Why is Second Life support slow right now? #StopPotato1

Some very bad people did a Very good job at convincing some good people to hand over their passwords and totally crushed the support team

Brad Oberwager

A resident gives out their password (the example given by Brad Oberwager was “potato1”), Linden Lab support spend 3 hours helping this resident get their account back. The next day the resident changes the password BACK to the COMPRIMISED PASSWORD.

That’s the kind of thing (level of stupidity) that LL support is having to deal with right now.

They have a backlog from March of tickets, caused by trying to make things easier for residents by allowing real-time payments, which resulted in a deluge of account takeovers and subsequent support requests.

Obviously not all the tickets are for account takeovers, there’s regular stuff too, but a load of them that arrived at once seem to be and the lab are working through it all methodically.

Maybe if a person that did that happens to read this, would they even realise the amount of wasted time they caused?

Can you imagine the needless frustration of Lab staff at the sheer stupidity of that resident? (To clarify no-one at Linden Lab called anyone stupid, that’s simply my opinion of someone that would do that.

Of course the Elephant in the room is: Why did the system allow the resident to re-use the weak password?

This is why the Lab issued their blog post about account security last week.

I just wanted to get this out there, because it was stuck in my head, stopping me thinking about what I’m meant to be focussing on tonight; the transition from Tillia to Thunes for payment processing in Second Life. That’ll have to wait until tomorrow now.

The hashtag #StopPotato1 was typed in the text chat of a Zoom call with the Lab by someone else, I’m not taking credit for it I just thought it perfectly summed up things, I just had to use it.

Avatar Account Security – Stop Self Hacking

Today there was a Zoom meeting held between the Second Life Blogger Network and Linden Lab, to discuss “account safety and security”.

As you’re probably aware by now, these meetings get arranged when the Lab has something in particular it wants to share with the Community and they know that lots of Residents don’t see or read the announcement blog posts(me included).

When I received the invitation email and read the subject matter my first thought was “they’re going to ask us to push MFA” (Multi Factor Authentication).

Which was correct, but not the main focus as I’d expected. I was hoping that at this meeting they were going to announce the introduction of recovery keys when setting up MFA, but no.

The main cause of account takeovers are people sharing their passwords. So the accounts aren’t so much being hacked, but as Brad Oberwager said in the meeting, they’re “Self-hacking”.

This is because fraudsters have gotten so good at social engineering. Basically becoming your friend and duping you into sharing your login details.

So there’s some simple DO’s & DON’Ts that the Lab would like to reiterate:

DO:

  • STOP sharing your passwords
  • Change your password (Can you remember when you changed it last? No? Change it NOW.)
  • Enable Multi-Factor Authentication in your account Dashboard

DON’T:

  • Buy Linden Dollars outside of the Second Life platform. (It’s always a scam and Linden Lab can’t help you.)
  • Click on links in chats (yes they could disable them, but can you imagine the backlash?)

All seems quite obvious really doesn’t it? Well yes, but people still aren’t doing these things.

Remember that the Lab could force a grid-wide password reset at any time. The reason they don’t (it would make things easier for them) is that there are people that have been logging in for a decade or more with a saved password they may not even know anymore. So change your password and keep it safe.

You may be wondering why you’re hearing about more account takeovers than you used to, as always it comes down to money. Linden Lab wants to make financial transactions as smooth and timely as possible, everyone likes things to be easy, right? Well the downside of doing real-time transactions is that you become a very attractive target to bad people, that are very good at what they do.

There’s a lot of trust in Second Life, which is great for community spirit, but when it comes to your account password, treat it like your bank details; don’t share it.

Linden Lab Official Post

(Yes, I did practice what I preached and changed my password.)

Herb & Fable – Beyond Lavendell – The Public Beta Quest

On the 1st of March Herb and Fable (HnF) went into public Beta testing, and has had a steady signup of new players.

This was boosted by players joining the game to take part in the Lavendell Quest during Fantasy Faire. If you completed the Lavendell Quest, some of this will be familiar, some not, if you didn’t complete that quest, it is still available to play at the Lavendell Quest region (link below).

