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Exploited accounts mostly reinstated
Hello. I am Eston, the Director of MI6.
As many of you know, the Directorate detected a large, sophisticated money laundering operation in our Swiss Banking system earlier. Many hackers used an exploit in our Swiss Banking system to artificially generate trillions of dollars. Some even went so far as to unscrupulously wiring money to other Spymasters. When this suspicious money appeared in many legitimate Spymaster accounts, our cheating detection suspected them of being involved in the same money laundering operation and reset them as well. The Directorate then found itself a little overzealous in locking out user accounts.
The Directorate has done the best they can to restore everything we can about your accounts, including items, safe houses, levels and experience to what it was roughly four to five hours ago. Your spy ring numbers may appear low for a while. These will be regenerated over time to their correct levels. The Directorate has restored all liquid assets to roughly $500,000.00 USD. In many cases we have found this is greater than most spymasters had in their accounts at the time of reset.
From the Directorate's records, there were roughly 150 Spymasters that logged in during this time period between being forcefully opted out and reinstatement that may have zeroed-out accounts. If you are having this problem, please @ reply or Direct Message PlaySpymaster and we will reinstate these accounts as soon as we can on a case-by-case basis.
Also, I have personally assassinated the Director of the Swiss Bank. Until we find a suitable replacement for the Bank Director, wire transfers are currently disabled. This should be reopened shortly. Note that our agents are currently monitoring all current Swiss Bank balances for any suspect discrepancies.
This is not related to the "Whoa there!" bug some people are receiving in Internet Explorer. At the moment, the Directorate believes this is related to some changes Twitter made to their authentication that we cannot solve on our end (other Twitter applications are also being affected.) In the meantime, please use a different browser such as Mozilla Firefox.
As many of you know, the Directorate detected a large, sophisticated money laundering operation in our Swiss Banking system earlier. Many hackers used an exploit in our Swiss Banking system to artificially generate trillions of dollars. Some even went so far as to unscrupulously wiring money to other Spymasters. When this suspicious money appeared in many legitimate Spymaster accounts, our cheating detection suspected them of being involved in the same money laundering operation and reset them as well. The Directorate then found itself a little overzealous in locking out user accounts.
The Directorate has done the best they can to restore everything we can about your accounts, including items, safe houses, levels and experience to what it was roughly four to five hours ago. Your spy ring numbers may appear low for a while. These will be regenerated over time to their correct levels. The Directorate has restored all liquid assets to roughly $500,000.00 USD. In many cases we have found this is greater than most spymasters had in their accounts at the time of reset.
From the Directorate's records, there were roughly 150 Spymasters that logged in during this time period between being forcefully opted out and reinstatement that may have zeroed-out accounts. If you are having this problem, please @ reply or Direct Message PlaySpymaster and we will reinstate these accounts as soon as we can on a case-by-case basis.
Also, I have personally assassinated the Director of the Swiss Bank. Until we find a suitable replacement for the Bank Director, wire transfers are currently disabled. This should be reopened shortly. Note that our agents are currently monitoring all current Swiss Bank balances for any suspect discrepancies.
This is not related to the "Whoa there!" bug some people are receiving in Internet Explorer. At the moment, the Directorate believes this is related to some changes Twitter made to their authentication that we cannot solve on our end (other Twitter applications are also being affected.) In the meantime, please use a different browser such as Mozilla Firefox.
I’m hopeful
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Inappropriate?I am still at level 1!! I want my progress & account back.
@alsiladka -
Inappropriate?Omg you guys are really lame. I did not hack Spymaster. Stop with the narrative and post facts. You released shoddy code, no one hacked Spymaster! Take some responsibility. Read what actually happened here: http://brandonpartridge.com/2009/06/0...
11 Comments
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Well theoretically by taking advantage of their shoddy code and exploiting it, that would be considered hacking. Sure it's on the lowest level, but it can be considered that.
Also, you're a little angsty over a stupid twitter game that was created so that the main product that this company produces would get some attention.
Stop being such a self-righteous prick over something so inconsequential. It's a free game from a small startup. Stop whining and be happy they made something that entertained you for a bit. -
Brandon, I don't think they're calling you a hacker, I think they're playing this off inside the world of the game and saying the problem was due to "hackers." If people think that means you, take the notoriety and run with it ;-)
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Seth, I think he wants people to think it means him.
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Sorry was typing in a chat. That was embarrassing. --- But my reply to you Seth is: Whoa..., I see you've crossed over to the dark side. Good luck, I wouldn't want to be associated with iList/Spymaster at all (black cloud on your resume).
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If you don't want to be associated with it, then why bother blogging about it and trying to make people know "the truth"?
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The game is in beta. Bugs are to be expected. Good for you for finding a bug. Bad for you for being a total dickhead about it.
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@squirrelmaster The constant narratives are thick bs. They should just come clean. They won't.
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ffs, it's a stupid twitter game. Who cares if the narratives are thick bs?
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Shouldn't you be preparing for Winter?
