42nd Special Task Force... TRIBBLE?

lurker49a · June 2013

A little earlier, someone joined the small fleet called 42nd Special Task Force without anyone giving him a fleet invite (there was only two of us on at the time), and within seconds, cleared the roster. We both held high ranks, Fleet Admiral and Admiral. The fleet leader has been gone the last few days due to personal reasons, and we're not sure when he'll be back online.

Tickets have been sent to GM, but we're not sure what to do at this point. tips? Ideas?

caocaopuff · July 2013

I am.. well.. was the leader of the 42nd STF. As was previously mentioned, our fleet was TRIBBLE by an unknown individual. He was able to access the account of someone not in the fleet, somehow gain entry into the fleet and then completely destroy it. We have since reformed our fleet, albeit starting from tier 0. Investment wise, our losses were considerable as we had almost reached tier 3 SB, and were starting work on tier 1 embassy and dil mine facilities.

I would like to put out a warning to all fleet leaders as it appears that it is possible to hack a fleet without necessarily having to hack the account of a fleet member.

grayfoxjames · July 2013

What?! This sounds crazy...how is that even possible? How did they get into the fleet AND make themselves leader?! Keep us informed on that ticket. Supposedly STO is coming out with a fail safe where Fleet Leader can not just be kicked by another Fleet Leader. We'll see if that goes through.

doffingcomrade · July 2013

Interesting notes on this subject:
1. It is possible for a user to remain cloaked and invisible from the online list, so merely because the person who may have invited and/or promoted wasn't visible does not mean they were not there.
2. It is possible to receive a fleet invite asynchronously, while not online, and accept it when you connect.

Either of these two could explain how someone could apparently get into the fleet while no one who could/would have done so was online...but only the first one would explain how that person managed to subsequently promote himself to top rank. The only reason I can think of for why someone who already controlled a leader account would do this is some kind of misdirection.

Either way, it seems clear something fishy is afoot. But why would a hacker who could do this to ANY fleet choose to trash a minor, nameless fleet? Clearly they cannot, or we'd see fleets burning left and right. Thus, there must be some specific property of your fleet that made this possible.

rahmkota19 · July 2013

Holy snaps. I am speechless.

My sympathies to you guys, I just know exactly how painful it can be to loose a fleet in this kind of way.
About a month and a half one of my fellow leaders came offline after months of inactivity and demoted everybody, kicking half the fleet. It still exists, but it is kinda dead. So me and the other leader, @neektar, have decided to start all over again. Painful, since we had T2 embassy almost done and were very far to T4 starbase. Painful, since we lost our huge amount of starbase special projects and will have to wait for them to come back. But we are holding on. And rebuilding is going better than hoped.

I am hoping that you can hold on as well. Should you ever need help with getting doffs or stuff, PM me, and I will help you.

Man, I am surely hoping you have luck rebuilding. Once again, my sympathies.

section31agent · July 2013

****HACK ALERT***

AoL has been compromised and a Phishing scheme that loots passwords may be the culprit. This hacker steals passwords takes over accounts and steals the account changing password questions and then locks you out of all command functions so that you cannot recover the ability to change passwords.

AoL was informed on 6/18/2013 of the hack.

It is quite possible the parties responsible for that may also be responsible for your losses. So if you have AoL as a browser DELETE IT!!!!!

caocaopuff · July 2013

Thanks for support and suggestions as to how this happened.

As far as I can tell after asking around and gathering some info, the TRIBBLE account was a rl friend of one of our co-founders and also was a fleet leader as well in a different fleet. Given that the other fleet has not been TRIBBLE despite the hacker being in a good position to do so, it's leaning towards it being a targeted inside job. Both our co-founder and the "TRIBBLE" account have since gone dark.

As irksome as it would be if it were true, I hope that this is the case. It would be worrying if some stranger could waltz in and dismantle a fleet. Once again, thanks for the support and I will update if any new info becomes available via Cryptic or any of the people in question should they choose to ever reply.

grayfoxjames · July 2013

"When you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains however improbable must be true." -Sherlock Holmes

It would appear we have have solved the case. Although that royally sucks for you guys. That's why fleets should be one leader period. This is horrible for you guys all that work. It just stinks that someone in real life would do something like this just to cause harm.

If there's something we may be able to help you can contact us on our website at www.libertytaskforce.com and through our alliance channel STOFA in-game. Best of luck and take care.

-Grayfox

nierion · July 2013

As part of STOFA, The Mak'Tar also offers support during this difficult time. It's a real shame when something like this happens. When you have multiple leaders it can make it difficult, I personally co-lead with a friend and wouldn't recommend more than 2 people running a group to avoid confusion and problems. Sometimes it's just hard to find someone you can really trust to help push that vision.

Wish you the best of luck and hope you pull through this

42nd Special Task Force... TRIBBLE?

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