The Furious Angels
FA Discussion => General => Topic started by: Tbone on September 02, 2004, 02:11:33 am
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Most of you may have noticed that I have not been as active on these forums recently. A large part of that is due to internet problems I've been having, but I have also been busy taking care of the faction. I feel that things are under control enough now for me to enlighten you to a few things that have been going on. Myself and this faction as a whole has been attacked on two fronts for the past few days.
The first incident occurred when I received an IM from a Digital123456789. He told me that he had a message for me from "The Syndicate". He then sent me an email containing an audio file that threatened to get me banned from MxO altogether. Due to privacy issues, the audio file has been edited for you to listen to. You can listen to the audio file at http://www.followtheangel.org/tbone/threat.wav.
"Digital" explained to me that they would reveal information that would get me banned if I didn't "disappear". This, of course, was an empty threat, and I couldn't help but laugh at the audio. There was no way these guys could get me banned, but, due to the nature of the information, I felt it necessary to contact the MxO staff. We'll get back to this story in a second...
Later that night (actually early the next morning), several members of our faction received a message from "FAnoname" on AIM. The message contained a link: http://www.chasetheangel.tk. The culprit logged off before we could do an IP trace.
I went to the site to discover a mock up of our site. We were refered to as "The Flaming Angels". Clicking the edited pic on the main page led to a page making fun of myself, Seven, and likwidtek. A few minutes later hidden text was placed on the page - "spy.htm".
When I went to spy.htm, I discovered our ship roster pasted on the page. Not only was it our ship roster, but it was from the Staff/Captains Forum that most of you don't even know about. It contains tidbits of info on you such as if you are interested in being a captain. Also, I had updated the roster earlier that day, and it was the updated version. The page claimed that we had a spy in our ranks and that there was nothing we could do about it.
You can imagine at this point I became concerned. Our forums are protected via php permissions. These people had either hacked our whole site, hacked a leader's account, or was a leader who had turned coat on us. This would be enough to raise a good bit of alarm, but that wasn't the end. The last sentence was "A spy 'lurks'...". There were quotation marks around "lurks", which led us to lurks.htm.
Lurks.htm claimed that our site would be shut down in 4 days. We basically had 96 hours to back up our files before our site would no longer exist. The page was quickly updated again, however, this time stating we "may" want to back up our files. The 4 days threat was gone, and instead was a disclaimer that we "could not press charges" because it was just a "suggestion" now, and not a threat.
By this point I had a lot of unanswered questions, and thus began our toil to sort things out.
I updated the MxO staff on my status, including the recent events to my previously reported incident, suggesting that perhaps the two were related. I also contacted freewebs.com, the host that the mock page was located on. Freewebs.com took down the site the next day, claiming that it broke a certain code in Federal Law and was under investigation. We also contacted Vizaweb (our own webhost) in hopes of retaining a log of the IPs that accessed that particular ship roster thread. We could only get the log to midnight. Myself and Crimson were the only ones who had accessed the thread. You may say "Aha! Crimson is the culprit!", but both of our IPs accessed it at the same time. We were both in Teamspeak when we discovered everything. Unfortunately, the culprit accessed the thread before midnight (meaning the previous day), and the log was wiped.
Meanwhile, I received word from Thoth that MxO was investigating the matter. With that knowledge, I decided to do some investigating of my own. There were the obvious suspects - those who might have a grudge against myself and FA. Three people in particular came to mind: DoubleOhZero, Kaelmobius, and Solus. All three seemed a little bitter when they left FA.
I contacted DoubleOh first. He claimed and still does claim ignorance to the whole event. To further help clear his name, he offered his help in any way to assist in determining the culprits. I even think it was his idea to contact Freewebs on the matter. He didn't bat an eye when the site was shut down and put under an investigation, so for now he seems to be in the clear.
The other two suspects, Kael and Solus, I already knew had formed their own clan with ex-members Pyre and Darigaaz. Instead of contacting the two suspects directly, I talked to Darigaaz and Pyre. Darigaaz seemed completely innocent to the events that had occurred. He said he hadn't heard anything about it and even double-checked with his friends to see if they had heard anything about it. If Kael and Solus were involved, they hadn't told him. I took a slightly different approach with Pyre. Knowing the nature of Pyre's spirit, I began feeding him bait to lure out Kael and Solus if they were involved. I talked about how MxO had started an investigation and about how Freewebs had started one as well. I made sure to point out how the website was facing legal matters, and that we believed the same people who sent the audio also created the website. That was all it took.
