"Unprecedented" Cyberattack Hits Thousands of Computers In 99 Countries

A massive cyberattack has hit at least 75,000 computers in 99 countries in the past few days. Described as "unprecedented" in scale, the attacks have been infecting both individuals and institutions from home computers to government agencies to businesses to hospitals. In Great Britian alone, at least 48 hospitals, clinics, and other health institutions were affected. Although some surgeries were postponed, there are no reports of deaths yet related to the hacking.

Reports of the malware, called "WannaCry" began coming in on Friday. What happens io infected computers is the files are locked and a picture appears on the screen demanding $300 US dollars worth of Bitcoin within three days for the key to unlock the computer. Unlike typical malware attacks that rely on tricking computer users into opening email attachments or clicking on links, WannaCry is a worm that attacks computers through active online connections through vulnerabilities in system software. WannaCry locks up files, looks for other vulnerable computers to infect, then deletes itself. Most computer experts recommend treating the files as lost, with only the backup files on external hard drives, if any, as recoverable. It is not recommended that people pay the criminals as in past cases of ransomware, the criminals almost never provided any key to recover lost files. It is believed that the reason Bitcoin is the method of payment demanded is because it's transactions can't be traced.

In an ironic twist, the worm may be based on a spyware tool created by the NSA to snoop on people's computers, designed to take advantages of vulnerabilities in Windows software that it had discovered. The program was leaked in April by computer hackers whom had discovered it. The agency will neither confirm or deny their program had anything to do with WannaCry. A lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union called this "deeply troubling," saying the NSA should have notified Microsoft of the vulnerabilities instead of taking advantage of them, "These attacks underscore the fact that vulnerabilities will be exploited not just by our security agencies, but by hackers and criminals around the world. Patching security holes immediately, not stockpiling them, is the best way to make everyone's digital life safer." Others put the blame less on the NSA and more on institutions for being too slow to update systems, the attack happening two months after Microsoft had a patch available.

One British computer security blogger halted one strain of the malware by accident. Known as "Malware Tech," he decided to investigate the attack, and after an all-night session noticed the strain was trying to contact a specific web address every time it infected a new system. Seeing it was unregistered, he bought it for eight Pounds ($10.69 USD) to see where the attacks were happening. But in doing se, he accidentally triggered a "kill switch" for the strain. But there are still other strains of the worm out there.




A reminder that the computer world is full of dangers.

Sources: BBC, Arstechnica, Nerdgasm

Bixyl Shuftan

Responding to Readers: There's No Terrorism Here

By Bixyl Shuftan

I get a few messages in my email and Facebook about places that deserve a look, or concerns that the reader feels they need attention. With the five year anniversary of the death of Bin-Laden about this time, one certain email got my attention. The writer claimed there were Islamic extremists causing trouble in Second Life, his message containing part of a chatlog dated from mid-November.

Secondlife gamings sites are were the terrorist find kids and are recruiting; there is a need for actions.

[2015/11/15 09:03]  *****: Haha

[2015/11/15 09:03]  *****: Stupid Kahfir

[2015/11/15 09:03]  *****: Allah Ackbar!

[2015/11/15 09:07]  *****: Haha, continue playing your game little boy

[2015/11/15 09:07]  *****: Soon, your country will spills with blood

We need to close down Linden Lab, Head Quarters, 945 Battery Street, San Francisco, CA94111, as they are supporting terrorist by coving up that they do use the sites. and the terrorist attacks in the EU countrys could have been stop if they had took action.

As it turns out, there's no record of the name the reader gave in the Second Life database. But to me, this looks less like a terrorist, and more like a troll trying to stir people up. There wasn't a record of the person who mailed me earlier; when I asked him about it, he told me the Lab wouldn't listen and banned him.

As it turns out, Federal agents have investigated Second Life. as well as World of Warcraft and other MMOs, after concluding they were "potentially 'target-rich environments' in which suspected terrorists 'hide in plain sight.'" (Techdirt article) But "experts and developers of games like these have found no evidence that terrorists are using their services to communicate or recruit new members." “For terror groups looking to keep their communications secret, there are far more effective and easier ways to do so than putting on a troll avatar.”

