This Saturday at The Science Circle

 

Saturday, January 28

 

    ~*~

    

    At 10 AM PST   

    The SC in the VWEC Eduverse

    By Phil Youngblood, PHD

    https://www.sciencecircle.org/event/vwec-eduverse/

 

   The Science Circle (72,129,30)

      

    ~*~

 

    At 9 PM PST   

    Internet Security

    By Jes Stannard

    https://www.sciencecircle.org/event/internet-security/

 

   The Science Circle (72,129,30)

 

    ~*~

    

    NOTE: Non-members required to register once

    IM Jes Cobalt or Nymf Hathaway

╚══════════════════════════════ The Science Circle (72,129,30) ═╝

 

VR Chat Security Update Results in Mass Protests by Playerbase

 

The Newser hasn't written much about VRChat in a while. This is mostly because we've been busy with reporting on Second Life, but until recently we didn't hear of much other than it's increasing userbase that was making it a true competitor to the older and more established virtual world. But this week there was a major development that's gotten a lot of anger from its users. The developers installed a security update in order to combat the mods of hackers and other malicious users. Trouble is, it also disables the mods players made over time to improve the experience of users, notably disabled users, some saying a number were to address issues the developers were slow to act on. 

Read more in Other Grids, MMOs, and Games.

Linden Lab Adds Chief Marketing Officer, Chief Information Security Officer

 

Last week, Linden Lab announced they had hired two people to fill new positions. For the first time, they will have a Chief Marketing Officer, or CMO, and a Chief Information Security Officer, or CISO. The CMO is Steven Feuling, who has more than thirty years marketing experience. Peter Capraro is the new CISO, and has a 25 year career of security and IT positions. The announcement in Cison PR Newswire stated, "Both roles will span across Linden's full portfolio of businesses to support growth driven by the rapidly expanding consumer interest in metaverses and the technology platforms necessary to support them as well as other virtual worlds and marketplaces."

Feuling's resume includes several noted companies, "Microsoft, Bloomberg LLC, The Walt Disney Company, 20th Century Fox, E*Trade and General Motors." Caprarp was recently, "the deputy CISO at fintech startup, Akoya, a spin-off from Fidelity Investments, and held security roles at Bank of America for 10 years."

Image source: Moden World

Source: Cison

Bixyl Shuftan
 

EOTB: Multi-Factor Authentication For SL Accounts

 

Last Week, Linden Lab offered the residents "an additional way to protect your account." It was called "Multi-Factor Authenticiation."

Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) is now available to all residents on their accounts. MFA is an additional step to prove your identity before gaining access to sensitive information or actions on your account. It provides an extra layer of security to supplement your username and password. Widely adopted by many products, MFA is an industry standard.

How does it work? You can learn more about MFA, find out what you’ll need to do, and activate it in the knowledge base article!

You will need to take action in order to activate MFA. It is entirely opt-in. Go to accounts.secondlife.com/mfa/status and get started! 

On how it works, the Lab would go on  to say, "MFA requires an authenticator app on your mobile device which generates secret codes (called “tokens”). When you log in, Second Life connects to the authenticator app to make sure the token you provide matches the one generated by the authenticator app." To turn it on, one would need to "Install an authenticator app on your mobile device. We do not supply this app or directly support any third party app, but we have tested Google Authenticator with this feature."

The blog post would remind people to change passwords on a regular basis, and state MFA would not effect how residents log into Second Life and MFA's protection was limited to the SL login. But in the future, it may be applied to other parts of Second Life such as the Marketplace. 

As was stated, to get started, clich here: https://accounts.secondlife.com/mfa/status

To read the blog post in full, Click Here. 

Bixyl Shuftan
 

Amazon To Link Users of Alexa, Other Devices, To One Another

 

For those who own an Alexa, or other devices by Amazon that you use, an article in Ars Technica has some troubling news for those who value their privacy, and don't like the company getting them into something without their okay. According to the e-zine, Amazon plans to launch "Amazon Sidewalk." The service will link those who use Amazon products to their neighbors who also use them and share their bandwith for the purpose of helping those without a connection. But instead of asking users if they want in, people have to actively opt out of it before the date of Tuesday June 8, one week from now.