Kaelmobius messaged me a few moments later confessing to the threatening audio. He swore up and down that he and Solus had no involvement in the website. He explained about how they got bored one night and created the audio file. They had no intention of ever sending it to anyone, but I guess curiousity got the better of them and they had to play the trick on me. They feared getting in serious trouble, though, so they came clear about it. I was appreciative of their honesty and updated the MxO team with my info. A message had already been sent to the AOL address that had sent me the file warning them that they had taken things too far. Problem number one had been resolved.
What was left and what still is left is the more serious threat - the website "hackers". The evidence I have gathered seems to lean towards a leader's account being hacked. I contacted every Captain and staff member and had them change their password. In the meantime, MxO contacted me once again. It seems they are willing to help with this problem as well, despite me learning that it isn't connected with my initial complaint. Warner Brothers is a part of AOL, and FAnoname is an AIM account. They are currently in the process of getting all the information needed to pin down this FAnoname (whoever this is should have really thought this out better...lol). In the meantime, however, it is still very possible that this person has access to our forum and perhaps the entire site.
If you observe any strange behavior, please report it to me immediately. It shouldn't be long before we discover the identity of the culprits, but in case my contacts do fall through, your help would be greatly appreciated. If, by a small chance, our site is deleted, we will still persevere. Just look for details on the main MxO forum or contact me. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me!
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DISABLED BY FEDERAL LAW AND UNDER INVESTIGATION! w00t!!!!!!
www.freewebs.com/fasux <was the address that chasetheangel.tk redirected to.
may no longer be up... due to our federal friends ;)
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Umm....wow? Some people seem to be taking a simple video game waaaaaaay too far.
These children have already made enough mistakes, and I can't wait till something serious happens to them. People should know better, bumps in the road like these do nothing to stop the path of the Angels, it will only enrage us, and drive us to press on, and dispatch all our enemies with extreme prejudice.
I hope you get some good news from the MxO staff, Tbone.
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lol, ahhh the publicity!
They changed the "threat" to a suggestion.
The suggestion of a threat is still illegal, but it does depend on where you are in the world!
-"Hey, we MAY kill you brutally"
-"oh, cool, I wont take that seriously then" .... I don't think so.
Meh, spys are always an issue, especially when the game is not even out yet.
Once the game is out, we shall see who is loyal to FA from their gameplay.
All I can say is either (a) someone has WAYYY to much time on their hands, or (b) someone is really pissed of with the Angels, which is silly since its all about RP.
Maybe the threat was all just RP ;)
Anyway, as long as you know the sitekey is safe, I'm happy.... ish.
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Well Tbone, if you haven't already perhaps backing up the site would be a good idea, just to be on the safe side, especially if there is a chance it could be deleted.
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well, if it does get deleted, that'll give us an ip to work from...
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Yea but I'd rather that didn't happen though.
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Lol..silly .wav...
"I know where you live - or perhaps not..but we are going to find out where you live -- maybe not, I don't feel like spending my time on that.."
That's just funny...like the thumbmovies.
The wav was a prank..but if someone has access to our site, or if a captain has turned against us, it's serious. I hope they can figure this out as soon as possible..
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Wooooaah. That's a shocker !
I've been chatting with Pyre AND Kael on and off in the past two weeks. I don't really know them that much. When I joined the FAs, Pyre was still in. He was very helpful and nice with the new recruit I was.
When I asked for help to get a sig, he told me that his friend Kaelmobius would gladly make one for me. His sig looks good so I was pretty happy about that.
After talking with these two guys for a while they told me Kael was kicked because of the TeamSpeak "incident". Pyre left the FAs to follow Kael. They just formed their own clan.
I spent some time talking with Kael, mostly about my sig and after a while I realized he was really pissed off with the FAs and especially with Tbone. I guess it's because he was kicked.
While we were talking, he started telling me all kinds of bad stuff about Tbone. Since most of it didn't make much sense and that Kael is only 15, I didn't give that crap much value.
Last time I spoke to him, he told me that everything had been fixed with the FAs and everything was fine now. At that point, I had no idea what he was talking about.
It all makes sense now.
Anyways, I don't know if Kael and Pyre are the guys that hacked the site but I know they are really close friends and that they seem to have the skills to do it.
I don't really know much else.
Kael seems like an intelligent young guy with issues...
Anyways, he is still working on my sig so next time I talk to him I'll try to learn more.
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That's pretty crazy, unfortunately I can't get that wav to play so I can't partake in the humor of the threat, but oh well. At least part of this thing is resolved, hopefully the deletion threats won't follow through.
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The link just has a "." in it not needed.
Remove the "." at the very end and you should be cool.
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Heheh.....that really does sound like me.....
And I wont say the names, but they were pretty funny Tbone and Seven...excpet for likwids. That has been circulating around TS for a while now....
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I just listened to the "threat" audio file.
What a bunch of morons.
