Crime Wave Thwarted in Second Life 183
Ponca City, We Love You writes "The Mercury News reports that a vulnerability in the way Second Life protects a user's money has been identified. Risks for users are reportedly limited because the researchers say the flaw can be quickly patched. The flaw exploits a known problem with Apple's QuickTime - when a virtual character passes by an infected object planted by hackers, the Second Life software activates QuickTime so it can play the video or picture. Hackers can direct the Second Life software to a malicious Web site that then allows them to 'take over the user's avatar and force it to hand over its Linden cash. Second Life is recommending that users disable streaming video playback in the Second Life viewer except when you are attending a known and trusted venue.' The hack raises tough questions for operators of virtual worlds. Should they be as secure as banks and guarantee the safety of money and property that characters in the world possess?"
short answer - No (Score:3, Insightful)
Not-so-virtual (Score:5, Insightful)
Considering that you buy Lindens with real currency, then yes. Yes, they should be just as secure, since it's real money you're dealing with.
Real life banks are not secure. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:short answer - No (Score:4, Insightful)
I've never actually seen this "Second" life, and I can't imagine why people would spend real money on it, but apparently a lot of people do. It must be worth it to them for the entertainment value.
Re:short answer - No (Score:1, Insightful)
SL's economy is a giant sinkhole anyway (Score:5, Insightful)
A bank called "Ginko" that recently went insolvent sent shockwaves through the economy lately. Yes - there are Second Life banks, (multiple) Second Life stock exchanges, and all sorts of economic institutions: however, the operators of these venues often don't know the difference between an interest rate and their shoe so most people that end up dumping their funds into them lose all their money. Some people have thousands if not tens of thousands of dollars tied up in the game. As the Linden (the currency of Second Life) is not based on anything, Linden Labs simply dumps currency into the market whenever they feel like it. So economic problems are pretty common. Guaranteeing anything is a difficult proposition for the companies running the games: most have simply said "the *unit of currency here* is not money, nothing is guaranteed" to avoid lawsuits when someone messes up and loses a grand because a sim went down. So it's a dangerous game and the only real winners in "investing" in Second Life are LL.
Re:short answer - No (Score:5, Insightful)
Can't have the virtual world mixing with reality can we?
Re:short answer - No (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Not-so-virtual (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Not-so-virtual (Score:4, Insightful)
Alternately, can one buy US currency with Linden currency? However, this test would merely cause theft of Linden currency to be a crime with "real" damages; it would not require the storage and management of currency to be as secure as with banks.
Re:short answer - No (Score:1, Insightful)
A lot of people are really stupid to you know, like this guy calling for virtual worlds to involve bank security and liability. only from bloggers i swear...
Re:short answer - No (Score:1, Insightful)
Personally, I don't at all see the appeal of "second life". If you're going to be involved in something that is just like real life, but is not real life, and is an inferior low resolution copy to boot, why not just go to a park and watch the squirrels play?
Of course, I'm here commenting at 12:30 on a Sat. night, so I'm not exactly taking my own advice. But it's still good advice.
I start to think more and more that second life is just another manifestation of the ongoing trentd for Americans to retreat into their own little worlds and live in as much fantasy as possible. Probably because life sucks so much...
Re:short answer - No (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Not-so-virtual (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:short answer - No (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:short answer - No (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm sure there exists casual SL players. Probably some that play even less than you spend on slashdot. You can easily spend hours and sink tons of real money on any hobby, if people want to throw it away on a virtual world that's their business. Some people play WoW, I can't understand that either, but a lot of my friends play it and really enjoy it. It's worth the time and money to them because it's enjoyable. Wouldn't be to me, and I'm guessing not to you either, but that's why we're not WoW subscription holders. If I was though, I'd expect a certain degree of security when handling my transactions, credit card info, and account.