Amazon Sidewalk helps your devices get connected and stay connected. For example, if your Echo device loses its wifi connection, Sidewalk can simplify reconnecting to your router. For select Ring devices, you can continue to receive motion alerts from your Ring Security Cams and customer support can still troubleshoot problems even if your devices lose their wifi connection. Sidewalk can also extend the working range for your Sidewalk-enabled devices, such as Ring smart lights, pet locators or smart locks, so they can stay connected and continue to work over longer distances. Amazon does not charge any fees to join Sidewalk.

Amazon insists the service is to help the users of it's devices. They also released a report to address security and privacy matters.  But as Ars Technia put it, "But there are enough theoretical risks to give users pause. Wireless technologies like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth have a history of being insecure. ... If industry-standard wireless technologies have such a poor track record, why are we to believe a proprietary wireless scheme will have one that’s any better? ... Extending the reach of all this encrypted data to the sidewalk and living rooms of neighbors requires a level of confidence that’s not warranted for a technology that’s never seen widespread testing. ... Amazon’s decision to make Sidewalk an opt-out service rather than an opt-in one is also telling. The company knows the only chance of the service gaining critical mass is to turn it on by default, so that’s what it’s doing."

The good news, users can opt out of "Sidewalk." The steps are:

Open the Alexa app.
Open "More" and select "Settings."
Select "Account Settings."
Select "Amazon Sidewalk."
Turn Amazon Sidewalk "Off."

Ars Technica stated they contacted Amazon representatives to comment on the matter, but got none.

Bixyl Shuftan
 

Announcement: This Saturday at The Science Circle - Cyber Security

 

"Cyber Security"

Saturday Novemeber 7

10 AM to 11 AM SL time

This presentation discusses, as an example of what can be done across the Nation, California’s progress in developing comprehensive career pathways to a variety of Cybersecurity jobs in order to fill existing and future unfilled positions. Global demand for information security professionals has been growing exponentially and has reached a critical point. It is imperative; therefore, that we build a workforce of qualified cybersecurity specialists and trained users (including technicians and managers).

We need coordinated and linked education, training, and workforce development programs in order to fill that demand.

Thus, California is developing a framework for the design, development, and implementation of a California Cybersecurity Career Education Pipeline and Pathway Project (CCCEPPP) to prepare 50,000 entry-level cybersecurity professionals in California from 2020-2030 and reduce current/future state workforce capability skills/gaps.

In order to maximize efficiency and meet diverse key stakeholder needs, California seeks innovative ways to balance the academic and professional demands of cybersecurity programs to achieve enhanced student access to quality, cost-efficient and available cyber-security programs statewide.

The California Cybersecurity Workforce Development and Education Strategy has 15 recommendations to lay out a framework, blueprint, and structure for the design, development, and implementation of a California Cybersecurity Career Education Pipeline and Pathway and additional educational toolkits to serve statewide cybersecurity workforce development and education in “high need” essential workforce areas and sectors at all levels of education and training (K-12, Associates, Bachelors, Graduate, Professional Cortication/Training). Model curriculum, extra-curricular activities, cyber-competitions, professional and career development, and a host of related issues are included.

A presentation by Myron Curtis

For more information, Click Here.

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/The%20Science%20Circle/67/129/32

Update on Lawsuit Against Linden Lab

It was on Wednesday July 31st that former cybersecurity worker for Linden Lab, Kavaya Pearlman, announced she had filed a lawsuit against the Lab alleging that they had fired her in retaliation for bringing up multiple security issues concerning cybersecurity laws, and that part of the reason for her losing her job was for being a woman and an ethnic and religious minority. A little more than two weeks later on Friday August 16, Wired Magazine had an article about the lawsuit, which had some more information and a statement from Linden Lab's spokesman Brett Atwood.

“While we will fight her alleged claims in court, we deny any allegations that the company has engaged in any illegal activity. Ms. Pearlman left the company on March 15 only after she was given the opportunity to improve her work performance. We look forward to all the facts coming out in a court of law.”

The article would say Pearlman claimed Linden Lab "was not complying with anti-money-laundering rules," such as required information about the skill game operators. Atwood would respond to Wired over email, "All Second Life skill gaming operators must provide and verify their identification as part of a rigorous application process. We are in compliance with all legal regulations and all skill gaming operators agree to our Terms and Conditions as part of the review and approval process for our Skill Gaming program.”

