Has anyone (like me) tried to find a corporation to join that fits in with what one wants and one’s own ethics? Some offers I’ve had involve me helping build or guard wormholes to killing everyone else in PvP missions! What I’m looking for is an organisation that will nuture and mentor me whilst giving me a challenge that involves something interesting. This must be what a lot of other (fairly new) players must want? I have toyed with the idea of forming my own organisation but time is of the essence. Although I do enjoy PvP it must be much better when you can team up with other players and pit your wits against like minded souls.

My other strand is one of separating reality from the fully immersive game play. I was trying to stay in character in the online radio when the guy I was talking to said he had to go because his young son was coughing and needed attention!

Talk about bringing you down to Earth!

I would welcome any comments both constructive or otherwise if I am not the only person overwhelmed by the Great game that is EVE.

Herei

Mesybier, Essence – Noir. Mercanary Group [NMG.] and their “largest competitor” Gemeinschaft Interstellarer Soeldner corporation [G.I.S] have merged to become, in the words of Alekseyev Karrde, alliance head of NMG., the “largest mercenary alliance in New Eden.” Privateer Alliance, Karrde stated “may technically have more members”, yet, he claimed “lack the coordination between member corps, damage potential and contract history of NMG.”

According to Karrde, the command structure within NMG. has remained essentially the same but “expanded to include our new partners.” G.I.S directors have been given access to all leadership level information within the alliance but, Alekseyev said, “The buck still stops with me.”

Despite the increase in size, Noir Mercenary Group plan to continue to focus on null-sec contracts but, Alekseyev explained, will also consider large-scale empire wars and wormhole work, which they deem “very enjoyable.” “We also get called on for a lot of control tower ‘takedowns’ and increasingly, control tower ‘saves,’” stated Karrde.

NMG. has seen recent action in the conflict between Against ALL Authorities and Curatores Veritatis Alliance in the War for Providence. NMG. also credited itself with saving a “significant portion of SI Radio Corporation’s class 6 wormhole assets” from a “besieging Rooks and Kings Alliance capital ship fleet”.

While most of their work calls for using sub-capital ships, NMG. does retain a capital and super-capital capability. “We rarely use them,” Alekseyev stated “as they are not generally the right tool for what we’re asked to do.”

The cost of an intervention by NMG. has inflated over the years of their operation. “With most week long stuff, at today’s prices, you’re probably looking at multiple billions flatrate.” When weighed against the potential losses of some conflicts, however, the price can be seen as affordable.

The Pitboss, CEO of the Interstellar Brotherhood of Gravediggers, Privateer Alliance, agreed with Karrde’s assessment. “[With mercenary corporations] being so far and few between… we all tend to have a working mutual respect for each other.” He added that while each mercenary group “has their own niche which keeps them in business” such groups have taken contracts on each other in the past. “Business is business,” he added.

The dissolution of Mercenary Coalition in 05.110 and KIA Alliance’s heavy loss of member corporations in late 111 left a void in the field of large, well-known “super-mercenary groups” (with the possible exception of Privateer, who could be considered more well-known for their own private campaign of uncontracted wars). With the admission of Gemeinschaft Interstellarer Soeldner into Noir. Mercenary Group, the alliance’s membership of over 150 pilots is still some measure short of the scale of the mercenary fleets of yesteryear, but the recent trend of mergers between forces of “soldiers for hire” opens the potential for their return.

According to Ban’s economic models, many corporations may have over-leveraged themselves and did not take adequate precautions before beginning operations in the occupied territories. “If the current trends continue,” said Ban, ‘we can expect bankruptcies and loan defaults all throughout the economic spectrum. Another credit crisis, similar to what we experienced last year, is not impossible.”

Caldari Funds Unlimited provided much of the financing for new corporate ventures in the occupied territories. Its CEO, Jaan Omura, seemed less pessimistic than Ban. “So far, while we have seen a number of defaults by smaller, independent corporations, we have yet to see serious issues with any loans made to megacorporate subsidiaries,” she told the committee. “While we have re-evaluated our lending policies in the wake of this counteroffensive, we believe any economic setbacks will be temporary and most investment will be recovered.”

Response to the testimony was mixed, though all committee members expressed surprise at the House of Records’ dire assessment. Sukuuvestaa and Wiyrkomi called for further investigation, proposing a combined Caldari Business Tribunal and House of Records audit of the disputed territories.

