SPY GAME

Someone tipped off Biscuit Carroll that his island had been targeted for surveillance, so he went with his security expert Loki Clifton, to figure out if they were being spied on.  After an arduous search, they finally found the bug.

"Was just here where our previous meeting room was," Biscuit tells me, as we stare down at the foyer of his conference center.  "Loki tried to select it, it was just too small."

What they located, Loki Clifton explains, is "a device that repeats what it hears to either a channel or to its owner or list of people." 

"We were doing an object scan on the parcel because it was suggested that we should be alert to this, by someone who makes bugs," Carroll continues.  Surveillance devices are not uncommon in Second Life, often used by Residents to spy on their virtual world lovers, if they suspect they're being unfaithful.  (An alternative, in other words, to hiring a private SL detective.)  But more frequently, with the influx of money and projects from real world companies and entrepeneurs looking to score big in Second Life, Carroll believes, they "are now being used widely for industrial espionage."

The devices are widely sold, in-world and on the web, through SL e-commerce sites.  Buy one, hide it in the right place, and your chat log will include a handy copy of what everyone within listening distance of the bug says.  In most circumstances, using these runs directly counter to Second Life's Linden-enforced Community Standards; specifically, clause four, which forbids "Remotely monitoring conversations, posting conversation logs, or sharing conversation logs without consent."  Then again, as in the real world, when it comes to sexual jealousy or ruthless business competition, some don't always feel bound by the niceties of law.

Corporate espionage is a particular concern for Carroll, because his island serves numerous clients, both Residents and real businesses interested in the Second Life's many commercial opportunities.  "We're an accredited developer," he tells me, "we run in-world tours, we do virtual conferencing and we sell holodecks." 

They still don't know who planted the listening device, or when.  They suspect it happened at a time when they had construction crews working on the island, because to allow them to do their job, Biscuit Carroll set the land to "Build" mode.  (Meaning, anyone can instantiate and create objects there.)  So while the crews went about building, the theory goes, the spy surreptiously slipped in, and laid down his device.

Landowners can guard against dangers like these, Loki adds. "Set land to No Build, then only allowed people can make things."  The security expert has some bugs of his own, but "I could not rez my tool if I was in a No Build land."

"So that prevents a lot of possible events on corporate land," I point out, "like sandbox [building] competitions and such."  Carroll nods.  If security is the utmost concern, in other words, it means strictly restricting the very thing that makes Second Life unique.

"It has changed my attitudes to chat in public locations," Carroll says. "I think everyone who has a corporate presence should understand enough about estate tools to scan their sim."

Scan their sim-- and their avatars.

Loki Clifton draws his pistol, sets it to a custom mode, and shoots me.

"Hamlet," he announces, "I just bugged you.  I shot a bug and it's now stuck to you. It's very small and almost unselectable.  You would never know it.  [An] object scan would show a object.  But you would have a hell of a time finding it.  I have a lot of tools like that because of me SL security work."

To find Loki's bug, I would have to strip down and remove all my attachments-- and procure the services of someone like Loki, to do the scanning.

"You can put a bug in anything with a prim," says Biscuit, "i.e., hair or a tie."  He glances at the front of my suit.  "Grey ties are a big target."

Some bugs allow spies to hear conversations anywhere in the world, but Loki tells me that this particular bug he's put on me can only monitor nearby conversations on this island.  I don't believe it, so I fly away from Loki Clifton and Biscuit Carroll, past 25 meters (beyond normal listening range), and keep flying until I'm hundreds of meters away.

When I'm at the edge of the ocean, with no one around, I say something: "I'm wholly skeptical that this bug works."

I fly back to the building where Clifton and Carroll wait.

"'I'm wholly skeptical that this bug works,'" Loki repeats back.

"You can be as skeptical as you like, Hamlet," Biscuit Carroll tells me. "The effing thing works."

Comments

[anon]

Or you could turn on view beacons -> Scripted objects, and find the bug immediately. This guy's an "expert"? Not.

[Patrick]

Wow. Getting 'tipping off.' Spied on. Bugs. 'Planting.' Surveillance. Counter-surveillance. A possible inside job thanks to the construction crew. Getting shot with a 'gun' and having a 'bug' stick to you. Stripping down in order to rid yourself of the bug.
What a fascinating world! Great dialog, Hamlet!

Someone should just invent a 'spray' that you can apply to yourself to automatically rid you of unwanted things like bugs.

[Economic Mip]

"... some don't always feel bound by the niceties of law."

Well the Lindens and these bug planters have that in common I guess. Did the company really think no one would notice they are letting in people from Iran and North Korea despite the embargo? When these countries have members in Second Life perhaps spying is not such a bad idea.

[Interfect Sonic]

The gun bug isn't really all that useful. The moment you go onto no-object-entry land, or stay on a parcel past its autoreturn time, or teleport away, it will be gone.

[Erik Anderson]

Well, considering that the person profiled in this story had to turn "build" on in order for construction to occur on their land, it smells like turning on autoreturn would cause half the island to disappear...

[Relee Baysklef]

Yeah there's a lot of ways to make stuff like that. You can shrink an object down to 0.01 meters cubed, but then you can shave that down to a tiny sliver and give it an invisible texture and it's practically undetectable.

Someone mentioned turning on scripted object beacons, but if you're wearing scripted objects already (and who doesn't these days?) you probably wouldn't notice the extra beacon. And who keeps beacons up constantly, right?

A newbie or inexperienced person especially wouldn't even know to look for things like this, let alone know how to find them.

Teleporting away will loose a bug, but a good one will wait for you to return and stick back onto you. I don't know what that fella was saying about attached prims though, I've never known those to be needed for bugs. But then, I'm not exactly a specialist!

[Erik Anderson]

I often have "alt shows physical" turned on, which means that holding the alt button down will highlight any scripted objects that I can see (sometimes along with some invisible umm... private attachments).

Doesn't always work though, especially if someone is trying to hide it; it misses about half the scripted objects in the PotShard (sp?) Adventure. Not sure if it would show spybots hovering inside of an avatar either...

I'm not in the security industry (although I'm familiar with scripting), but as far as I know, people cannot force you to attach something to yourself. I am fairly sure that these spybots are tiny ghosts that try their best to follow you around, but they are not attached to your person and will "lose track of you" if you tp more than 96m away (what they do afterwards to find you again might be more complex). "Hiding something in a tie" would require them to give you the tie and have you put it on (or corrupt a vendor so that they sell bugged ties?)

[Relee Baysklef]

It would be remotely possible to build a false vendor on top of someone else's vendor that steals your sales. But that is unquestionably wrong.

[Rumblelizard]

Am I correct in assuming that these devices only "hear" what is said in open chat? Or do the catch what's said in IMs too?

[katy button]

is there a way to find out if you have been bugged, or to get rid of spy probes if you find one, found one, cant seem to grab it as it flashes to quick