It is true that supporters of Islamic Extremism have been on Second Life before. A few years ago, there was a place in the Jordan River sim supporting Hamas with many displays of pro-Hamas propaganda against "the Zionists." But eventually the sim vanished. While there are are places in Second Life built to attract Arab users, such locations are the scene of people engaging in idle chatter and games and not terrorism.

So no, there is no ISIS in Second Life, unless you mean builds of the Ancient Egyptian goddess of life, or perhaps an "Opposing Force" group for a combat sim (somebody has to be the bad guy in one).

Sources: Techdirt

Bixyl Shuftan

Drax Files Radio Hour's First Episode

On Friday January 10, the first episode of the "Drax Files Radio Hour" took place. The broadcast took place at 7AM SL time "From an attic somewhere in Berlin" with Draxtor Despres doing the show with Jo Yardley, noted for her "1920s Berlin Project." The show opened with a short "Friendly greetings" by Torley Linden, then after the introductions Draxtor and Jo discussed several topics.

The first subject was Occulus Rift reviving interest in virtual reality. The details and realism attracted a number of fans, though there was one down side: the realism of the experience while moving around while standing still in real life was making some people nauseous. Jo felt Occulus Rift would be used for more than Second Life and computer games. They described Babbage Linden as thinking differently, who felt it would start small and never really go mainstream.

They then talked about the NSA, and it's investigating Second Life. At one point Jo remarked, "seems that the NSA is taking Second Life more seriously than the media." "I don't know if that's good," Draxtor replied, "or very very sad." "A little bit of both?" "At least someone takes us seriously." Drax played in interview with "Ashkin," in which they talked about the NSA investigating Second Life's furry population. Their conclusion was that they often worked in creative fields and were actively involved in programing. There were also worries a Bin Laden avatar could be used to recruit terrorists, Jo and Draxtor comparing it to worries about neo-nazi activity. They also discussed with amusement pop singer Lily Allen confusing bitcoins with Lindens in being offered "hundreds of thousands of bitcoins to perform in Second Life years ago."

There was also a discussion about "fitted mesh" with guests involved with Second Life fashion design. Draxtor also brought up the upcoming "Feed a Smile" event in the Lavender Fields later that day, and concluded with an uncut soundtrack of the Drax Files episode with Scottius Polke, "too much stuff ended up on the cutting room floor."

The recording of the Drax Files Radio Hour's first episode can be found here: http://draxfiles.com/2014/01/10/show-1-oculus-nsa-fitted-mesh/ .

News and Commentary: On the NSA's Surveliance of Second Life

It's been about a week since it made the news that the National Security Agency has been sending agents to virtual and gaming worlds. World of Warcraft, the largest of the MORPGs, has been one of their targets. But so has Second Life. The virtual landscape of Hippos and Lucky Chairs had found itself the target of "the spooks."

The NSA's gathering of "metadata" has been highly controversial. Outside the United Sates, the language has often been harsh. The German Chancellor recently compared it's practices to those of the East German Secret Police in the days of the Cold War. In the United States, both liberals and conservatives overall dislike what the NSA is doing, or at least the extent that it is. But the level of criticism doesn't usually reach the level it often does overseas. Perhaps both sides are after bigger fish in political struggles, (health care, employment, etc.), some people are still jittery about a 9-11 style terrorist attack, or something of both. Indeed corporations who depend on the Internet for their survival have often been reacting more harshly than the public as a whole. Microsoft went as far as to condem the US Government's activities as an "advanced persistant threat."

Americans, annoyed that their emails could be possibly snooped on, seemed to mostly regard the news about the NSA doing the same with online games with amusement. There were a few skits about NSA agents looking for terrorists amongst the orcs (video link). Some people joked that what was going on was agents goofing off: spending working hours playing games, then claiming to their superiors they were investigating terrorism leads.

For Second Life residents, part of the reaction was interest to being on the national news for reasons other than gossip stories about virtual infidelity and "catfishing." The overall reaction from my point of view has also been amusement, cracking jokes about NSA agents goofing off with romps in sex clubs. The topic was also joked about at the Avi Choice awards, a host and hostess saying hello to any agents watching, and cracking a joke about a "favorite NSA agent" category.

