Rosedale discloses FBI griefing probe to Congress
By Eric Reuters
SECOND LIFE, April 1 (Reuters) - Linden Lab Chief Executive Philip Rosedale testified before the U.S. Congress on Tuesday that he has asked the FBI to investigate denial of service attacks in Second Life, but reassured lawmakers that the online community is able to police itself.
“We actively and proactively have involved the FBI in looking into cyber-crimes where people have tried to deny service,” Rosedale said.
Last April, Reuters reported Linden Lab asked the FBI to investigate gambling in the virtual world. Rosedale’s statement to Congress reveals the cooperation between Linden Lab and U.S. law enforcement to be deeper than previously known.
“Griefing” is an antisocial phenomena endemic to Second Life, in which avatars take enjoyment from deliberately spoiling other users’ experiences. Denial of service attacks, where malicious hackers overload a Second Life sim’s capacity to shut it down, or defacement of virtual property or events with racist or pornographic images, are common tactics.
Rosedale’s statement came in scheduled testimony before the U.S. Congress Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet. While the informational hearing was billed as an examination of virtual worlds in general, the discussion focused almost exclusively on Second Life.
The outgoing Linden Lab CEO fielded gentle questioning about Second Life from the Congress, telling lawmakers that Linden Lab closely scrutinizes all transactions worth more than US$10.
“When people extract money from the virtual world, we run it through several complex systems,” Rosedale said, in response to lawmakers’ queries about protections against fraud in Second Life. “It’s likely the law is more enforceable in virtual worlds than the Internet in general.”
Lawmakers also probed Linden’s CEO about Second Life’s child protection measures. Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA) expressed alarm over the possible exploitation of Second Life by Islamist extremists.
“I am not advocating censorship. But I am asking what we can to to make certain that these glorious tools are not … changed into tools that facilitate the use of terror attacks on innocent civilians around the world,” said Democratic Rep. Jane Harman, of California.
Harman cited a British newspaper report last year saying that Islamic extremists were suspected of using Second Life to recruit and mimic real-life terrorism.
“We have never seen any evidence that there is any such activity going on,” Rosedale responded.
In addition to Rosedale, Susan Tenby (Second Life: Glitteractica Cookie) of TechSoup spoke about non-profit groups operating in Second Life, Larry Johnson (Second Life: Larry Pixel) of the New Media Consortium spoke about Second Life’s educational uses, and Colin Parris of IBM talked about his company’s experience in virtual worlds.
Asked if IBM had found its experiment in Second Life profitable, Parris seemed to have trouble coming to an answer. “There are some cost savings that occur in training,” he said. “If you look at simulation-based training, people retain more information.”
Parris said IBM’s involvement with Second Life was part of an ongoing experiment, believing virtual worlds are one component of what will eventually make up the “3D Internet.”
(Additional reporting by Peter Kaplan)
Well, Eric, glad you’re catching up. The Herald had the story about the FBI more than two years ago. It’s not a “disclosure”.
http://www.secondlifeherald.com/slh/2005/12/extra_philip_ca.html
What’s annoying about Philip’s “FBI case” is that it never has gone anywhere since December 2005. That’s a long time to be, uh, piecing together evidence when some of the culprits’ names and phone numbers have even been found by the Herald or other blogs and published.
It’s a shame that this was such a fluffball session (”gentle” doesn’t begin to describe the blatant choreographing that went on with this friendly congressmen and the hand-picked testifiers). Because had they been a little more up to speed, they could have said, ok, well, how did that FBI case turn out? When was it begun? Has sufficient evidence been gathered to go to trial yet?
Several times, I’ve tried to call their bluff on this by offering to supply testimony of my own on some of the cases. They weren’t interested. I think it’s fake.
Tue Apr 1, 2008 7:04pm PDTI was recently defrauded of my entire Linden balance. $230,000 Lindens were stolen from me. My account was compromised and the perpetrator simply “gifted” my entire balance to another account.
Linden Lab’s “complex system” of fraud protection never even noticed. The transaction wasn’t prevented. The transaction didn’t require a notification from me before it could proceed. No email or alert was ever sent to me.
I logged in to find my account emptied. I checked my account history on the Second Life website and contacted Linden Lab’s fraud department myself. They were unaware of the transaction until I pointed it out to them.
They assured me they would “look into it and get back to me.” I waited a week. They never got back to me. I called the fraud department again and once again they were unaware of the issue. Unaware that I had ever called them about it.
This time, they “looked into it” while I waited. After several minutes, the representative informed me that their records did indeed show that the money had been taken. Their records showed that the money had been cashed out. All of it. A transaction which had netted the thief a real-world sum of over $800 dollars raised no red flags at all. Such a withdrawal required no verification, in fact wasn’t even noticed.
They informed me that there was nothing they could do. My account balance could not be recovered. But I was free to “have a nice day.”
I’ve been processing my feelings about the theft for awhile, now. I thought I had made my peace with it until I came across this article and discovered Philip telling Congress about Linden Lab’s “complex system” of fraud prevention. Now, I’m upset.
Thu Apr 3, 2008 10:04pm PDTIm glad to have read paulie Femtos reply im sorry that happened to him but it is a great example here because it only confirms to me what I wittnessed myslef and that I listened to that congressional meeting intently and that a few of the questions asked of LL’s and how he responded ..it was a skirting around the issues most of then not now.
Could it have been considered pergury? but then agian was he sworn in? not sure really. We all know about Ginko and the other scams in the financial institutions and other cons in SL. Ehy dont they know about htis?
You cant tell me the committee didnt do thier homework and listened to the answeres to their questions and paused in thier own minds.These scams were not mentioned. Of course not. But the young man behind the mic speaking for SL well…hmmm…
I have been a bit startled by the large amounts of money being cashed out of SL in the past and used for RL and this 10L amount red flag didnt cut it for me. Id love to say more but I just cant. It does smells in Second Life, and it hasnt gone unoticed.
For a company to be considered in such a large partnership (lots of money involved and money to be made by possibly people in public office..that doesnt even have to be questioned either) having addressed our congressional committee is serious to me and an insult actually that it was painted in such a paper doll fashion which it is not. They pretty much said everything is honky dorry in the land of SL. It made me cringe when I know it hasnt been. People have walked out of sl with a lot of other residents money and if my intuition is correct the members on the committee are not as naive or convinced either. Trust me im sure they read into more than we know on this. I felt it. And im glad I felt it. but also …like I said a lot of money is involved and it wouldnt surprise me . theres always that factor of corruption in the big pork pie in the sky…it could be all over looked. We will see.
And I hope SL gets their act together..and when they do..will they still suport the general population of SL the ones who helped make it what it is today?
Yes someone concieved the virtual world but it took a population to bring it to Second life.
Thu May 1, 2008 11:05pm PDT