Y-MPWL, Providence – in the ongoing conflict in the Providence region over the past two weeks the Holders lost control of four systems to Against All Authorities [AAA], Ushra’Khan [UK], Systematic-Chaos [SYS-K] and Atlas Alliance [ATLAS].

The Y-MPWL system changed sovereignty control from Curatores Veritatis Alliance [CVA] to AAA a little more than a week ago, an anonymous source close to AAA stated that this capture was part of the new offensive in the region, “operations are solely focused on a selection of locations which are of interest for sovereignty” and commented on recent reports of a ‘lock down’ of the Providence region through the control of Empire access routes, “during operations we lock down systems, but outside of operations Providence is pretty open to its inhabitants as well as travellers [and attacking alliances are not] focusing on dictating traffic or movements.”

The same source explained that the capture of Y-MPWL progressed quietly with no major engagements and that a minimal resistance of regular skirmishes between roaming gangs was encountered. Commenting on the overall conflict, the source went on to add “we still consider the conflict to be unfortunate… we also feel that it is not our job to deal with the populace of Providence since we have no interest in ruling it in any way or form. In regards to diplomatic solutions, unfortunately you could say the zealots find dealing with reality or even realpolitik irreconcilable with their religious doctrine. It is clear however that through face to face contacts, parties involved have managed to get a better understanding of each other’s viewpoints, even on their respective behavioural mechanisms. Unfortunately, such understanding remains on a level of capsuleers and is currently not enough as it seems to pave the way for organisational understanding.”

The G-5EN2 system was captured by UK on the following day with R3-K7K falling to Systematic-Chaos the day after and just a few days ago this period of engagements ended with 9-F0B2 being captured by ATLAS. Karn Mithralia of UK confirmed that while the other systems were taken with minimal resistance, in 9-F0B2 “ATLAS moved on it with their allies, mostly with input for UK, AAA and SYS-K… I believe it finally fell… Fidelas Constans [FCON] put up a very stalwart defence supported by CVA. They deserve a warrior’s respect for the way they fought against overwhelming odds.” Commenting on the different alliances taking control of systems in Providence, Karn Mithralia explained each alliance is seeking to establish a second gateway into empire as a means of securing strengthened supply chains to further support the offensive and as a means to control space. Regarding plans for the region, UK reported it plans to “hold those systems so that once CVA and their close allies are removed we can open access up to Providence again… we certainly do not seek to replace CVA and will not be forcing standings or rules of engagement on our allies… our vision of free space is not of a shepherd to sheep. Providence future residents will be able to stand on their own two feet.”

An anonymous source close to ATLAS reported that the Alliance has plans to “continue pushing until the Providence bloc is either destroyed or surrenders.” Tzuko1 of ATLAS commented on the capture of 9-F0B2, “we have not decided yet what to do with that system, but we will surely not keep it – I think some renters will be interested in it.” Referring to the Providence ‘lock down’, Tzuko1 added: “it’s true we are controlling exits and jump bridge systems too, no one gets out… our capital fleet is ready as you can see [we are] hot dropping Rorqual’s, Freighters and Carriers in the area with our capital and super capital vessels – we just did not have [any engagement where we could properly use our capital fleet].”

Manfred Sideous of AAA explained that the recent offensive was the “next logical step” after pausing aggressive action twice to give CVA a chance to consider peace. “We regret CVA leadership’s position but are committed in our task to secure our borders from strategic threats.” Asked to comment on AAA’s plans for the region Manfred Sideous answered “we intend to repopulate Providence with many alliances, currently we have over 20 lined up. All will be handed an area for which to grow from. We do not intend to govern Providence other than to enforce a no sovereignty war rule to protect these new and young budding alliances. Their politics will be for them to decide individually, we will just ensure that they have a real chance at growing without being steamrolled by a large hostile force.” Asked to explain how exactly this sovereignty was going to be distributed, Manfred Sideous explained “we are basing it off a few criteria [such as] alliance size [since] we want them to be able to utilize the space they will retain [as well as] geography… to make sure that we keep groups in a consolidated area instead of spread out across large areas. Some groups will have very small areas while others will have larger areas. It should be noted that we intend to keep a few of the current Holders in place as well.” Further details are currently classified but AAA has “a pretty clear gameplan going forward… in the short term Providence is very hostile environment with the goal of making it very inclusive to small groups of players wanting to taste and experience [nullsec]. The exit points will be controlled sovereignty wise but there are no designs to police or restrict traffic through them. Providence is like a rainforest currently we are weeding it and will replant it with a bounty of new inhabitants.”

