Security in a virtual world like Second Life is a major concern. There always seems to be someone around who wants to amuse themselves by making others unhappy ("griefers"), and businesses need to know what do to when that happens. According to Dharma Austin of LSD Security Inc., an in-world security company that has worked with dozens of sim owners, most well-populated sims in Second Life are completely vulnerable to attack. I asked her what people really need to know when it comes to security.
1. Don't rely on Linden Lab to do everything. - There is a time to file abuse reports, of course, but for the most part you will be able to handle situations on your own much faster. Waiting on the customer service of a company that has tens of thousands of people using its system at any given time isn't the best idea in an emergency. Prepare to do things on your own.
2. Train the staff. - Often staff members on a sim don't have any idea how to deal with estate tools. They need to be walked through the buttons, made aware of how to turn on/off scripting and building, how to ban people, and even the media controls. An uninformed staff might as well not be there at all, and could potentially make things worse.
3. Get over your fear. - An avatar getting shot by guns in Second Life doesn't kill them and explosions won't maim them. Much of what happens in griefing attacks involves intimidation, and everyone needs to realize that they can't actually be hurt. This is a surprisingly common mistake, and staffers have been victimized a number of times by being "held at gunpoint".
4. Know the three types of griefers. - Type 1: Newbies who just don't know what they're doing and rez 10 sailboats by accident. Give them a landmark to a sandbox. Type 2: Amateur griefers with guns trying to assault people. Kick and ban them immediately. Type 3: Professional griefers there to do a bombing, sim crashings, or mass spam. They're still not dangerous, but make sure to mute them in addition to kicking and banning them.
5. Particle spamming requires immediate and definitive action. - One quirk of Second Life allows "particles", intangible floating graphics, to potentially fill the air. Train your staff to immediately turn scripting off in the estate tools until the problem particle generator is found and removed.
6. Beware of "alts". - People who come to a sim with the intention of causing trouble generally don't do so using the avatar they use every day. A well-dressed unverified avatar that's only a few days old is a dead giveaway of an experienced Second Life resident using a new account to hide their identity. Don't pre-emptively ban them, but be ready for trouble.
7. Security is not a popularity contest. - Banning people will always upset someone, but if you're careful it will only be the griefer themselves. "The price I have had to pay is a bad reputation for banning people," said Dharma, "but our sims are safe and our residents love it here."
One thing you might have noticed about this list is that none of it involves a fix-all gadget that you install on a sim. This is about staffing your area, and making sure that they know what to do. If you're too busy to handle this yourself there are a number of consulting companies like LSD Security Inc. out there who can run the training sessions for you and offer advice custom-tailored to your needs. No matter what you do, remember that the key here is prevention - prepare now, not after your sim is filled with spam.
Here are a couple of other things for peace and quiet:
1. Turn off build and object entry for non-group members. I am shocked how many people don't do this basic step which prevents bullets, lol cubes and particle generators from entering or being created on your land. (There is no need for shoppers to rez boxes to get at the goodies inside: simply wearing them causes them to attach to your hand these days. Just right click and open them up so you can copy the items to inventory).
2. Go to preferences, advanced graphics and turn "Max Particle Count" to 0. Instantly solves any particle cloud problems, making finding the source far easier.
3. Do not engage griefers in combat using "defensive huds". Greifers get their jollies by annoying people, but they get much *more* fun by defeating people who make it interesting. You probably *don't* have the reflexes or skills necessary to engage in lamer combat. Just sit on a prim and you are immune to almost any attack and use your land tools, not potentially TOS violating weapons.
Apart from the strict object controls you mention John, at our events i have a pretty simple policy -- if i think you're a problem, you are a problem. Eject, ban, mute.
If im mistaken, I will apologize profusely, but it's not happened so far (crosses fingers..)
I don't think it's a good idea in a list of tips for especially new users, "don't be scared, don't be scared, it's pixels, it's a game". Because...their first reaction is very real, and can continue to be very real, and it can annoy and even anger them to be told not to get upset because someone is shooting them. They shouldn't *have* to suffer being shot (and when the Lindens stop advertising this as a shooting game by putting avatars suited in guns and ammo on their splash page, we'll see less of this).
Rather, the way to get people to deal with security problems is to educate them to know that they are in charge and can control their Second Life experience.
It's also important to distinguish between the more robust tools for islands, and the mainland challenges where more precautions have to be made.
The solution to particles isn't at all to turn off scripts. In fact, if the griefer has first released the particles, then removed the scripted object, as often happens, it will do no good.
