Oct 8 1:40 PM PST

There were several reports of self-replicating objects in-world. We are currently investigating. There are new reports of grey goo in-world, which may be causing teleportation failures and other slow downs. We have temporarily moved to Linden only logins.

Oct. 8 2:45 PM PST

We are still in the process of investigating the grid-wide griefing attacks; as such we have momentarily disabled scripts and ?money transfers to objectsas well on the entire grid.

Oct. 9 2:02 AM PST

A few moments ago, everyone in-world was removed and login was switched to Gods-only while we investigate further.

Confused What you just read were postings from the official blog of Linden Lab as they responded to the latest griefer attack. If you are not familiar with virtual worlds or gaming you might not be familiar with the term griefer, which refers to a gamer who abuses game features or exploits bugs to disrupt online or video games. This time the griefer chose grey goo as the weapon of mass disruption, blanketing SL with gooey grey self-replicating objects that overwhelmed Second Life servers.

This is not the first time Second Life’s grid had been downed by an in-world release of self-replicating objects. The first attack was in October of 2005. SL is particularly vulnerable to self-replicating attacks because content creation is free so the griefer suffers no financial costs for unleashing millions of objects into SL and self-replicating script is difficult for Linden Lab to see. Add to that Linden Labs drive to reach one million registered accounts with its free and recently relaxed requirements for new registrants; most significantly no billing information is required for free accounts although these accounts no longer receive 250 free Lindens. And you get the potential for registrants to enter SL for only one reason to ?rain terrorupon Second Life’s maker and customers as was threatened and carried out last week.

Denial of service attacks undermine SL’s viability as a place to play, work and invest. They cost Linden Labs cash and credibility. And interfere with commerce in world, which costs Linden Labs customers money. Since the attacks cause serious economic disruption Linden Labs has enlisted real world law enforcement, the FBI to help them find and prosecute the griefers.

Why is this important to non-residents of SL?

In the beginning Second Life positioned itself as a social virtual world where users were encouraged to treat SL as their canvas and built-in content creation tools as their palette. Today Second Life is positioned differently; as a platform for commerce and education bridging the gap between real and virtual world businesses, governmental, educational and non-profit enterprises.

So far this new position is working. Sixty schools and universities including Harvard Law School and Pepperdine offer courses in Second Life. Corporations such as Sony/BMG, IBM, Audi, and Sun MicroSystems are venturing into SL. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is developing simulations to teach the public about tsunamis and Play2Train, a federally funded bioterrorism-preparedness project has its own virtual town and hospital in SL. Just this week Vodaphone announced plans for its own Vodaphone Island in SL and Starwood Hotels opened its prototype hotel in SL called Aloft.

The denial of service attacks raises interesting questions. Are virtual worlds sustainable If so, what does sustainable development look like in a virtual world Is a virtual world a good place to invest if you are Harvard or American Apparel or NOAA, or a resident who simply wants to have their dream wedding in SL?

Mark Wallace of 3pointD.com a blog about the metaverse and 3 D web has taken a first step. He scheduled a meetup on Oct. 22, 2006, in SL to discuss virtual world sustainability. If you want to attend the meetup, RSVP by logging into SL and sending an Im to Walker Spaight, or leave a comment on the 3pointD blog.

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