Asked to comment on the overall conflict, Manfred Sideous stated “it is a large undertaking with the new [infrastructure] mechanics [to take] 50 stations. So far it is going as expected. The frequency of fights and battles has gone down but this is expected… [it] requires effort and work… we realize this and are meeting the challenge well. CVA is committed to an attrition style defence, whereby their intended goal is deny [large engagements] and minimize isk loss for them so they can rally when/if we lose interest. So the lack of resistance is understood.”

CVA executor Aralis confirmed that in 9-F0B2 the Providence Holders lead the assaulters to suffer hundreds of casualties in ships and showed great suspicion of AAA’s current plans for the region: “I doubt many are foolish enough to fall for such nonsense. I feel sorry for any who are. It’s obviously intended as some absurd propaganda. Though as even a four year old could see it couldn’t work and nobody with any sense would trust them I can’t really see why they bother.”

Commenting on the Providence ‘lock down’, Aralis explained “self evidently they have hit the exit systems. There is no lockdown.” Regarding the overall conflict Aralis maintained his previous statements about a long engagement and stated that in his opinion the conflict is still in the very early days. “We are being attacked by half of [New Eden]. I think our victory is still some way off. Clearly this will be a long war. Even the faithful will not quickly vanquish such a collection of enemies.”

GalNet References
Fidelas Constans – Battle Records – 9-F0B2
Recent Sovereignty Changes – Providence

Kamela, The Bleak Lands – Last month, The Star Fraction alliance celebrated its 5th birthday by launching operation ‘Black Lustrum’ in Providence against Sev3rance alliance.

The Star Fraction [SF] is a non-spaceholding alliance founded in mid-YC 107 to fight against “tyranny and nationalist imperialism” and to promote the concept of “Free Space.” The alliance currently has more than 200 members across 8 corporations, including the original founding body, Jericho Fraction, Lyrus Associates, relative newcomers Daedalus X and former Namtz’aar K’in members Scrap Iron Flotilla.

Jade Constantine, The Star Fraction’s Executor, founded the alliance shortly after the Great Northern War in an attempt to give shape to the putative concept of “Free Space” ideals. The early days of the alliance saw corporations such as Omerta Syndicate (who at the time were in rebellion against the Caldari State) and the Glamour Bunnies (who created the infamous “Porn for Pax” campaign) join and later leave.

According to Jade, “Free Space” means open commerce, fair trade and development without oppression. Under the Free Space ideology, capsuleers would be free to travel and act as they please, setting and acting on standings in accordance with their own ideological beliefs and actions taken against them and allowing the same freedoms to others. The alleged lack of such freedoms brought Star Fraction into conflict with many nullsec alliance and pirate corporations several times into its five years existence.

Star Fractions’s first war against CVA, fought in 107, ended in a retreat for rebuilding, but their next wars saw a bitter conflict against Kimotoro Directive in Mito constellation followed by a series of clashes against Amarr loyalists, PIE Inc. and their allies, with whom Star Fraction remain hostile to this day. Perhaps the most well-known of these campaigns, Operation Judas Goat, saw then-SF member Scorpio Dantes launch a line of adult films (illegal in Amarr space) for sale from a mobile vendor in Amarr as a means to insult and provoke the loyalists, including some featuring look-alikes (some claim they are in fact the pilots they resemble) of prominent members of PIE.

Regular competitors in alliance tournaments, Star Fraction has frequently made it into the late stages of the competitions but are perhaps best known for their victory in an Alliance Tournament IV match against the three-time champion Band of Brothers with a simple fleet of 10 Thorax-class cruisers.

YC 109 saw a second major shift in membership for the Star Fraction with the departure of several of well-known members to form Stimulus. While rumours of bad feeling abounded following the split, the two organizations continued to frequently face the same enemies and the corporation even returned to The Star Fraction briefly in 110. Relationships between the two have since degenerated dramatically, however, with Star Fraction recently levelling allegations of corporate espionage and theft against Stimulus and its alliance, Rote Kapelle.

With the creation of CONCORD’s legislation for capsuleer militias, Star Fraction chose to remain as an alliance but nonetheless began campaigns against prominent Federal Defence Union and Caldari State Protectorate corporations in the Black Rise region, then embarked on a one-year campaign in the Bleak Lands where it supported the Minmatar Tribal Liberation Front against the Amarrian 24th Imperial Crusade. This campaign brought them most prominently into conflict with Garst Tyrell, once of PIE Inc but later leaving to lead No.Mercy, a corporation dogged by accusations of piracy throughout its time in the 24th Imperial Crusade.

