Warnings

Second Life News 2018 w09

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The last few days we have had some people complaining about login issues. I’m one of them. But, the problem is so erratic and apparently random I can’t put any useful information in a JIRA.

This morning there was some issue with logins. Only 17,000+ were on when I logged in at 10:45 Am SLT. On my trackers next update, 19,000+ were on. That 17k is an extraordinarily small number. The low for the day is about 7,000… but it may have been zero. My tracker only grabs data every 10 minutes. A lot can happen in the computer world and RL in 10 minutes.

Lauressa - Close-up
Lauressa – Close-up

I currently show 3,000 to 2,000 people logging in every 10 minutes. This is indicative of some grid wide problem.

Status only says they are investigating intermittent login issues.

Update 11:00 AM SLT – Seems the problem is a DDOS attack. See Unscheduled DDoS. This is not a Linden Lab specific attack. Early indications, often wrong, suggest it is possibly an attack on America. I would not be surprised to trace it back to North Korea. They will likely react to the sanctions just placed on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. So, appease them now and face a nuclear attack later or deal with them now?

Did you know the average duration of a mass shooting is three minutes? What is the response time of the police in your neighborhood, to your sports arena, movie theater, or school?

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AvaStar – Infected Download

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WARNING – UPDATE:2/9 – OK The original post is not quite right. Original: The AvaStar people (wrong – wasn’t reading closed enough) have posted a warning about recent downloads of AvaStar being infected with a Trojan or computer virus. They aren’t clear on what it was just that it was a bad thing. See: AvaStar – infected download. … Read more

OpenCollar No Longer OpenCollar?

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More SL drama. Unfortunately, about 100,000 SL users will be affected. It seems in November 2017 there was a sudden change in the OpenCollar programming team. Wendy Starfall and Garvin Twine were doing most of the work, programming, marketing, support, etc. for the last 6 years.

The early founders, from the history I can find, are Nandana Singh (now Nirea Resident) and Athaliah Opus. Several involved in the OC Project say they have ignored the project for the last 6 years or so. Leaving it to Wendy, Gaven, and others in the team to do the work and pay for websites and land (regions). But, we would have to define what the speaker means by ‘ignored’.

A point came when Nirea and Athaliah decided the OC project was going the wrong way. It seems that while the open source OC code was being maintained with no income for the programmers from it when the active programmers decided to sell an add-on under a brand name called Virtual Disgrace and some other things based on OC open source code.

“You can't stop the future You can't rewind the past The only way to learn the secret ...is to press play.” ― Jay Asher
You can’t stop the future You can’t rewind the past The only way to learn the secret …is to press play

The entitlement mindset folks decided it was an outrage that programmers working for free should even consider working for a profit and not giving them everything free… So, the great divide opened. The eventual result Nirea and Athaliah reclaimed the OpenCollar in-world group and kicked Wendy and others on the new path out of the group.

OpenCollar remained fee. But, the programmers were making other toys and selling them on their own. I could use the OpenCollar code and make a toy and sell it. But, you would still be able to get the free OpenCollar code and made your toys and sell them.

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Linden Lab Copyright Goes Nuts

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Strawberry Singh is dealing with the Lab banging on her for a copyright violation at YouTube. See: Trademark Complaint Received from Linden Lab. Strawberry writes, “I didn’t think that would be an issue as it says on their Trademark Guidelines page that journalists and media outlets have special permission to use it in blog entries etc…” I’ve … Read more

WARNING – Network Krack

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We have a new hack to deal with. The WiFi encryption used by your router has been hacked. The WPA and WPA-2 security used since 2003 is the target.

WPA and WPA-2 are security choices you have when setting up your router/access point. Without a password on your router, anyone can connect to your network. It is dumb not to have a password protected network.

Shades of Black
Shades of Black

Routers provided by most ISP’s have a password set by default. It is the long alphanumeric number provided on a sticker on the site of the router/gateway device. The last router I bought did not have a password set by default. Manufacturers seem to think the initial setup is easier with no password.

So, if you bought your router/modem/gateway, whatever you call it, you had to set a password. If you didn’t, you should. Without one, you are open to anyone and numerous types of attacks.

The Workaround

For any web activity involving money, make sure your browser is using HTTPS. When using HTTPS the browser will display a padlock in the address/URL window.

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