worse. A group of crackers penetrated the ISellSL web site and databases. They have revealed what they found in the database and web site.
Not only were user ID’s being associated with IP addresses, the software was working to crack people passwords… not just the bad guy copyboters passwords, but the RedZone customers too.
Read through the details on the Alphaville Harold in the article: zf Redzone Security Breached – SL Passwords Compromised?
If you have not changed your password in some time, it may now be time.
Vanity Skin Fair
Vanity Skin Fair is going on now. Loads of skin makers are participating and displaying their new skins. The event hosts have chosen to give us an example of what future event may look like. There are a ton of problems.
Continue reading
Spyware in SL - Image by: Anonymous9000
Update: 2011-3-2 – RedZone removed from market place. Quickware detector disappears. CDS remains but the product description is gone.
Update: See JIRA SVC-6793 vote and watch.
More people are becoming aware of what RedZone (RZ) is and what it means for their privacy. From June 2010 to February 2011 people have changed from ‘wus zat?’ to ‘WTF is being done about RedZone?’ Alphaville Herald has been reporting the state of RedZone and resident reaction along with the Labs actions. I am getting more curious about RedZone (L$3,999 in Market Place) and decided I needed to review the product and state of drama around it.
Alert!
In Second Life we have recently had a round of problems with our inventories not loading correctly. You’ll see a number of articles here about solving those problems and restoring lost items. Much of the blame for lost items has been laid at the feet of various Third Party Viewers (TPV). But, tomorrow Linden Lab will be doing database maintenance. See: Inventory Database Maintenance Wed, Aug 25th at 5:00am PDT
It will be interesting to see if there is a reduction in the number of lost inventory items post maintenance.