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Brandon: 1 Squirrel: 0
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Don't forget the disabling of accounts which weren't even involved in any acts of exploitation just because they had no clue themselves about what was going on.
Straight out accusing innocent people of hacking is the professional way to handle things.
Great PR and management.
P.S I was not banned nor was i involved either as a victim or exploiter myself, but the way this was handled has driven me away from the game. -
Inappropriate?Hi fellas, I believe I was one of those that logged back in and had the account reset, It's still showing level 1. @warcorp
Thanks!
I’m amused
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This reply was removed on 06/02/09.
see the change log -
Inappropriate?My account has still not been restored. I was at level 7 with about 518K in the swiss bank.
@sharvil
I’m sad
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Inappropriate?Wow, rocky start.
Maybe you should have timeouts for individual tasks. After all, there are only so many ambassadors in the world.
Don't see any reason why you should change the money-wiring feature. -
Inappropriate?Glad it's all back now and if people don't want to play - then they don't have to play. Let them make their own game, eh? Excuse me now while I brush the crumbs off my trenchcoat
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Inappropriate?my account has been reset from 17 back down to zero and i was the second person to request assistance here. not only that, i was the person directing everyone on friendfeed to the original post here on GS and also very active in the discussions on FF. i am hanging in there only because the service is (even though everyone and their mother's are playing) technically in beta and also free. thanks. @cma3
I’m frustrated but hopeful
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Inappropriate?Who would want a job where 1 [censored] up will get you killed? -
Inappropriate?What I don't understand about these online games is how a bug in the system is blamed on the users. This is a SPY game. If spies found a way to extort money then they were being good spies. I did not discover this bug and did not benefit from it, but I fully feel that you should have just fixed the bug and let everyone keep what they got. That would have been the sportsman way to deal with it.
I’m underwhelmed
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I agree with this completly.. if people find a bug and they exploit it, sure the spymaster staff have the right to revoke the changes if they notice it and its going to make a huge difference in the game.. but I don't think anyone should be punished. As you said, its a spy game and yay for anyone who tricks the system in such a game. It becomes more competative this way.. hackers/spys vs the government/leaders/staff of spymaster.
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They're just trying to keep the game clean... you know, the Agents in the Matrix didn't blame the users for finding loopholes and screwups, but they still had to clear up the mess afterwards!
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Inappropriate?this ain't a hack attempt folks, this is just a poor gaming framework exploit. To be honest, a hack attempt would do much worse..... it would "probably" {hint} involve accessing the backed DB and injecting data....
I REQUOTE @partridge
"What Spymaster fails to recognize is their own fault for not running a rigorous QA session before going public. Vulnerabilities like these should never exist, I merely exercised what was made available to me to game the metrics of Spymaster. The existence of these vulnerabilities reveal just how much Spymaster cares about the protection of its userbase and integrity of its service."
Here's what #spymaster should be doing... (in my opinion)
1. change URL driven actions (to functions())
2. secure their backend framework (use RBAC)
3. learn to differentiate between blackhat's & whitehat's
Cheers !
I’m amused
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Inappropriate?@addictedtotext
- Still not reinstated :( -
Inappropriate?What a terrible way to penalize users of your game. We trusted you with our Twitter account information and let you spam our friends, and you don't trust the people who played your game the most to fairly amass the most money, essentially slapping your hardcore early adopters in the face. Frankly, I don't know if I have the motivation to start all over again.
I’m frustrated
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You don't have to start over again... that's the point.
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Inappropriate?Hi! I am still at level 1!! I want my progress & account back.
@everton_9 -
Inappropriate?I do not have an issue logging into SpyMaster, but all of the money I had in my Swiss Bank account has been withdrawn. I have also lost a few million руб.
My level, safes houses, tasks, ring size, etc are all correct.
Is this something you can look into?
@GP2980
I’m confused
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Inappropriate?I can't log in at all. It won't allow me to. I'm www.twitter.com/craftychris and I tried to log in yesterday also, but for some reason I am blocked. I know I didn't hack the system because I never got past BASIC in school.
I’m sad
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Inappropriate?I am still getting this message "Woah there!
This page requires some information that was not provided. Please return to the site that sent you to this page and try again ... it was probably an honest mistake."
HELP HELP HELP
I’m MAD
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Inappropriate?I hadn't hacked this or gotten money into my swiss bank. I am more angry about loosing my level than the money that i was given by @Partridge !!!! He attacked me to give me the money! I had no dealing with this!!! I want my level 10 account back!!!!!!
I’m frustrated and unhappy with the dirrector
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Like you, I was attacked, and won a great deal of money attacking back. I Twitter the person involved (happy to divulge this person) and he said he wanted to give all his money away as the game was stupid...who was I too argue. Seeing as I have not been able to sign in, not sure what has happened to my level 7 (almost eight), all my weapons (I had enough weaponry for every one of my own Spy Masters to be armed and ready) and owned every safe house that CLEAN MONEY could buy.
