Persistent World Griefers

[Legacy_FireWraith]

               From what I understand, he's using key generation hacks (illegal) to bypass Key bans, and using his ISP's dynamic address allocation to bypass IP bans.  Banning Bosgald's entire IP range (i.e., banning all of the address blocks allocated to his ISP (telenet.be) may prove more effective.  Depending on the actions they take, it may be worth considering referring the matter to the abuse departments of his (or others') ISPs, or even to Law Enforcement authorities if they violate the laws in your location.  The best advice I would have for those routes is to keep as many logs as you can.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_FireWraith]

               Further information of interest for those hosting in the USA:

The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act is a law passed by the United States Congress in 1986, intended to reduce cracking of computer systems and to address federal computer-related offenses. The Act (codified as 18 U.S.C. § 1030) governs cases with a compelling federal interest, where computers of the federal government or certain financial institutions are involved, where the crime itself is interstate in nature, or where computers are used in interstate and foreign commerce.

It was amended in 1988, 1994, 1996, in 2001 by the USA PATRIOT Act, 2002, and in 2008 by the Identity Theft Enforcement and Restitution Act. Subsection ( of the act punishes anyone who not just commits or attempts to commit an offense under the Act, but also those who conspire to do so.

The CFAA defines “protected computers” under 18 U.S.C. § 1030(e)(2) to mean a computer:

    * exclusively for the use of a financial institution or the United States Government, or, in the case of a computer not exclusively for such use, used by or for a financial institution or the United States Government and the conduct constituting the offense affects that use by or for the financial institution or the Government; or
    * which is used in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce or communication, including a computer located outside the United States that is used in a manner that affects interstate or foreign commerce or communication of the United States;

Criminal offenses under the Act include:

   2. Intentionally accessing a computer without authorization to obtain:
          * Information from any protected computer if the conduct involves an interstate or foreign communication
   6. Knowingly and with the intent to defraud, trafficking in a password or similar information through which a computer may be accessed without authorization.

Disclaimer - I am not a lawyer, nor am I an authority on what does or does not constitute an offense under this or other laws.  Full text of the applicable sections of US Code can be found at http://www.law.corne...de/18/1030.html
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Jenna WSI]

               

Thayan wrote...

So on your way to school get in the car when a stranger stops and offers to give you a ride?

Gotcha.

Hookay... Going to ignore the false analogy logic there. I wasn't trying to take a jab at you or anything. I just didn't agree. *Shrug*
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Zanzibarr]

               Seems there is a lot of jerkishness going on in the community at the moment. These griefers are a scourge on honest players, just like deceitful server admins are.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_PurpleDragonKnight]

               

Jenna WSI...

I have to respectfully dissagree. I love seeing a community that is welcoming and helpfull to new people. I think it's better to reemburse a player that suffered a loss from a griefer, than turn to a method of prevention that includes a negative impact on someone who is usually not a griefer.. but just a new player. Of course, it all depends on if the old players are willing to deal with the reprecussions.

Well said. It's important to not let them harm the playerbase. If we become more tentative and anti-social, they are in effect succeeding in their original aim (to spoil our enjoyment).
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_FireWraith]

               Agreed - better to fight griefers as what they are, than to let the friendly atmosphere of a server become poisoned.

That said, though, I don't think it would hurt if a server wanted to remind their players to be careful about "suspicious" behavior.  These folks follow a pretty standard pattern, and if one of your players thinks something may be odd/unusual/wrong with a new player on an unfamiliar login, it never hurts to suggest they refer it to a staff member.  It could just be a lost/confused newbie in need of help, after all... or it could be one of these jerks looking to mess with people.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Zanzibarr]

               Do CD-key gens actually work online? I'm 95% sure they don't.. Or at least, none existed a year ago, when I needed one badly (lost my own keys). I tried all the different ones, and none of them generated a key that worked online - You get the message 'CD Key unauthorized', even though you can load up the game with that key.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_FireWraith]

               I don't honestly know.  In theory it's certainly possible.  They might simply have a sufficiently long list of stolen/borrowed/etc keys to use.  In practice though what I have observed is that there is a sufficient number of keys in his/their possession to allow them to switch beyond the patience of many servers to keep playing whack-a-mole.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_FireWraith]

               Regardless, if anyone wants, I found it much easier and more effective to single out the IP blocks in order to block dynamic IP resets.  If you're dealing with an ISP that is also used by some of your players though, you might have to resort to different measures.
               
               

               

                     Modifié par FireWraith, 15 mars 2011 - 10:23 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_SHOVA]

               It is likely that they own multiple copies of the game, and expansions. They could enter key 1 from the base game, add key from copy 2 of SOU, and key 7 of Hotu. Generating a list of usable, and legal keys, and having multiple ones with wich to annoy.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Fellanor]

               Couple of things:

1) I'm not sure if it's a good idea to be publically posting your strategies and information with regard to banning him/them?

2) Let's remember that this is a game. What do you intend to say to their ISP when you phone them up?

"This kid who lives in his parents' basement is making maxed out barbarian half-orcs and killing us! Can you take away his internet connection?"

"Erm, are you talking about a computer game?"

"Yes. He's ruining the game! He's using cheats to get a greataxe which does 6d12 Acid damage!"

"I see... Can you just hold on for a few moments while I put you through to another line.." *generic music*
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_FireWraith]

               I sort of hope they are reading it.  Can they be blocked?  Absolutely.  Are there ways for them to try and do more?  Sure, there's lots of ways to cause trouble on the internet - though you tend to cross into violations of your contract with your ISP, not to mention illegal actions that, with sufficient evidence, can land people in serious legal trouble.  It's entirely possible for people to find themselves disconnected from the internet entirely, or meeting up with the nice men in suits.

Can you get away with it against someone who's just hosting from their home computer with no real knowledge of how to deal with this stuff?  Probably.  Are some of these servers hosted elsewhere, at places that take hostile activity very seriously - and I don't just mean logging in to try and PVP players, we're talking denial of service, account or identity theft, unauthorized access to a system, et cetera - Yes, there are.   Even something like accessing someone else's Gmail account by guessing their password reset questions is a Federal Felony, and there are people in prison because of it.

Have I seen any of that?  No, I haven't... though I've heard staff from other servers allege it.  So I'm providing fair warning to other server admins that larger IP Range blocks may be needed to deal with persistent griefers, at the same time I point out that more serious activities have consequences.
               
               

               

                     Modifié par FireWraith, 16 mars 2011 - 01:53 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_SHOVA]

               you want a simple way to get rid of griefers in 2 words?

Player password.

end of problem.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Jenna WSI]

               On that subject... making a big deal out of it and giving someone fame for cheating, and a positive (attention) reaction to a negative action is going to encourage them to continue. Should just let the admins band together privately and be done with it.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_SHOVA]

               The old HCR system had the addition to limit the number of PCs a person could bring in. I usualy went with 3 characters per log in. That in addition to using Enforce Legal Character, and then "breaking" and booting the offending player, can be a usuable way to get rid of them. Breaking a character only works with the ELC. Breaking is done by using the DMset Ability score in game to something not normally setable. My favorite was to set the Int to 1. then boot them. While this does take time, and effort from the DM staff, it does work well when the host is not on to auto boot them when they start logging in.