The first thing to do is to get everyone to turn off the *view* of particles, which calms them and lessens the sense of pressure and hysteria in dealing with griefing. This is done in view/beacons/hide particles, but that can sometimes not work especially if the attack is a combination of scripted prims on physics *and* particles.
I find it's better to go into edit/preferences and graphics and turn particles down to "0" to remove the view completely.
John, turning off non-group build, script, insert objects simply *does not work* on a number of the latest forms of griefing attacks. I cannot repeat this enough, and I even talked to Philip Linden about this for an hour. The problem is that these objects are on physics. That means they are rezzed or built on neighbouring land, say, on a no-show neighbour's land on the mainland, and then set loose, and they tumble across sim borders or property borders and they cross right over to your property even if it is set to no build, etc. because that only applies *when the agent is on that parcel trying to do those things*.
You don't have to hire an expensive security company to do the very basic things it requires to control land *you own or rent*. In fact, having patrolling detectives, especially attired with ear buds and black suits, can themselves be a magnet for griefers.
Rather, you yourself need to familiarize yourself with the very, very simple check boxes on land you own -- not unlike the spam filters on your email settings -- and take charge of them. If you rent a venue, make sure its actual land owners have a representive there to handle trouble.
Another point I'd make in fairness to the Lindens is that if you are a concierge customer, which you would be if you own one island, you can now reach Concierge 24/7 on the web page interface. And the response time is immediate in recent months, and the arrival/solution time is getting better and better, I find even very massive griefing attacks on the mainland are being solved within 30 minutes these days. So while you are using your own trouble-shooting measures, if you think you have a more challenging problem, there's everything to be gained by opening up another tab and getting the Concierge on the web page, especially for some new version of griefing that doesn't seem to be dealt with yet -- the latest one is spamming you with requests "do you wish to animate your avatar?" which you cannot stop as they come too fast automatically -- only logging off solves them.
In fact, I can never emphasize enough to my customers -- the best, easiest, most effective way to deal with griefers is to log off for five minutes and deprive them of attention. It breaks the cycle of action/reaction.
"You don't have to hire an expensive security company to do the very basic things it requires to control land *you own or rent*. In fact, having patrolling detectives, especially attired with ear buds and black suits, can themselves be a magnet for griefers."
This falls under the "don't engage" rule... these types of security details are a *ton* of amusement for griefers, because they actually stand a chance of holding them back. You are more likely to attract the more skilled griefers... they love a challenge and you just created the game arena they love to play in.
As far as the physics enabled bounder bombs, I have the code for those and they do not seen them operate in the way you describe. In my tests (on my own region, thank you very much... curiosity and cats, don't 'cha know):
1. If parcels are set to "no-entry" then they "stick" at the edge of the parcel.
2. If the parcel is simply no-script, then they operate for however long the particle script is enabled for, but with particles turned off in the viewer that isn't an issue, and with scripts shut down they can't replicate.
3. No-build doesn't bother them, that I will admit.
Dharma Austin
John our firm agrees with most all of your points and we do not recommend visible security at all as you describe (black suits with ear buds) because you are right on that. It does attract grievers looking for a challenge! Our firm does not provide daily security detail - just testing and training. However many sim owners use trained volunteers and/or other security companies for that purpose and we would advise that their appearance blends in with the rest of the customers on that sim.
Secondly, each mainland parcel or island or chain of islands is unique and some do need and/or want the advise of experienced security persons to come in and train their large staff and/or estate managers, as the owners do just not have time to deal with it. We provide services unique to each client depending on their needs. We never recommend the use of guns or warfare gear.
Sorry, John, but you are not getting this about these objects -- I've lived through dozens of these attacks in real time for real, not as a test, but as a victim.
Number one, they don't 'stick at the edge" -- because they overhang over on to your parcel -- these are giant prim cubes, and they scud and roll along your property, and might as well be on it for the griefing value, regardless of the settings.
If you are talking about "pure particles" that's one thing -- but that's NOT how these attacks have been configured recently (as they were in recent months). Instead, they combined self-replicating spinning large prim cubes on physics also set to spew particles. So the only mitigation is to put autoreturn to "1" and to shut off the view.
A spinning cube on physics, even if its particle script inside dies, is still a nuisance. If thousands were already unleashed and there are many parcels with no autoreturn, the fact that their scripts should die on land with no-script enable is irrelevant.
Here's the problem: Linden land, that has autoreturn set way to high -- 10 minutes is a long time.