The Wired article would state that the lawsuit mentions Linden Lab's fraud team manager "presented information to Linden board members in quarterly fraud reports that acknowledged a high number of such Ageplay [sic] violations were actually occurring on a regular basis each quarter." The lawsuit would also claim the Lab's chief compliance officer at the time, Scot Butler, wrote a memo, "urging compliance with cybersecurity laws consistent with Pearlman’s repeated concerns." Wired would state that "a former high-level Linden Lab employee confirmed the contents of the memo." When the Linden Lab spokesman was asked about the descriptions of ageplay, he responded, "If any such activity is detected, individuals or groups promoting or providing such content and activities will be subject to enforcement actions, which may include immediate termination of accounts (including all detectable alternate accounts), closure of related groups, removal of content, blacklisting of payment information and loss of land or access to virtual land.”

Nothing was mentioned of the contrast between the allegations of Pearlman's alleged ill treatment by the Lab due to being "a minority, a woman, a Muslim woman and an immigrant" and Linden Lab's actions in recent years such as issuing a statement against a Presidential order imposing immigration restrictions, and joining other companies in a statement of support of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered workers against discrimination.

Source: Wired

Hat tip: New World Notes

Bixyl Shuftan

Linden Lab Under Lawsuit, Accused of Firing Woman For Raising Security Concerns

As Second Life residents get ready for the Tilia service as part of their online experience starting today, there's an unwelcome development for Linden Lab that's likely to raise concerns by some residents on how safe their data will be. Kavaya Pearlman, a former employee of Linden Lab whom worked on cybersecurity, announced yesterday over Twitter she was filing suit against Linden Lab.

The reason for the lawsuit, Pearlman stated, was retaliation for her "multiple concerns of potential violations (of) cybersecurity laws" during her time of employment. It was also alleged in her Twitter post that the Lab's treatment of her was due to her being "a minority, a woman, a Muslim woman and an immigrant in times where people that do not look like her are being told to 'go back to their country'.” She insisted that during her time of employment, neither Second Life of Sansar suffered any data breaches.

Pearlman's accusations that she was fired in part for her being female and an ethnic and religious minority go against the inclusive image Linden Lab has made for itself over time. In 2017, the Lab made a statement against an executive order by President Trump imposing restrictions on immigration from several countries that critics called a "Muslim ban." In it's newest tweet on it's Twitter page, the Lab stated, "We're proud to join HRC (Human Rights Campaign) and 200 major corporations to send a message that everyone deserves to be protected from discrimination."

Of Tilia, Linden Lab has insisted the service was created "With security and privacy as it's primary considerations."

Hat tip: New World Notes, Modem World

Bixyl Shuftan

Eye On The Blog: "Information About Privacy and Security in Tilia"

Last Friday, Soft Linden, Linden Lab's Information Security Manager, posted in the Tools and Technology blog, "Information About Privacy and Security in Tilia."

A large number of you attended the Tilia Town Hall  last week. Aside from the many questions you had about how Tilia affects Second Life L$ and monetary activity, privacy was a common concern. Grumpity asked if I would answer a few of the questions about Tilia privacy and security which surfaced in the town hall and in our forums.

There were four sample questions and four lengthy answers.

Where did the Tilia team come from? And why should I trust Tilia with my personal information?
 

Soft answered, "The Tilia team is made up of people you previously knew as Linden Lab employees." He called the team "passionate about privacy and security," and that many had alts in Second Life and knew many of the residents there. They also promised, "the information you store with Tilia is never provided to third parties for purposes such as marketing, " and We won’t even provide that information to the US government unless we are compelled to do so through a legal process such as a subpoena or a search warrant."

 

Does Tilia change how my information is secured?
 

In short, yes. Soft stated, "Figuratively speaking, we locked the old vault inside a bigger, stronger vault." Of the 'new vault,' it "uses modern algorithms to encrypt sensitive information in a way that would require both enormous computing power and an enormous amount of memory for an attacker to crack… if they could even get a copy of the encrypted data. These algorithms are specifically tuned to defeat expensive decryption acceleration hardware." Their existing encryption technology was called "industry standard at the time."

It sounds like a lot has changed at once. Aren’t large changes risky?

