They join the long list of other shitty security updates...
You ever hear of a browser called OPERA? It’s on the Wii, which I just had to use to log into my Facebook account because their McAfee checkpoint claims that I’m infected. …but Netscape also works… huh… that’s weird…
I can understand Facebook wanting to protect users identities, but for something like this to work it must:
A) Work on all operating systems
B) Work on all browsers (seriously, I got in with Netscape. It only blocked Firefox, and Internet Explorer for me… why didn’t I use Chrome?)
It seems I’m not the only user with this problem. I post shit I find on memebase and twitter, just because it makes me giggle. I’m getting sidetracked now, here’s Facebook’s official answer about the log on checkpoint:
You’re seeing this message because we detected suspicious patterns in the way your account was being used. These patterns suggest that you computer might be infected with malware. In order to keep both your account and the files on your computer secure, your computer needs to be scanned and cleaned. Since we partner with McAfee, you can do this for free by logging into Facebook and following the on-screen directions. Learn more about McAfee.
I haven’t trusted McAfee for years. I lost a lot of my college work from my “Protected” computer when someone put a virus on the school’s server. McAfee, to me, has been and always will be as useful as a pecker on the pope.
Enough about Facebook at the moment. Let me sing you the song of my people…
For the many years I’ve been an avid gamer, there have been and always will be hackers and people who generally ruin your day.
Diablo: Killed in town because a dude is using a trainer. Counterstrike: Headshot through a wall by a hacker. (allegedly some Swiss folks are looking at 10 years for hacking in counterstrike now…) I’ve been hearing more and more about exploits and scams in the last year than I have in the last 10. (Though because of the Sony security fuck up I got Infamous for free…)
The last bastion (ha game pun) for legit gaming seems to be Steam. I know nothing about EA’s one, aside from trying to download the demo of Star Wars the old republic, theirs Blue Screen of Death’d me… so Steam.
Steam is VAC secure on Valve’s products, which is great, it does allow for console commands (like getting all guns for testing levels in Half Life 2 custom maps, etc) but not external programs (that I’m aware of). I do know that for certain games, like Borderlands if you create weapons using the Willowtree …editor (I guess that’s what it is considered) it deletes them form the steam account save. It’s a small thing but it’s a step in the mostly right direction.
A huge step in the wrong direction are folks like PUNKBUSTER.
I’ll admit it, I tried playing APB it sounded interesting. When it went free to play I thought, “Why the hell not?” and downloaded it. Punkbuster kicked me off every 5 minutes like clockwork, claiming I was hacking and using illegal software. Needless to say I got irritated, and in my 2 hours of trying to play, I might have actually killed 1 person, and even that is debatable.
Ragnarok Online has a program like punkbuster that works. It verifies all the game data before you log on to make sure it is “legit” then while playing it randomly scans it as well to make sure it is staying unaffected by outside sources. It’s neat, it’s small and it works, seeing as how Ragnarok Online had at one point upwards of 40 million players world-wide (pay to play and Free to Play versions) they seemed to have gotten that right.
In a world of security authenticators, Chinese gold farmers, data phishermen and shit tons or trojans in all honesty, the safest way to exist online… is to not.
Know what the worst part of the article was? Trying to find images that weren’t from The Matrix.
Josh Flaherty
Josh Flaherty is an independent game designer from Minneapolis, MN and owner of Queuethulu Games LLC. He has worked on independent video games since 2003 and is passionate about the art of games, unique stories, and long walks down dark alleys. Visit Josh at his personal blog, http://vonshmoot.blogspot.com/ and also at Queuethulu Games Blog (personal game design blog) http://queuethulu.blogspot.com/. You can follow him on Twitter as well @SWTZMBEJESUS. To contact Josh, email him at joshflaherty@secretlaboratory.org.
I agree with you about McAfee. I use the free of AVG and never seem to have issues with it.
What makes me insane is the fact that I have Norton 360, scans and says I have nothing, but if I use a browser other than firefox now, I can log in. It seems more like a scam than something to actually help users.