No-show neighbours with "0" autoreturn. This then causes these things to pile up, and if you cannot get rid of them fast enough, eventually the sim crashes, even if they do appear to be set also to be temp on rez -- I notice some disappear, but some remain for days if not returned.
The Lindens deterred these by raising the grey-goo fence, so that now when the objects are set out and put to self-replicate and spew the particles, they get an error "can't rez object". However, this is an arms race.
As for "not engaging," there are schools of thought on that, but no one can say that they have the final answer. For example, no self-respecting media in the United States would not cover Bin Ladn's video addresses -- the public has a right to know. The Middle Eastern media in particular covers suicide bombings in lurid detail. Yes, we all understand the received wisdom that griefers (and terrorists) thrive on attention, and the idea is to cut off their supply of that oxygen.
Except...griefers are in an arms race, more of them are spawning and you cannot understand this battle as one where you fight *that* set of griefers currently griefing the grid (and it's actually a very small number of people doing this). You won't fight them -- they frankly don't care whether you publicize them or not, they will still grief you, as constant testing shows (they grief people like me who denounce them or grief people completely out of the news who never speak of it in the theory that if they are silent it won't happen again -- omerta). It's silly to develop elaborate policies like "let's never cover griefers in the news, maybe they'll go away" or "let's never nuke griefers off our sims, that only makes them come back" -- because that doesn't work on them, they aren't psychology students. They grief not merely to get a rise out of you, they grief to let you know that they are destroying the world and hobbling it from progress and to make you feel as if you cannot cope. So it's very important to stand up to them, expose their evil, and tell right from wrong.
What you are fighting is for the hearts and minds of the next generation, so to speak. You expose and condemn griefing in an effort to appeal to those on the fence, to reach those who are indifferent, those who are a substrate to those who might be active, or those who might have a conscience one could still invoke, not to harm other people. It's a deterrent of its own. And that's how you have to look at it.
Photo credit: Shoshana Epsilon - sorry, missed that first time 'round!
I got a hold of some of the newer code, but I will admit that my tests were carefully controlled (it was my own sim that was going to choke and die if they got truly out of control). My results probably do not reflect a full fledge attack, and megaprims were not involved in my tests. I will defer to your personal experiences over a my brief experiments.
As far as the "do not engage" point, that was narrowed targeted to the concept of security details or "self help" via huds. The griefers may be nothing more than script kiddies, but they are more experienced and attempts to engage on their level are probably going to invite more to join the "fun" rather than discourage. The added problem is that engaging TOS violators by violating the TOS yourself (however justified it may seem) tosses your account in a gray area that is just best avoided.
As far as the broader "engagement" being defined as bring attention to griefers, that is one of those questions that I simply don't have a good answer for. Some feel that attention is the point and the driver, others feel that it is targeted activity. Realty seems to be a bit of both, but this question has been a persistent one that I have never seen a convincing answer for either approach. Probably because "greifers" are not the homogenized group we wish they were (so a simple solution would address all of them).
Web site owners went through a period where the "script kiddies" were successfully defacing sites (even sites with enough value that security should have been a priority) with alarming regularity and I remember being involved in tightening many sites up. The number of defacements today for major sites is remarkably low. Most successful defacements are not full defacements, but are instead XSS injection. While XSS is a huge problem that is poorly addressed today, it doesn't represent an actual compromise of the web *server*. (The fact that the XSS can deliver a phishing attack that is probably undetectable sometimes moots that fact quickly enough, however).
I'm hoping that this will take place in Virtual Worlds as well; the gray goo fence works fairly well, and although security is an arms race, significant victories can be won. However, I remain disappointed by the number of places in world with poor security practices; it just doesn't seem to strike people as important until after they are attacked. All the security fixes in the world on Linden Lab's part won't help if the residents don't implement hygienic spaces.
I started to respond to this article, but honestly I just couldn't fit it in a comment.
So I blogged it instead! :)
I'm a little surprised the "serious" Second Life business site doesn't instead discuss the real security issues -- and not the local hooligans TP-ing you virtual trees with imaginary toilet paper.
Looking-forward to that article, actually. Contact me, I'd be happy to give you some insight
Seconding some of the earlier comments, you don't need a security consulting firm at ALL. Basically, you are just inviting roleplayers to come in and use your land. Sure, you may pick up a few tips from them, but you can easily learn the same tips from the wiki or the above article.
Don't waste your money on "security services". You'll be particularly sorry when one of their roleplaying opponents decides to follow them to your sim.
Word to the wise.
Well I have to disagree with Lisa and we would be happy to provide a very happy client list to anyone wishing to inquire about using our services. We are not "role players".