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i dont understand why kael would be upset with tbone about being kicked out. he was the immature child that got himself kicked out, if hes mad at anyone, it should be himself. I bet tbone wouldn't have minded too much if he had done it while we were on our own ts server with no admins or anything, but the second we scared eris away, tbone was steamed :)
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Since I'm not on my computer, I can't listen to the wav file. But I had heard of this threat some time before. I agree with Syntax - these people seem to be taking this game way way waaay to far. Of course it could be argued that we're taking it not far enough, but when it comes to the point of legal obstuction, then that is way to far.
I do not know Kael, Pyre, Dari, or Solus...unforunately. But still forunately the creators of the wav file have been discovered so as not to cause added fear, and thinking someone is even more of a lurking enemy then they really are. However, if a captain's account was hacked, or no hacked, I'm not sure.
I'm really not sure which is better, a captain being a turncoat - or a hacker viewing our files. But I guess I'd have to go with the captain being a turncoat so that s/he could be discovered and then the access to the restricted files would be rightfully restored. But if it's a hacker that can get inside and view the files, there is actually nothing that's stopping him from doing it again.
There is an old saying "Be wise as a serpent, and harmless as a dove." I think we should try to put that to use in this situation.
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wow, listening to that just brightened my day. I have to wonder if they were entirely sober during making that.
From a publicity standpoint it's kinda neat though, now even the Feds know who we are.
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All I have to say about that threat message is: What the heck!? We know where you live, or maybe not. You better be scared...or maybe not...maybe you're in trouble...or maybe not...lalala...we're terribly frightening...well, maybe not...
As for the hacker, I suppose these are one of those times where our loyalty and dedication are put under the test. Although, I suppose if we get past this we'll be better prepared for the future. Also, was that list of crewmembers announced to the world or was it just revealed to Tbone? Does anyone outside the FA know about the list? Has anyone here seen the first Mission Impossible movie? "The list is out in the open! Do you hear me!?"
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Well, I already have a new name lined up... =D
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looks like we may have to resort to 1337 guys.....
*shudders*
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a little curious how many people actually saw our crew list... kind of ruins the surprise when the game releases
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I can probably find some variation on my name if worse comes to worse
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Hmmm....although doubleoh may be in the clear, a little conversation I had with him makes him look wierd in my book....
"What is said between us is supposed to stay private."
I of course responded "mmhmm", being me, and he responded
"Did you tell anything to Tbone?"
I, of course said "mmmmhmmm"
"I see where your loyalties lie."
Then he banned me from his b/l. Now, this just seems a little wierd him saying basically that my loyalties should lay with him....and the fact of th email he sent me.....Im not sure I should post this or whatnot but whatever.
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I have a new name in order in cae we do need to switch.
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I've got to say, the wav was pretty amusing.
Of course, there are lines that should not be crossed.
Then again, perhaps they were just playing a game with us, as the supposed puzzles in that webpage showed.
Empty threats and such, maybe it's all in good fun, and maybe it is serious. I don't know, but I wouldn't be exactly afraid.
But, let's think clearly for a second: What is a threat, and what is not?
1. I could find out where Tbone lived in about 30 seconds. This is public information, and should be treated as such.
2. For all logical purposes, this site's servers can not be hacked. Before I was accepted, I tried probing it a little. As sson as I found out it was hosted by a professional hosting company, I quit. You don't want to mess with hosting companies,and they are very secure anyways.
3. Our forums are infested with spies.They are just full to the brim with lurking spies. I see you, dhnedswhidao (scrambled). However, i was not aware that there were spies present on the captain level.
4. The only way to compromise this site is to brute-force the password. I think everybody should be required to have passwords that meet a certain complexity level, and have mandatory password changes every few weeks.
Speaking of all this, should FA have an intelligence/security group? I nominate myself :)
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if in fact there are spies... how could we even make a "security team" when we have no idea who is and isn't trustworthy?
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I'm all for some kind of watch dog to dig out spies and moles.
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Hmm....this is all very interesting.....very interesting...
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I'd sign up for an intelligence agency sort of thing. I intend of being a spy in game anyway. I'm not entirely sure how we would CATCH other spies though...
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Well if they make chairs we can sit in.... we could roleplay an interrogation....
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Once the game actually comes out it will probably be easier to tell. It will also be more important to do so as well if we have plans we need to keep secret. I suppose we could keep the most classified info just within the captains but apparently that's not safe either. I somehow doubt that a double agent could juggle the role of an FA captain in game as well as have another character in another clan without getting found out sooner or later. We'll have to wait and see.
