Attack of the Red Helix: Not So Good for the Jew

Photo by SuzanneC Baskerville, borrowed from SnapZilla

The world hiccuped, shuddered and blinked again tonight as Second Life's Grid was attacked by a new round of object spam, which Grid-griefers seem to have settled on as the most effective way of disrupting the virtual world. This time, it was wave after wave of self-replicating red helixes, pictured above, which had been created by an avatar named Jew Stein. Unlike the GriefSpheres that completely crashed the Grid last October, Jew's red spirals also contained a push-script, making it impossible for avatars across the land to conduct any kind of business as usual without sitting themselves on an object or forcing themselves to the ground. Linden Lab disabled new log-ins around 4pm SLT, but by that time, the damage had been done.

The attack was said to be the third in as many days. Many main Grid refugees apparently sought sanctuary on Second Life's preview Grid to discuss the attacks, where they were consoled by the watermelon woman herself, Torley Linden. But the attack raises questions of whether or not LL will ever be able to protect against his kind of attack without fragmenting the Grid completely or removing crucial functionality from their world. The Herald will bring you more on the story as details emerge.

[UPDATE: See comments thread below for reports from intrepid Herald staffer Matthias Zander, sent from his location trapped within the virus-ridden virtual world of Second Life!]

Comments

[Matthias]

Still being in the main grid myself (one of about 500 people, last I checked), I can tell you that for the past hour or so, all scripts have been disabled grid-wide. This was done with the following global announcement: "Mick Linden: In order to facilitate the clean-up from a grid attack, it has been required to temporarily disable all scripts. Thanks for your patience whilst we attend this issue. Scripts will be reenabled as soon as possible." followed by the announcement "All scripts have been disabled in this region by an administrator. All money transactions with objects are also disabled. All script events will be queued."

I do find it odd how the first announcement of this came in this form: "Adam Linden: EVening everyone, we are aware of what is going on, please do NOT IM LIVE Help or the LIndens regarding this issue. Let us handle it and get it taken care of. Thank you." This was soon followed by "Adam Linden: Attention: If you guys are currently being thrown upward, try sitting down, it seems to counter the attack. Our Grid monkey should be on it shortly. If you are not experiencing this problem, please do not IM back."

If I can pick up any more information, I'll post it under this.

[Simon Lameth]

I believe the script that catupolted people into the air was tested on me earlier today. At some point around 2:30 SL time, I was around the welcome area when I was catapolted 80,000 meters into the air.

I am not making this up.

[Cocoanut]

I am wondering, what happened to that deal they employed last time, where they threw up real fast this wall, and everyone thought that was so clever?

Was there some reason that couldn't work this time, does anyone know?

coco

[Matthias]

This just in: "Scripts have been re-enabled in this region by an administrator."

It looks like they've taken care of it. I'd watch for the grid to open back up soon.

[Ander]

Is it just me or is the 1.9.1 Preview grid locking out new logins too?

[Hiro Pendragon]

Questions I'd like answered:
http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?p=990766#post990766

[Loki Eliot]

I managed to stay on the main grid through out the attck. Me and me two mates found a sim that was'nt effected, set up a fire and sat it out as we got updates from the lindens about logins being shut down. We thought it was the end of the world as we escaped from the red weed. Just us 3 sat roasting marshmellows by a fire.....