Soft answered, "Tilia was designed with security and privacy as its primary considerations." They had people, "some of our key privacy and security practices and procedures," and that they pay a security company to attempt to hack into their servers to test the m.

What does Tilia mean for Second Life privacy and security in the future?

"We have many plans for Tilia," Soft stated. They are in the process of moving "additional forms of information ... Now that we have a new privacy and security foundation, we can extend the amount of information that enjoys this level of protection. If it pertains to your real life identity, we believe in leveraging Tilia protection wherever possible." It also mentioned their goals were ensuring, "compliance with upcoming privacy and security regulations."

To check the blogpost in it's entirely, Click Here.

Bixyl Shuftan

New Linden Homes Continent Opens

The sims with the new Linden Homes are now open. On Monday April 15, Linden Lab announced on the official Second Life blog that the homes were now ready for residents to move in.

Let’s be honest - those Linden Homes from 2010 were long overdue for some updates and improvements. It was clear a fresh coat of paint and some new landscaping were just not going to make the amount of curb appeal we were shooting for. In fact, it was time to return to the drawing board and start a better-built Linden Home experience, from the ground up - literally.
The first of several planned Linden Home updates launches today - with the introduction of New Linden Homes - exclusive to Premium members. Your new home may be in the mountains, along the shore, or in a rolling landscape of low hills and river valleys, but you’ll also be part of a large community experience, with navigable waterways, a network of roads, and community areas to socialize and have fun.    
There are two new themed styles in this release - Traditional and Houseboats - and some are twice as big as previous Linden Home offerings.

While only Premium residents can claim a home, the land is open to all. People appeared on the new land, named Bellisseria by the Lab. Many quickly claimed some of the new homes. But not everyone was there for a new house, or houseboat. Some were just there to explore around. And the new land has much to see from rocky hill areas, to beaches and islands, trees, sandy areas with little grass, roads, including angles roads for people to drive uphill or down, bridges to cross, lighthouses, traffic circles, piers, and more.

Thanks to a string of water sims connecting it to the landmass to the south, known as Jeogeot, as well as the water sims that connect it to the one to the north, Sansara, It's now possible to travel from Glade of Sorrows in the south west end of Jeogeot to the Fillip sim on the north edge of Heterocera without teleporting. So there's been lots of people walking, flying, and boating around.

Someone did tell me they came across one new homeowner putting up a security orb, giving those flying about only a few seconds to leave or be teleported out. Fortunately for those who love to explore, this will soon be a thing of the past. In an announcement in the forums by Constantine Linden  yesterday, ban lines are not allowed here, and while security orbs are permitted for now, it's only for a few days.

... at 6am SLT on Wed April 17th, we are going to uncheck the box on the Linden Homes estate that allows parcel owners access restrictions to be more restrictive than the estate. Meaning: no ban lines. It's our belief that with a sense of community being a main goal of Linden Homes, ban lines send the wrong message. Parcel owners can still ban troublesome individuals by name on their parcel but they will not be able to put their land in virtual lock down by restricting access to group only.
 
... We want to allow Residents to fly, walk, drive, sail and explore freely across Bellisseria without compromising Residents privacy and security on their own parcels. To that end we are allowing the use of security orbs. However, since many orbs can be set in ways that preclude even the most innocent of straying across a parcel boundary or being sent home even though you are 500m in the sky we are forced to come up with a compromise. 

You may use your personal security orbs or devices in Linden Homes for now, but early next week: we are going to provide you with an approved device via the Linden Homes Content Packs. It will work just as aggressively in protecting your homes from unwanted intrusion, but still reasonably allow Residents to explore without fear of being ejected or teleported home without warning. Once those are added to the Linden Homes Content Packs, the use of other scripted security devices will not be allowed and this will be noted in an update to the Linden Homes covenant.

So finally a piece of Mainland free of those cursed ban lines and those security orbs that boot you out with little to no warning. Though with the "Good Neighbor Obelisks" being seen around, hopefully that will be less of a problem there too.

On a final note, between the opening of the new land and the reaction to the fire at Notre Dame, a few stories we planned to write about got put on the back burner. We'll get to those soon.

Bixyl Shuftan

"Good Neighbor Commandments" Obelisks on Mainland

The Mainland gets something of a bad rap among Second Life residents, and not without reason. The land is cheap and there's lots of sims to explore. But there are the ban lines that put your casually going about to a halt. And there are the security orbs that give you just a few seconds before teleporting you back to your home location.