In honour of their 5th anniversary, Star Fraction announced Operation ‘Black Lustrum’. Their first target in this operation is Sev3rance in the Providence region and primary focus is on damaging local economy and industry. To evaluate their success, the alliance will rely on regional development index. Miss Constantine explained: “If Sev3rance development indices fall we are winning, if they rise we are losing.“

Despite Star Fraction’s claims, Curatores Veritatis Alliance’s CEO, Aralis, dismissed their opponents as minor threat to Providence: “Mostly it’s just talk. And what isn’t is mostly cloaking and attacking haulers and ratters”.

Aralis also described Star Fraction’s operations in Providence as an opportunistic move. “[They wait] to join a bandwagon when one is going. They are attacking now because they think we are too busy to kill them,” he concluded.

With ‘Black Lustrum’ now in full swing it remains to be seen if this strategy will succeed. Jade Constantine says that, according to their alliance motto, all Freecaptains of The Star Fraction “dare to dream.” What remains hotly debated by the many national loyalist forces that oppose them, sparking a number of recent satires on the Intergalactic Summit, is whether their choices of action bring those dreams any closer to fruition.

Z-GY5S, Venal - On the first of March, an Erebus class titan piloted by kn0chenk0tz3r of Morsus Mihi was destroyed by pilots of White Noise. and Legion of xXDEATHXx.

According to John Caldr of White Noise. alliance, the kill was achieved by using a carrier to entice the titan pilot to pounce on a seemingly undefended prey.

The trap was sprung when kn0chenk0tz3r unleashed her doomsday on the carrier. A waiting White Noise. Fleet was bridged into range and closed in for the kill.

Every victory comes at a price. John Caldr confirmed that the Northern Coalition rallied to rescue the titan and fielded four times as many pilots than White Noise: this caused White Noise. to lose at least three capital ships, including a Moros, a Revelation and an Archon plus several support vessels.

With the Titan’s damage into the hull, kn0chenk0tz3r’s allies were running against the clock to save her: “it took [White Noise.] only 4-5 minutes to kill my ship… my backup was 3 jumps out when I went down,” she said.

While TraderJohn, Diplomat for Morsus Mihi, acknowledged that “a titan loss is never acceptable,” He is also confident however that the titan will be rebuilt.

Kn0chenk0tz3r confirmed she already has plans to use the future titan to continue ambushing unsuspecting capitals. Just with more caution, this time.

GalNet References
White Noise. Alliance’s Killboard

The Singularity Test Server should be updated with the latest in-development code by the time you read this. That means enterprising young hackers will be poring over the latest code and raw game data in an attempt to theorycraft the latest scoop about Tyrannis. Well in the spirit of transparency and in an effort to manage your expectations I’d like to tell you about the Planetary Interaction feature which is coming in Tyrannis and which you will be able to spot bits of if you really dig around on SISI (SISI is the test server’s nickname). This is a no holds barred trip into where we’re going and what you can get a tiny glimpse of and then watch evolve over the next months.

But before we get into that I would be remiss if I didn’t give a modicum of back story. Interacting with planets is something we’ve always wanted to do. We have even shown a rough prototype of planetary flight at the first FanFest. Well, a lot has changed since that first FanFest but our desire to explore these thousands of worlds has remained unwavering. The EVE universe is such a rich and interesting place it’s been a shame we haven’t been able to immerse ourselves deeper into it. Until today where we are witnessing the first baby steps out of space and into the place where the rest of the inhabitants of the EVE universe live. Steps which will soon be followed all the way to the ground by a link into DUST 514 and inside stations with Incarna. Our final destination being an all encompassing sci-fi simulator where you can experience any sci-fi experience you desire. But I’m getting ahead of myself; we’re here to sing 80s tunes and talk about Planetary Interaction.

A little about what Planetary Interaction is; PI is a feature in which industrial minded pilots can now take advantage of the resources on planets which had previously been laying dormant. To do that one simply opens the planet browser, finds a suitable planet via a scanning interface then plunks down various things we have internally been calling PINs (planetary interaction node), links those PINs together and then configures routes for all of the stuff moving between the PINs. PIN is just a working title and we’ve got our highly trained sci-fi experts on the task of renaming everything so you should expect the name to change by the time they reach Tranquility. Our ultimate goal being to create a nice additional revenue stream for people that’s wrapped up in a sexy UI with lots of sci-fi feeling content that eventually ties in seamlessly with DUST 514.

