Acedeal
January 12th, 2005, 12:00
It’s been a little over a week since Jerry “Skyhuntr� Heneghan posted about Operation Punk Buster. It’s time to give the community an update so you know we haven’t forgotten.
We’re not going to share details about our response – ever. Don’t expect any. However, I do want the community to know that we’re getting ready to deliver a new version that includes many features designed to reduce the problems we’re running into in addition to some rather nifty features. The coolest part of making this happen is it happened as part of our normal development. While we worked a little harder to get the extra security features in, it had no impact on our schedule.
No solution is bullet-proof, and only a fool would think one could be. But we solve problems as they come up in a matter of hours – in some cases less time than it takes a bad guy to create a new problem. And our solutions allow us to make changes almost immediately to catch new things the bad guys come up with. Either way, it’s relatively easy when we put our heads to it.
We’re also adding a human element to our response. For the past few weeks we’ve been doing something fast, now we have to do something good. We’re working that out because it’s a little more complicated than reaching into the database and turning off a few accounts. The AACMs are important to us, and we want to make sure they are a part of it because they know this community well and they have to deal with the results of our actions first-hand.
Our bans last week came without notice and took the bad guys by surprise. They don’t know the extend of what we know, and moreover how we know it. For example, we have the means to detect bad guy activities that I know the bad guys do not know we can detect. That’s the way we want it, too – while we haven’t banned them yet, we’re using them to collect more data, track down their friends, and their friends, and learn more as we discover new behavior. Truth be told, the bloodiest day in America’s Army Game account history is still ahead of us and we got most of the information leading to that day from the bad guys themselves!
That doesn’t alter that we should have done something earlier – but priorities were what they were and the activity of the bad guys was low-level, well within what I’d consider normal tolerances for an online game when I got here. It escalated and we took notice.
By the way, there’s something to consider in that statement that gets missed time and again: we took notice. By we, I mean the entire AA team. That includes Public Applications, Government Applications, Ignited Minds, everyone associated with the development of the project – and the United States Army.
That last fact should give some of the bad guys pause, and yet it hasn’t. Some of you (and clearly the bad guys are among them) don’t always remember that this game, and all accounts and derivative products, are the property of the United States Army. When you tamper with the game, not only are you breaking the EULA you’re misusing Army property – and, worse, you’re misusing US Army computer programs and equipment.
Tampering with software and servers owned or used by the Army is cyber crime.
In the early 1940’s, Japan learned an important lesson – “let the sleeping giant lie.� We may not react swiftly, but when we do it’s with unstoppable force. The Army has partners that deal with cyber crime as a matter of course. These include not just various Army IT departments, but also the Department of Justice, the Secret Service, and the Federal Bureau of Investigations.
It’s going to get uncomfortable for some of the bad guys, but you know what? They brought it on themselves. Knowing this anyone who continues to be bad is just plain foolish. Keep trying, though. Sooner or later the bad guy will realize we’ve known about him for a while… and by then it’s too late.
Allow me to speak directly to the bad guys for a moment: When you get banned, know that we know and have records showing you were doing something that’s a violation of terms of service, breaks your EULA, and also happens to be against the law. We know who you are, and can track down where you play from. We have incontrovertible proof you did something illegal. The Army is angry, and we’re coming for you.
Phil DeLuca
_________________
Phil DeLuca
Executive Producer - Public Applications
America's Army Game Project
ONE TEAM
http://www.americasarmy.com/
We’re not going to share details about our response – ever. Don’t expect any. However, I do want the community to know that we’re getting ready to deliver a new version that includes many features designed to reduce the problems we’re running into in addition to some rather nifty features. The coolest part of making this happen is it happened as part of our normal development. While we worked a little harder to get the extra security features in, it had no impact on our schedule.
No solution is bullet-proof, and only a fool would think one could be. But we solve problems as they come up in a matter of hours – in some cases less time than it takes a bad guy to create a new problem. And our solutions allow us to make changes almost immediately to catch new things the bad guys come up with. Either way, it’s relatively easy when we put our heads to it.
We’re also adding a human element to our response. For the past few weeks we’ve been doing something fast, now we have to do something good. We’re working that out because it’s a little more complicated than reaching into the database and turning off a few accounts. The AACMs are important to us, and we want to make sure they are a part of it because they know this community well and they have to deal with the results of our actions first-hand.
Our bans last week came without notice and took the bad guys by surprise. They don’t know the extend of what we know, and moreover how we know it. For example, we have the means to detect bad guy activities that I know the bad guys do not know we can detect. That’s the way we want it, too – while we haven’t banned them yet, we’re using them to collect more data, track down their friends, and their friends, and learn more as we discover new behavior. Truth be told, the bloodiest day in America’s Army Game account history is still ahead of us and we got most of the information leading to that day from the bad guys themselves!
That doesn’t alter that we should have done something earlier – but priorities were what they were and the activity of the bad guys was low-level, well within what I’d consider normal tolerances for an online game when I got here. It escalated and we took notice.
By the way, there’s something to consider in that statement that gets missed time and again: we took notice. By we, I mean the entire AA team. That includes Public Applications, Government Applications, Ignited Minds, everyone associated with the development of the project – and the United States Army.
That last fact should give some of the bad guys pause, and yet it hasn’t. Some of you (and clearly the bad guys are among them) don’t always remember that this game, and all accounts and derivative products, are the property of the United States Army. When you tamper with the game, not only are you breaking the EULA you’re misusing Army property – and, worse, you’re misusing US Army computer programs and equipment.
Tampering with software and servers owned or used by the Army is cyber crime.
In the early 1940’s, Japan learned an important lesson – “let the sleeping giant lie.� We may not react swiftly, but when we do it’s with unstoppable force. The Army has partners that deal with cyber crime as a matter of course. These include not just various Army IT departments, but also the Department of Justice, the Secret Service, and the Federal Bureau of Investigations.
It’s going to get uncomfortable for some of the bad guys, but you know what? They brought it on themselves. Knowing this anyone who continues to be bad is just plain foolish. Keep trying, though. Sooner or later the bad guy will realize we’ve known about him for a while… and by then it’s too late.
Allow me to speak directly to the bad guys for a moment: When you get banned, know that we know and have records showing you were doing something that’s a violation of terms of service, breaks your EULA, and also happens to be against the law. We know who you are, and can track down where you play from. We have incontrovertible proof you did something illegal. The Army is angry, and we’re coming for you.
Phil DeLuca
_________________
Phil DeLuca
Executive Producer - Public Applications
America's Army Game Project
ONE TEAM
http://www.americasarmy.com/