Not everyone was laughing though. New World Notes reminded that it had reported in 2007 on stories about terrorist in Second Life and Federal agents also in looking for their activity. NASA and NOAA are known to have come into Second Life, Halmet stated, so "it's not really a surprise to find the NSA is there too." Judge Richard Posner, who appeared in-avatar in Second Life, commented, “The Internet offers opportunities both for terrorists and counterterrorism,” he observed. So it's an arms race between the opposing forces, both seeking maximum advantage from the digital revolution.” Hamlet would also write about an article mentioning Cory Linden visiting the NSA being misinterpereted as him encouraging the agency to spy on Second Life's residents, while in reality he was there to stop possible government censorship and regulation.

Iris Ophelia wasn't laughing either, taking the matter quite seriously. "Maybe you know better than to post drunk selfies of yourself on Facebook," she reminded, "but what have you been up to in the presumed privacy of your virtual home?" Over time, one meets up with a lot of residents here, and we talk and do things with them without a second thought. "those friends you've known for years? What are they up to? One of them asked you to hold into some L$ for them recently, do you know why? She also asked you to help her get into that invite-only group, why? What do they do? Are you a member? What about that person you paid for that item a few months ago, you know the one. What do you know about them? We just need you to answer a few questions..."

In an open letter to the people of Brazil asking for asylumn, Edward Snowden, whom leaked a number of information about the NSA after leaving the US to China, then Russia, claimed that what the NSA was doing could also be used for "economic espianoge" and "social control." While Snowden is not a neutral party in this matter, and is considered a wanted criminal, his statement was a reminder the NSA's activities can be used for far more than just looking for Al Quedia.

The NSA's activities could lead to some long-term consequences beyond just people looking over their virtual shoulders. Many countries were already less than happy with the Internet being of American design governed by American rules, and dominated by a few American companies. The NSA's snooping could very well be the final straw, seeing the Internet "Balkanized" among various countries. Online games based in America, as well as Second Life, would find it harder to get new users overseas.

Yesterday offered some good news though. A US Federal judge branded the NSA's surveillance as "Orwellian," and stated it likely was a violation of the Constitution. While the ruling didn't stop the snooping right away, as he put it on hold pending an appeal by the Government, it could very well be the beginning of the end of the wide-scale spying campaign of the Internet, and Second Life.

Sources:CNN,  The Guardian, New World Notes, Microsoft

Bixyl Shuftan

Real Life News and Commentary: PRISM and Internet Surveillance

As we in Second Life celebrate a decade of being online, in real life news have come some unwelcome developments for those who value computer privacy. First the NSA was found to be spying on American citizens through Verizon. Then a whistleblower exposed a once secret NSA data-collection program: PRISM.

Gizmodo's described PRISM as, "a secret Government  program that gives the NSA unprecedented access to the servers of major tech companies, which may or may not be 'direct,' so that the agency can spy on unwitting US citizens, with terrifying granularity, which is both different from and more aggressive than the Verizon scandal, and has the full (but contested) cooperation of tech giants, and which is, shockingly enough, totally legal." Why would the Internet Service Providers coooperate? Gizmodo commented, "they have no choice. Failure to hand over server data leaves them subject to a government lawsuit, which can be expensive and incredibly harmful in less quantifiable ways."

The responses from the Internet companies have been mostly varying degrees of denial that they cooperated. Apple (one of the last to submit according to the whistleblower) also claimed not only did they not store data related to company location, but that communications over iMessages and Facetime were encrypted so that not even they could read them, "Apple cannot decrypt that data."

The reaction from the public appears to be mostly negative, with some expressions of support. It is worth noting in this day of age of political warfare, some conservatives have expressed support for the President they oppose on other issues, while some liberals have come out to oppose him on this issue. The New York Times responded with an editorial, commenting "The administration has now lost all credibility on this issue." Supposedly when first aired, it read "The administration has now lost all credibility," and then was edited. That the President when a candidate opposed the surveillance programs of his predecessor and once in office not only continued to run them but expanded them, was not seen well by more than a few. Recent polls show him at an all time low.

Among the responses was this animation "United States of Surveillance" by Mark Fiore.

"The government … is so far completely unapologetic. And why wouldn't they be? It's easy enough to follow the letter of the law when you're the one writing it."

Bixyl Shuftan

Source: Wikipedia, The Guardian, Forbes, New York Times, Gizmodo,