So it got my attention when Lia (Female Winslet) told me about some obelisks she found by the road on the Mainland. Dropping by one at Route 10 at Tangna (65/53/77), ir was marked "Good Neighbor Commandments for Second Life Mainland" on the bottom. On each of the four sides, there were suggestions for better Second Life living, written in the style of the Ten Commandments.

Thou shalt not set thy security orb to teleport people without at least a one minute warning, lest thou beest a jerk.

Thou shalt not block roads or sea lanes with thy objects, nor shall ye set ban lines, for they are the suck.

Thou shall allow build and run scripts on thy land and use autoreturn to keep it neat and tidy, for it is thy friend.

Thou shall beget privacy walls, screens, and shrubbery around thy land which please the eye of thy neighbor as they do thyself.

The obelisks were made by Abnor Mole. Besides the one at Route 10, I saw a few more at Marybank (55/211/51), Hae An (165/120/50), and Lippert (104/214/179). Lia told me of a few other locations I hadn't checked. So will these black stones get more people to clean up their acts, or rather their land, a bit? Hopefully they will, and we can go about Mainland a little longer before running into another yellow barrier.

Bixyl Shuftan

Announcement: This Week At The Science Circle : Archival and Digital Legacy, Preserving Your Digital Work

"Archival and Digital Legacy, Preserving Your Digital Work"

March 9 at 10AM PST

by Budd Turner

Background:

• When a person dies, their digital footprint persists.
• Digital providers assume ownership of Intellectual property (IP) created on their servers.
• Family and workgroup attempts to archive or maintain deceased works are blocked.

Approach:

• We worked within system permissions shared by the creator.
• We tested possible workarounds
• We contacted providers for account/work access

Findings:

• Limited Copy, Move, possible
• Edit (update), Delete, not possible, without creator account access.
• Providers reluctant to discuss or allow access to deceased work,(IP).

Conclusion:

• Advance planning needed for adding Trusted Friends and/or family member access to digital accounts in Trusts and/or Wills
• Everyone needs to learn provider policies and legal requirements for establishing a “Legacy” path of transfer of ownership.
• Passing your digital footprint when you can no longer login

For more information, Click Here

The Science Circle (61/127/32)

Announcement: This Week At The Science Circle : Cyber Security

"Cyber Security"
Saturday February 23 at 10 AM PST

Moderator: Matthew Burr – Beragon Betts

Anyone who is interested in his security on the internet will soon come across worrying reports about phishing e-mails, cybercrime, industrial espionage, governments stealing each other’s data and cyber-terrorism. Closer to home, data mining affects us via Facebook, Google and Microsoft.

What started as a free sharing of data has gradually turned into an unsafe, lawless space where everyone is a target for malicious parties.

More information Harvard Cybersecurity Wiki

The Science Circle (61/127/32)

Eye on the Blog: "An Important Reminder About Account Security"

The following was posted by Linden Lab yesterday.

It has come to our attention that some Residents are sending messages - which may appear as popup windows in some viewers - informing other Residents that their accounts have been compromised and encouraging them to contact Support, using a phone number that is not associated with Linden Lab.

 

These messages are phishing attempts to gain access to your Second Life account. Neither Linden Lab, nor Second Life Customer Support, would attempt to contact you in this manner. You can always find Linden Lab’s official customer support contact methods within the following links:

 

https://support.secondlife.com/billing-support/

https://support.secondlife.com/contact-support/

 

As always, please be wary of suspicious messages and contact from other users. If you believe your account has been compromised, please contact us via support case at https://support.secondlife.com/

Hat Tip: Fuzzball Ortega 

Lorena Chung Estates: Security Orbs

You've had a hard day at work in real life. So now that you finally have a break, you log onto Second Life, rezz into your virtual home, and just as you're starting to relax, listening to the music and slowly watching the virtual sunset. Then all of a sudden, you see the words, "Found you, you loser!" Then your screen and speakers broadcast one annoying gesture after another. Seeing rhe name, you groan, recognizing him as the jerk you ran into at the club last week whom for some reason you can't fathom took an instant dislike to you, and now he's made it his mission in life to annoy you.

