NEWSEA, a rival site to TSR has been hacked and the data of 3,322 of its users has been posted online.
CHANGE ALL OF YOUR PASSWORDS NOW.
Unlike the last information leak, where 614 people had their names email address shared on the grapevine, this new leak is far more dangerous, the online list not only contains usernames and emails, but your PASSWORDS and your country of origin and and some full names.
I understand there are rumors already in the community, and in some cases these rumors are not being believed, I can confirm that I have seen the full list online and I can not stress how urgent it is that you take action to change your passwords. The information is listed in this format: id - username - email – password - firstname - lastname - country
On May the 10th, a few members of staff were approached, and on May 11th were given subscriber passes to Newsea. The idea was to download and share Newsea subscriber only files through torrent sites in an attempt to damage the Newsea business and limit their monetary income. I was under the impression that TSR had bought the subscriptions. Shortly after, I heard that Newsea was willing to sell the site to TSR and return as FA. Talks broke down apparently when Tom accused Newsea of being greedy and wanting far too much for the site, I have no idea what Newsea asked for or what he was offered, but whatever it was, Tom said it was too much but he was certain Newsea would be back with ‘his tail between his legs’. Yesterday I was told that every member of Newsea has had their username, email name and password leaked online. Shortly before this news went public, TSR posted a cryptic and confusing message on their front page.
“TSR members are being targeted in the community by people trying to cause trouble. Please remember that nobody from TSR will ever ask for your password for the site. If anyone approaches you on Facebook, Forums or Chat, claiming to be from TSR and asking you for your login details, do not give them out!”
You may wonder what is so cryptic and confusing about this message? For a start the first paragraph is the focus of events that have never happened, there have been no reports of anyone being approached on facebook, forums or chat by anyone asking for login details. This part of the statement is clearly just an opener and just an excuse to make an announcement so that they can get to the second paragraph..
Passwords stored at TSR are encrypted. ( No they are not. ) Staff, Admins and Mods do not have access to your passwords used, ( some staff and all admins do. )
“but not all sites work that way.” Now we are getting to the point of this announcement .. Sites like Newsea? How perceptive of TSR to know that a rival site was about to have it’s entire unencrypted data leaked online. How thoughtful of TSR to let us know how *cough* secure their site is and how unsecure rival sites may be. We could have done without the demonstration.
This has not just been a hack, it has started with blackmail. With this being posted on or around April 27th
Followed by attempts from TSR to damage the business through sharing.
When Newsea refused to sell and rejoin TSR for what was probably a very low offer, the information gathered from the site was released to the public. ( ..after the careful removal of TSR FA accounts! ) You do not need me to explain what this means to the 3,322 people who have had their emails and passwords displayed for all to see, or the damage to the reputation of Newseas site.
Still not convinced that TSR are liars? TSR have even gone as far as writing words in Newsea’s TSR blog, that were not written by Newsea and replying to messages that were not replied to by Newsea -In fact Newsea have NO access to their own TSR blog. What kind of respectable site would impersonate an artist through blog posts and messages while locking them out of their own account. That in itself is illegal.
Newsea says: “Please do not give the newsea of TSR site message! because the account has been modified by the TSR, we do not have the permissions of that account, all speak of the newsea of TSR site not what we say!”
Hacking. Blackmail. Impersonation. This is how low TSR will go to destroy the competition. For those who have very little sympathy for a paysite like Newsea, remember that paysites are not the only rival to TSR.
March 31, 2011
EA are not in TSR’s good books. Tom and Co have been waiting with baited bad breath to see the new announcement that was originally scheduled for today on the Sims 3 facebook. While the rest of the world thinks with some certainty the announcement will be Generations related, paranoid Tom is worried that it will be some sort of creation tool to rival the workshop. Now, with the announcement being delayed until Tuesday, he has another 5 day agonising wait. It has even been suggested that uploads made with this EA tool be denied from the TSR site. That is going to go down well with EA I am sure!
It seems a tad premature to make rules for a tool that probably does not even exist, and what would be the big deal if it did? If EA were to make such a tool, players would still blindly upload to TSR, so why does it have to be strictly only the TSR tool that they use? I guess this is the same reason that they send sock puppets over to the EA forums whenever someone even suggests that the TSR tool is not safe to use. It is ok to call them hackers, information sharers, thieves, extortionists and paedophile magnets ( all true ) However if anyone dare to dis their workshop, a shitstorm will ensue. They do not care what dirty little secrets the community knows and repeats about them, so long as they have the whole community trusting, using and regularly updating this tool, I wonder why.
On a funnier note, it is refreshing to see TSR on pins waiting for news, I remember the days when they would have known the announcement in advance thanks to Steve’s connections and their *ahem* ‘close’ relationship with EA. These days EA seem to be keeping their distance. It looks like TSR are sleeping on the couch.
UPDATE: 5th April 2011
As expected, EA’s announcement was nothing to do with a rival tool. It was Generations. Perhaps Tom may now realise just how paranoid he really is? I must say I thoroughly enjoyed reading about the new expansion on Gamespot, the preview on gamerevolution and the Gameplanet interview with producer Ryan Vaughan was quite interesting. On April 12th simfans.de will test the new EP Generations and are accepting questions. Sims-3.net have attended a fan event in Germany, which has been translated into English by simsVIP
TSR would have had an amazing ‘exclusive’ but Steve’s scanner broke much to the relief of PC format.
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August 4, 2010
August 1, 2010
December 1, 2009
Well would you credit it! TSR have talks about their proposed ‘statement’ I took the time to write up the details, and then they change their tactics last minute just before I am about to publish it. I am convinced they do this to annoy me, it is like I have nothing better to do then play games with Steve when he gets bored of watching Tom French kissing Atwa . I am going to publish it anyway, because I really do not have the time today to rewrite, I will add the updated information in bold.
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April 7, 2009
TSR Myths and Lies
Welcome to all the new readers who have found their way here after ‘googling’ names and phrases found on TSR’s ’statement’ Listed below are the myths, lies and truths of that statement.
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