It is my hope that the Director will work with each of us that were victims of this situation to reach a fair and equitable resolution as I was enjoying the game, saw it more as an exercise in building a network than a serious game. -
@Marijuana_news ... You posted your Swiss Account Number on Twitter and I proceeded to transfer 420 Billion to it. That's probably why you were singled out as a "hacker" and reset.
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Brandon...I admitted to posting a MONEY BEG on Twitter right after I started game. OK, so you gave me $420 Billion....take that away, I should still have around $800 Billion left that I won in Assasination attempts against me, or that I choose....I am reinstated, but the costs incurred considering I did nothing wrong are absurd....trying to decide if I want to continue play, or spend my time discouraging others from Spy Master.
@chrisabad sees like an arrogant stiff with no clue about customer service, and one of the employees on this board asked for my email address, but two hours later, no letter to open up negotiations to settle my concerns.
Will see what unfolds...as to you...envy your talents, and as you pointed out, you DID NOT HACK Spy Master, but instead took advantage of loopholes in the game....WELL DONE. -
Inappropriate?@violinistliz , I'm still not reinstated. It takes me to the "choose your character" page
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Inappropriate?I'm still not reinstated. I can't even log on. The thing is I didn't even have any $ in the bank
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Inappropriate?Still not able to log in.
I'm @paradiso71. -
Inappropriate?actually, don't even worry about it. I don't like the actions you took to fix the issue. Granted that @Partridge did take advantage of your security weakness, but think about it. If the application was secure in the first place this wouldn't have happened. And so what if some people took advantage of this security hole? You should've just patched the problem and move on instead of just suspending people's account. It's not like it's real monetary $$. So yeah forget it, I won't play this game or any game from your company ever again.
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Inappropriate?You guys could have handled this a lot better. I was putting effort into this game and because some player attacks me with nothing and gives me all his money I lose my hard work. It was a pubic affair here in the support so its not like I did it in a shady manner. Also you could have just send me a DM and i would have agreed to let you take it all back. Now after i lost my account that i worked hard on you guys haven't really acted on anyone's account beyond reseting them. This is not good administrative planning, and this is coming from a guy who has run his own online game before.
With much regards
I’m disappointed
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Inappropriate?Hello:
I am Marijuana_News in your game, and on Twitter. Perhaps my inability do access the game is the WHOA situation you are speaking of, or perhaps not. That said, do have some questions based on your update here.
I was not involved in the money laundering scheme you speak of, though I may have inadvertantly benefitted from it...I woke up yesterday to find that I had some $543 Million dollars in my account...I attributed this to the generosity of my followers and retweets as I had sent out a Money Beg the night before in the hopes of raising enough cash to buy a safe house.
Other actions (two money transfers for $100 Million and some assasinations attempts that were successful) on my part saw me yesterday run my money count to well over $1.1 Billion. I am now wondering what of these hard earned assets I actually get to retain, since I was A) not involved in the plot, and B) won fair and square on my part...IE, all my weapons, safe houses, cash and the level 7 standing were attained with NO CHEATING on my part.
Do those of us who played honestly, and in good faith get to keep that which we worked so hard to gain. In my example, having been home yesterday, most of the day was spent in moving up the Spy Master ladder.
Looking forward to knowing where you stand on these questions.
@Marijuana_news
PS...about that Directorates job...... -
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Inappropriate?Still not reinstated as well. My level 1, zero activity account is sitting here. I want my level and safehouses back! @ljharb
I’m furious
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Inappropriate?All accounts in this thread up to this point I have issued reinstatements for. Let me know if there are any issues with this.
Also guys, if you are unable to login, that does not involve the Swiss Banking issue. That is a separate issue we are working on with Twitter that involves Internet Explorer.1 Comment Add a comment
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Thanks, everything seems fine.
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Inappropriate?
For this who are cribbing about no cheating... !!! are you guys SpyMasters or ???
-u coerce your mafia boss
-u assassinate people
-u steal documents, military info & weapons
-u forge passports
-u capture terrorists
-u buy stuff on the black market
-u buy safe houses, own a swiss bank account
-u recruit spies
-u spam the world with NOTIFICATIONS on for a miniscule $% increase
- U PLAY A GAME FOR GEEKS !
and u don't cheat !! {{applause}}
I’m kidding
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I'm sorry, I didn't understand any of that.
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Inappropriate?I wasn't saying much... :-)
this game has a techsavvy audience, and cheats are to be "expected" :-)
Does every NDS/gameboy/PSP owner buy games for 50 bucks a pop ?... or... ?
I’m happy
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Inappropriate?Understood.4 Comments Add a comment
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You say it is understood, but you folks just want all of us that DID PLAY BY THE RULES to simply accept the fact that you forked us up the arse because you PANICKED and act like its "ALL GOOD".
Give us a break, it is not all good until you do more to make those of us you wronged WHOLE AGAIN. -
We know who was apart of the "scheme" and we also know who knew about the scheme and tried to benefit from it without notifying us of the flaw.
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To be fair... "marijuana_news" is dubious enough already, without the bank cheat.
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Burn!
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Inappropriate?I didn't get 500,000 USD or Pounds Sterling and I need to open a swiss account for fear of money being stolen!