For the Beta launch Julula created a similar Quest to introduce players to the different elements of the game and how it all works.

As you progress through different tasks, you’ll receive a whole bunch of Badges, that appear on your profile on the website and an object inworld that you can display, or add multiple ones to a display board.

Show spoiler

The “First Altar” sequence, is similar to the other Rituals previously released by Jinx. If you previously purchased one of the other ritual sets, there will be an update to a Herb & Fable version when they become available, that will allow you to earn associated XP and related badges.

There’s quite a collection of items you need to collect for your Ritual:

Show spoiler
List of items required to perform the Ritual

Like the Lavendell Quest, tracking these items down will have you searching high and low for them all.

One of the steps in preparing for the Ritual is carving your First Wand!

In the ritual you will learn about setting up an Altar with your various Craft tools, where to place them and their significance. These steps are the same as the ones you may take if you set up a real-world Altar at home or other location.

I set out the Rirual items on the counter in my tavern, in the corresponding directional locations:

The Chalice, representing the aspect of Water:

Show spoiler of the Chalice

The Feather, representing the aspect of Air:

Show spoiler of the Feather

You can get your Herb & Fable Beta pack in the Herb & Fable store on Centauria.

However given a screenshot posted today by Julula in the #Teasers channel of the Discord server, we may be out of Beta very soon!

Image from Gyazo

(The hovertext says V.1.01, the Beta version says Beta 0.11)

Herb & Fable links:

Blogger Challenge: My New Shiny: Dark Star

I found a new store I love: Madame Noir. The Faire is mostly all about bright and shiny stuff, but you can have shiny Black too! The dress is called Lux, so why “Dark Star” in the title of the post? Simply because that’s what sprang into my mind when I saw the way the light reflected off it, it looked like a sparkling star in the darkness. Of course I needed an appropriate setting to show you it, so Nox Sanctum seemed appropriate as the Faire slowly begins to drift into the Mists for another year.

Upper closeup
The Boots!

To Know the Dark
by Wendell Berry

To go in the dark with a light is to know the light.
To know the dark, go dark. Go without sight,
and find that the dark, too, blooms and sings,
and is traveled by dark feet and dark wings.

THE FAIRELANDS WILL CLOSE TUESDAY 6TH APRIL MIDNIGHT SLT

(Then you’ll have to track down all the creators mainstores yourself, so better go grab the stuff at the Faire?!)

Credits:

Lavendell’s Green Witch – Herb & Fable Faire Quest

update: The Lavendell Region quest was bought at the live auction at Fantasy Faire and has been moved to a new region called “Lavendell Quest” – you can go along and do the quest if you didn’t get chance to do it at the Faire.  Even if you DID do it at the faire – extra ingredients have been added so you can do it again at the new location!

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Lavendell%20Quest/122/134/32

If you somehow missed it (how ? See previous posts linked below) Jinx released a fun game called Herb & Fable. For a taster of how it works, there’s a fun Quest on Lavendell, which I’m currently working my way through.

Here I’m part way through, grinding up some Turkeytail mushrooms that I’ve first harvested and dried. It’s an ingredient in a tea that I’ll be making when I gather the remaining ingredients, hinted at in the message you get from the starter NPC:

[07:32:18] Ella the Wise Fox: Welcome Fairelander. The first step of your journey is about collecting some healing herbs for different purposes – harvest what the land offers. Turkey Tail mushroom with its potent healing powers, saffron from the crocus – a very valuable spice, honey from bees – the saviours of our planet and cinnamon with its powerful flavour and healing properties.

Sounds like there’s going to be a few more steps for me to complete before I can brew my tea. If you get stuck, there’s a very helpful and active group of players in the Herb & Fable Inworld Group and Discord Server if you need a hint or three.

Fortunately there’s some lovely spots on Lavendell where you can sit and take a break from Questing or shopping and admire the beauty of the place.

However don’t spend too long chilling, you’ve now only got a few days before the Fairelands vanish into the mists again.