So now let me go a little deeper into the feature and tell you about what is and isn’t going to be visible on SISI. I’ll take it from the high level and move deeper into the granularity as I feel that’s the best way to wrap your head around the game mechanics. The first thing we had to do was come up with a method of distributing all of the resources to the various planets. We need to do this both globally and locally. By that I mean we need the resources distributed so there is a landscape to the regions including risk vs. reward balance of hi/med/lo sec space then that the individual planets also have resources spread across them in a way that looks natural when viewed from the planet viewing UI. This system for distributing resources is getting close to ready on the back end but no authoring or balance work has taken place yet. So on SISI the most you will could possibly get today is “1″ of certain test resources. We’re currently using our special development server dev hacks to put resources where we want them for testing and balancing on our local servers.

Once the resources are in place it would be nice to have some tools to find said resources. Well we’re working on that too. The way one goes about this is to launch a satellite over the planet they are interested in, then pick a specific resource in the new planetary scanning window and get a graphical representation in the form of a heat map of how that resource is distributed on the planet. We use sexy colored spherical harmonics to represent hot spots for the best resources. The “scan planet” button currently only prints “mouseClicked” to the log so sorry you can’t use it yet. You can Google image search for spherical harmonics to get a preview. Our version is so cutting edge it’s only running on one computer in the whole world.

If your scanner worked or if you have fancy slash commands and GM menus you would be able to find a good spot to put down your Planetary Command Center. The PCC is your base of operations for all of your infrastructure on a given planet. Skills will likely allow you to have PCCs on multiple planets. After your PCC is down on a good location the next thing you want to do is start placing extractors in good locations based on your survey results. Extractor PINS pull the various resources from the planet be they solid, liquid or gas depending on which type of planet you’re prospecting on. There isn’t really anything to extract on SISI currently unless you’re a dev but trust me, it’s amazing.

When you’ve got an extractor and PCC placed you’re going to want to do something with all those lovely resources and my recommendation to you is to add some storage PINS to hold your stuff while you’re offline. Although you won’t be able to move your stuff from the extractor to the storage without making some links. Links have (or will have) various levels of bandwidth. We’ve currently got only one test version and it’s called Highway to the Danger Zone. Once everything is linked up your next task to use the route designer (GM only for now) to set the resource flows around you network of PINS.

By now you should have a network of PCC, extractor and storage PINS on your imaginary planet (because you’ve been doing this in your mind as you read the blog). You might be thinking it’s time to get this stuff off the planet and onto the market BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE! Why waste valuable storage space in your rocket or space elevator (more on that later) when you can do some processing dirt-side and just send up the good stuff? I thought the same thing. This is why we have process PINS. All kinds of process PINS for all kinds of processes which use all kinds of schematics (subject to change of course). You will be mixing and matching various resources and commodities based on those schematics to come up with intermediate commodities to eventually create final products. Some final products can be produced entirely on one planet but most will require transport to other planets to be produced. Nothing on SISI is currently balanced and you most likely won’t be able to get this far without dev hacks anyway but this would be a boring story if I just stopped halfway through so let’s continue.

Are you wondering about the Space Elevator I mentioned earlier? I am at this very moment. We call our first test version Stairway to Heaven. The Space Elevator is the best way to move things off of a planet. It is so good in fact that many planets won’t even have them and we’re not even sure if players will be able to build them in Tyrannis. Wars have been fought over access to these Space Elevators. I know because I’ve seen it. It isn’t the only way to get rid of your stuff though. Each command center can launch cargo rockets on occasion and there is a space port PIN that acts as an upgrade from the command center. There is also trade hub PIN which lets you buy and sell commodities from your neighbors on the planet. With a trade hub and a trade agreement setup it’s possible to create more complex networks that facilitate more advance process trees. THAT MEANS MORE FUN AND PROFIT! But of course you can’t do that yet on SISI as it’s technology from the future that hasn’t been invented yet.

So I hope you will join me in impatiently waiting for May and the launch of Tyrannis. Check out SISI now for a first glimpse of PI but also be sure to check back in 3 weeks to see all of the progress that happens during a single sprint. I know you can’t be here with me wandering around the office bugging everyone to work faster but I can assure you that’s what I’m doing. Should I sing Power Ballads until Tyrannis is out the door? Sing with me; YOU LIVE FOR THE FIGHT WHEN IT’S ALL THAT YOU’VE GOT WHOOOOAH WE’RE HALF WAY THERE!