For those living in the Lorena Chung Estates, you can deal with such pests with the ACS Exclusive Security Orbs. They are easy to set up, and come in a variety of shapes and designs, most looking harmless. The company promises "Full land and sky security 100% Guaranteed," and that they monitor the activity of all avatars in the area.

"The Lorena Chung estate's history dates back to Second Life's first and most successful estate Dreamland, est. 2004. Today you can find many different types of residential, commercial and unzoned land parcels in this sim and whole sim rentals. As in all Anshe Chung Sims estates you receive 24/7 live support, free access to all items of the Anshe Chung Content Library and full access to our community facilities."

To check things for yourself, and possible get a home for yourself, head to:

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Lorena%20Chung%20Estates/128/41/23

The preceding is an advertisement from Second Life Newser

Is Facebook Deleting Second Life Users? Not Many

Last week, some Second Life users of Facebook were worried when there were whispers going around about accounts of Second Life users being deleted. While there seems to be some truth to this, the number seems relatively small. Of the fans of the Second Life Newser page, the number of "Likes" went down by about ten, or about 2 percent of the total.

The issue came up before two years ago when more residents expressed alarm over what to some seemed like a purge of Facebook users using their Second Life names. The issues are much the same now as then: Second Life users either insisting on Internet anonymity or posting under their SL names because that's what they were known as online vs Facebook being *the* social site on the Internet and having an inconsistently enforced policy that people use their "real names," even if everything the user posts about was done under a virtual identity.

Much of the responses are the same now as then, from "just change the name," to accusations of bait and switch. Hamlet Au of New World Notes recommended instead of using account names as Facebook names, create a page for the Second Life account name. He also suggested since Second Life co-founder Cory Ondrejka has become one of Facebook's top engineers and "brought over about had a oxen other Linden engineers to the Facebook team, … any … attention Second Life gets from Facebook's higher ups is more likely to be positive than negative." Facebook itself insists they do not go looking for people to delete, but that most accounts that are taken offline are from complaints by other users.

For yours truly, most of what I post is about Second Life, very little about real life activities, and so my name on the billion member social site remains what it is. It's simpler that way. Also, the number of fans on the Newser page has been growing again. So it appears the deletions are over, for now.



On another note, Facebook recently made International News. A Khalil Shreateh tried to alert them about a weak spot in their security. But he was ignored. His response, using the exploit to post on CEO Mark Zuckerberg's page about the weakness. Naturally, the response came within minutes.

Although there is a million US dollar reward for pointing out vulnerabilities, Facebook refuses to pay Shreateh. The official reason is that he violated the TOS. But as Shreateh is a Palestinian, perhaps Zuckerberg didn't want to appear to be sending money to the antagonists of Israel, America's best friend in the Middle East. Since then however, Shreateh has reportedly gotten a number of IT job offers, plus a sum of money raised by supporters in an effort organized by cybersecurity company BeyondTrust.



Sources: New World Notes, Venturebeat

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,

Fear Lurks Redzone Menace

The product "RedZone" advertises itself as being able to detect users of the illegal "Copybot" program, and not only ban them from the owners sim, but every alt in their account as well as putting the names on a blacklist shared with all other RedZone users. First criticized a few months ago, recently more and more are calling for something to be done about this invasive mechanism. Any1 Gynoid offers her own view of the issue, describing it as only she can.

Read Any1's colorful commentary on RedZone in Design.

Fox Reports

Fox Reports began as a monitoring system for SkyBeam Sandbox. It was used to be able to file notes and reports about various people who caused mischief or broke the rules with repeated infractions leading to land or estate banning as appropriate, with the ability for all of the sandbox 'guardians' to have access to each others' reports. The system has a number of features geared towards making this information easily accessible by all admins without having the installation or trust network issues incurred with something like banlink.

Even more exciting are the new features which allow for estate level controls from the web. For any estate manager or owner who has ever been at an event and had to leave to go ban someone or restart a laggy region, the ability to launch a web browser and handle the situation remotely is a huge blessing. It further enables one to react to situations when not even logged into Second Life, like when one is stuck at work, for example. This also gives you the ability to give additional managers the estate level controls, even if they aren't Estate Managers in game, thus extending your management team beyond the normal ten allotted.

Second Life Newser's Bixyl Shuftan recently met up with Fox Reports creator EriX Oh to ask him a few questions about the security system.