THE FAIRELANDS WILL CLOSE TUESDAY 6TH APRIL MIDNIGHT SLT

If you enjoy the Lavendell Quest, you can continue playing Herb & Fable by clicking the big sign in the Herb & Fable Faire Store for how.

I obviously had to put together an outfit made of Faire merchant items to match my chosen game class of Green Witch, see below.

Outfit Credits:

Previous Herb & Fable posts:

Bench location: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Lavendell/145/201/92

Blogger Challenge: I Remember 2024: Party in the Library

I remember…there was a party as part of the Desert Foxes roleplay. It brought the storyline towards the end and raised several thousand Lindens throughout, pushing the annual Faire total so far for 2024 over the 9 Million L$ mark.

Lots of spectacular light and particle effects occurred in the Library as the story unfolded.

Sonya
“Boots” (Changed into White when a certain donation milestone was reached!)

The Dragons Guard

Darkness… penetrated only by a few torches, the glow of the lava well and the reflection off the hoard. The hoard, and a few fragile eggs that couldn’t be moved, they’re why she’s here, guard duty.

Under normal circumstances this wouldn’t even be an issue, the Dragons do it instinctively. However when the time comes that Mortals can enter the Faire, that doesn’t really work; since the Dragon instinctive response is to just to breathe intruders to cinders. So after a few unfortunate incidents, the Dragon Council agreed to keep away from the paths the Mortals trod during this period. Obviously that meant someone had to guard this stuff, if a Mortal were to take an extra souvenir from the chamber… it wouldn’t go well for the mortal race after that. At least it’s quiet and warm down here, blissful when you’re cold-blooded, but that’s why her race got the job; she won’t pass out from the heat of the lava well. The draconis are also the only humanoid race the Dragon Council will trust, due to their distant genetic history that no-one seems to know the origins of, but accepts because fireproof scales for skin counts for something.

At that point one of the gates opens and interrupts her thoughts, a mortal comes down the steps into a pool of light and sees her standing there. She points with her staff at the opposite gateway “Greetings Fairelander, do not dally here, on your way, please.”

Credits:

Literary Fetival: Poetry Reading by Sidhe Fairelander

Sidhe Fairelander

Earlier today I atteneded a poetry reading by Sidhe Fairelander of poetry she composed for Relay of Life.

Reading from a Chronicle of Gwath by Sidhe Fairelander
Sidhe Fairelander has written a volume of poetry for Relay for Life since 2020. During the first 10 days of the Faire she writes as many poems as she can including every region and as many people as possible. Songs of the Faire 
In addition, she has also been writing verse for last year and this, celebrating the work of Amethyst Ytelde and Scarlet Fey in creating the story of Mithlumen over the centuries.Her second of two readings from her very special Chronicles takes place today.
Gwath is Chapter 4 of the Mithlumen Series ~ This is a realm where intrigue reigns supreme and style meets sophistication in the dark elegance of the Dark Elves.  Dare to embrace the living night of Gwath, the enigmatic world that stands defiantly as the fierce rival of Mithlumen.

You can pick up copies of the Gwath Chronicles Chapters 1 & 2 for 0L by clicking the poster frames on the wall through the archways.

Location: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Gwath/118/156/66

Gwath Region Tour

Last night was the LitFest Tour of Gwath, the Region in this years Faire sponsored by Scarlet Fey. Since my first purchase in the Faire was the Gwath armour, I just had to go along.

Scarlet Fey
Amethyst

Our hosts and the Region builders; Scarlet Fey (Sari6t) & Amethyst Ytelde (Jeanette Doobie)

Header Image Outfit Credits:

Quills & Curiosities Team – Jail n Bail

On Tuesday I attended the Jail n Bail event of Dacien and Marcel Blackwood, builders of the Nox Aetherna region in this years Fantasy Faire. The Fairelands Watch hauled them in for questioning over a suspected Ruckus? To the soundtrack provided DJ Ketsui Naiboo, Fairelanders gathered to cast their votes as to whether giant bats should be allowed to roam the Faire, by paying RFL Donation vendors. As always at Jail n Bail events, a fun time was had and plenty of donations made!