Big hair bonus round: As a treat for everyone who read all the way to the end of the blog we’ve decided to give you a special something. CCP Nimbus, one of our QA engineers on the Planetary Interaction team drew up some concept art for the basics of how the UI and functionality in PI works. What follows is the unedited results of his labor. We hope you enjoy it and that it helps you visualize the complex structure of the PI feature.

* Instructions for downloading the test client and logging into SiSi can be found on the Singularity page in EVElopedia.

Until last summer we experienced regular issues with mass hacking a couple of times a year, usually around Christmas and then again in the middle of summer. Nowadays, this is pretty much constant with hundreds of accounts being targeted every day. Many of those are old trial accounts or accounts that have been disabled for years and don’t hold anything of value to the RMT types. Unfortunately, there are still a lot of accounts that do have assets and ISK that end up being cleaned out – even the characters themselves being sold off. The damages are sadly not repairable in some cases, regardless of valiant efforts by GameMasters to help the unfortunate victims. The cost in resources is high for Customer Support, with highly trained and experienced GMs working almost exclusively on hacking cases – good people whose time and talent would be much better spent on enhancing the gaming experience and increasing the quality of service we are able to give to our customers.

The methods the hackers use differ and constantly change but the result is always the same – your account is ruined. However, users can take steps to limit the chances of getting attacked and following is a list of things that can help make your accounts more secure.

Do not use the same usernames and passwords for different games
Every day, we see countless attempts to log in with pairs of usernames and passwords, amongst them many usernames that don’t exist in our systems. Obviously, those non-existing usernames have been harvested from somewhere else. They have been gathered via keyloggers, phishing sites, trojans, hacked forums and whatnot and long lists of such username/password pairs are traded between RMT types for use against gamer accounts all over the place. A good way to avoid problems with this is to simply use different login details for each game.

The same should also go for third-party sites and forums as those are quite often targeted by the hackers to harvest login details. Login details for such third-party sites may or may not be encrypted so keeping separate usernames and passwords for your gaming accounts is the way to go.

Change your passwords regularly
If your login details have been harvested, a regular change of passwords may prevent attacks from being successful.

Use strong passwords
Passwords should be complex and difficult to guess. Using a mix of numbers and small/capital letters can reduce the dangers from brute-forcing and lucky guesswork on part of the hackers. Avoid using common dictionary words and keep in mind that longer passwords are less vulnerable than short ones. A minimum length of 16 characters with a mix of lower case, capitals and numbers is strongly recommended for heightened security.

Do not share your login details with anyone
If you give someone your login details, your security is only as good as his. If he is hacked, you are hacked – given that he won’t simply use or sell your details himself.

Don’t accept files from sources you don’t know
A lot of the mal-ware on the Internet specifically targets gamer accounts. RMT in online gaming is a huge racket – your login details are a valuable commodity and the pitfalls are many. Keyloggers and trojans – all geared towards the destruction of your accounts lay in wait, poised to strike when you open that file or go to that website. Phising schemes abound and social engineering is rife, on an Internet that often seems without law or consequence. One cannot be too careful – it’s not paranoia when they’re really out to get you.

Regularly scan your systems for security threats with up-to-date anti-virus software
Protect yourself by running updated anti-virus software to find and fix security threats that may have found their way onto your systems. There are many such programs available, some free and some not free, but definitely worth spending time to set up and the money to purchase. It’s imperative to maintain a virus scanner and Operating System by actively checking for new updates and applying them, especially for the virus scanner. Using a firewall is also recommended as an optional measure.

Also see this forum discussion for more suggestions on better security.

By following the simple steps above you can make your accounts more secure and limit the dangers of being attacked by hackers who are after your stuff. Please be sure that we are not sitting idly by either – we are currently working hard on account security upgrades to get this problem under control. There are several items on the menu and the we hope to implement the first countermeasures in the next few weeks. However, we urge all of you to step up your own security at home by following the suggestions listed above.

Together we will vanquish this evil monster!

Powerpoints are prepared and black dev shirts have been ironed. Come join us at any of the four speaking sessions we’ll be a part of–from fighting the good fight against RMT to cloth simulation and from scaling EVE’s universe to scaling CCP itself.