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a few things to touch one. our crew list, made it to one person. tbone. second yes its scary but plans have been in motion for such complicated times. it has been going for some time now. and third, yes defently. once the game comes out it will defently be easy to tell whos loyal and who shall join the KOS list :)
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The website was not made public. The only people who saw it were a few people I showed it to, and whomever the "hacker" showed it to. It was not released to the public. It is Friday and our website has not been deleted yet, so I'm guessing that was a bluff. Almost every captain has changed their password, so maybe we're in the clear. Right now I'm still treating it as if we are not, though. Whoever it was did get scared, though. I contacted them via the email they provided and have yet to receive a response.
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Good stuff.
Let's hope we can stay one step ahead of these troublemakers.
Good job Tbone.
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All I can do is sit here and shake my head. Do people really take things like this to heart? Are thier egos so easily bruised by our faction? I just don't get how some people think.
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Hmm...I don't think we should assume things are safe. Things could be happening that we don't know about. I don't know a thing about hacking but would changing the password protect against that? Did they just guess it before? Did they use some sort of program? If people can always gain access to our secret information it won't be good for business.
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Same thing I was thinking Nights, but I didn't want to sound negative. I mean if they "hacked" a captain's password once, I'm not too sure how effective just changing it will be.
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Remember, there are programs that will just go through every single number/letter/character combination in the 3rd dimension, so passwords will be cracked no matter what we do if these guys are serious. Of cours,e they'd only have something that powerful if they were serious hackers. In that case, they could just shut us down if they wanted. Or they could know some-
Let me not ramble. Just know: If, and this is a big If to me, it was someone who hacked a captains account, and not a captain themselves, then theres nothing we can do other than hope we can trace an IP, although theyd be smart to at least use a new IP....
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*OT*
Hey...I just noticed something.
Your avatar is Vash isn't it?
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Just listened to the message.... What a bunch of bozo's. Personally that isn't something I'd waste my time with. Maybe give them a call and say hey cut the crap out, this can be construed as a threat and since you’re using the internet for it then it falls under the feds jurisdiction... Don't make me come back here again... I won't be pleasant next time... blah blah blah.
As for the hacker or turncoat we just need to keep our eyes and ears open and be ready.
Broin
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I just have to say this: what doesn't kill us makes us a hell of a lot stronger. We will only gain more respect from these threats, as it seems that whoever it was who did this thought we warranted it.
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This is probably not the last threat or hacking attempt we get.
The game hasn't started yet. We'll make some more ennemies as we start handing other people their own asses.
We just need to sleep with one eye open :-)
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Maybe once we do get in game they'll try and pay us back IN GAME.
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That wouldn't work, we'd just kick their ass and they would go and cry themselves to sleep
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I listened to the .wav the other day.
Quite..........................................................childish, really.
Yes, IC there will be some spies. Naturally. Part of the game, adds tension...yadda yadda.
The whole "...I can find out where you live...well, maybe not...yadda yadda..." was just dumb.
But, with the actions taken, sounds like the real-life lesson will be learned.
If this sort of thing is kept on a IC kinda level....even if it's sour grapes...it's harmless. I just hope whoever it was learns where that boundy lies, and why. I also hope that in the future, any covert ops by or against us will continue to respect that boundary.
Seriously, it IS just a game. Not worth actual trouble.
Other than that.....
Eternal vigilance IS the price of freedom. :)
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The WAV made me laugh, that's crazy though, chances are they're just bluffing but better safe then sorry. They probably disappeared now that it's under investigation, i'm amazed with the MxO staff helping so much, would never see that coming, awesome work though tbone, hope everything gets resolved soon :D
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Why are people still worried about the .wav file? We have already found the culprits of that particular situation. We are now concerned with how someone got a copy of our list.
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Didn't some members of the Nereus fleet want to spy on us? Way back when Samuri and a few others were plotting against us in their public forums I remember them saying something about spying.
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Checked up on that. They decided there was no real reason to hate us so they stopped hating us.
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whaddya know? *rolls eyes*
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Just a quick note:
Though WB (and their parent company, which of course includes AOL under its corporate umbrella) cannot give out information about users on the AOL/AIM network, the hacking threat communicated by 'FAnoname" is being handled behind the scenes here. Best case scenario is that you'll never hear anything else about it...and since that appears to be the case, I think you can now rest easy in the knowledge that your site is safe for the moment.
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I suppose WB don't want to encourage any hacking, as may be implied from the games content (hey I can do a hacker, and tap data nodes!)...
Thats at least good news IMO for TBone and the FA.
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Best case scenario is that you'll never hear anything else about it...
I can see the headlines now... 14 year old mysteriously disappears, large media corporation not available for comment. :)
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Best case scenario is that you'll never hear anything else about it...
I can see the headlines now... 14 year old mysteriously disappears, large media corporation not available for comment. :)
Haha...! XD
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Very nice Theios :D
And I may not have mentioned this before but nice to see you MxO.Eris
Broin