Bixyl Shuftan: How did you find out about SL?

EriX Oh: (I saw it on) TV, and was jobless, for a short time. (I was interested in) the thing, that I can convert L$ to real money, which I did sometimes.

Bixyl Shuftan: How did your experience go at first?

EriX Oh: Because I'm programmer, I've had a completely different experience than the other users. It went fast. After a few days of SL, I found this sandbox (SkyBeam), later on, Charlene, etc.

Bixyl Shuftan: How long was it before you got a position here at Skybeam?

EriX Oh: I think only three weeks, and I had the guardian tag. ... I always made photos of griefers, proof ready, put these up to my server, and gave Char the links to the picture as IM.

Bixyl Shuftan: When did you first come up with the idea of Fox Reports?

EriX Oh: I came to the idea when I saw, the issues between guardians, and the communications: what did he/she do , with that person, etc. I already saw the problems. So, I came to the idea to have a webpage, to manage that. It was only a simple textbox, with an person-index,nothing more.

Bixyl Shuftan: What kind of problems, for example?

EriX Oh: Communication: I mean, what did Guardian A do with that person X , is X already warned/banned, etc. So the entire "clique" will instantly update, and not need to ask around for the information, and solving the offline-unavailable issues of the person(s).

EriX Oh: And so, it evolved more and more. And then I got the idea to match the Second Life estate-ban list with my system. And so I re-made the system, to get and manage SL's banlist, and resolving other issues, such as mass ban/unban.

Bixyl Shuftan: How long did it take to develop the system?

EriX Oh: I only needed a few, four maybe, days to have the first primitive system up, since, I did already own the server. The system lasted only two months, and then I made what is now known as Fox Reports, April 2007 I think. Not yet public.

Bixyl Shuftan: So what are some of the features of Fox Reports?

EriX Oh: Main feature (as written on the main page), Report management and Estate-Management (off-world), with User-security rights, and E-Mail notifications. Estate includes full access to the estate's banlist, restarts, and messages. It mainly makes use of the (comfy) restart-sim functions, since they no longer need to TP to the actual sim to restart it.

Access via LSL works well. Thus, you're able to add a "Firealarm-button" to restart the sim, where the button is. Of course, check first who did pushed the button. Otherwise, anyone can restart the sim.

Bixyl Shuftan: So this fire alarm button, anyone can see in the sim, and press?

EriX Oh: If badly programmed, yes. I never saw something like that.

Bixyl Shuftan: I read there was a feature in which the system can be accessed if one is logged into Second Life, or not.

EriX Oh: The functions are all accessible, inworld and outworld, using a regular webbrowser. To restart a sim, for example, you do NOT need to be online in SL - as the bot will perform it, not you.

Bixyl Shuftan: How easy is it to put another sim manager into the system, such as a friend or friends who can be here when you can't?

EriX Oh: Easy, you simply create a Fox Reports account for the person, and tell the server, that the person can access these estates (permissions can be set on estate levels - if you've multiple estates, and different groups of people. who can do things). They do NOT need to be an EM here in world - thus, that allows to have more than 10 "pseudo-EMs.” That's a trick, that we do use here in the SkyBeam sandbox. They're not estate managers here, but can ban/un-ban people from the estate, and restart the sim in case of issues, causing many other people to go "huh????"

Bixyl Shuftan: Any other features in particular you wanted to bring up?

EriX Oh: A new feature will be added soon, a "sim grabber,” that fetches parcels for sale (you do not need to drop an object to the parcel) and allows you to list it on your page, using the API - but that needs to be developed first.

Bixyl Shuftan: Any other projects that you're working on besides Fox Reports?

EriX Oh: I'm trying a new app, but dunno if that works, etc. It has nothing to do with SL. I've some small applications available to download (they can be found at Fox Report's too).

Bixyl Shuftan: Sounds Good. Anything else you want to add?

EriX Oh: Not that I know of, except that I need a few more clients.

EriX had a little time before he had to leave, so he showed me his grounds at the appropriately-named Fox sim. It had some interesting features, such as an obstacle course, and a building with pictures of foxes, and old Luxembourgian money from the country's pre-Euro days on the floor.

Find out more about Fox Reports at the website: http://foxreports.lu/

Bixyl Shuftan