Scardino / Fedele Banned

[Eluvatar]

The player known as Scardino has been permanently banned from The North Pacific's Forum

In the years this forum has been up and running, and in the days of the predecessor forum, there are only a scant handful of players who have been forum banned. It has never happened without a great degree of agonising and deliberation by the Admin team. We pride ourselves on having one of the lightest administration touches in NationStates.

So why has Scardino been banned?

On April 1st 2006 the Forum Founder and Owner, Hersfold, gave Scardino access to the Admin Control Panel. Hersfold decided, as an April Fool joke, that the forum would be given a Lone Wolves United skin. As part of the practical joke, Hersfold briefly made Scardino an forum admin. Hersfold later described this to the Team as the worst mistake he ever made in NationStates.

While he had Admin access and permissions, Scardino used this access to harvest data from our forum – usernames, IP addresses, email addresses etc of every forum user. This data was shared among raider groups. Another player, Limitless Events, passed the data on to the region known as The Lexicon, with whom The North Pacific was at war, and which contained players who had already blurred the line between in-game and real-life threats.

When this came to light in October 2006, it caused quite a crisis in our region. At least three players (to our knowledge) left the game completely because of a perceived risk to their real-life career or life. Hersfold himself never quite got over the episode, and retired from the game soon after.

Limitless Events was banned from the forum, a ban which lasted until 2012 (he still has some account restrictions to this day). Scardino himself had by this point left the game, so no action was taken, However, the Admins determined that if ever he returned to The North Pacific a permanent forum ban would be implemented.

As Scardino has now returned, that ban is now in force.

We are aware that the events happened a long time ago in NationStates terms. But the offence was not trivial, and besides which there is more at stake here than Scardino himself. We hope that a message will go out to others who may contemplate compromising the security of personal data from this community. It will not be forgotten; it will not be forgiven. If you screw us over you will forfeit your ability to participate in one of the most significant and vibrant forums in NationStates. The risk is not worth it, so do not try it.

Signed,

The Admin Team of The North Pacific

 

[Gracius Maximus]

Well that's something you don't see everyday.

 

[Blue Wolf II]

I call bullshit.

The Admins only know it was Scardino who obtained this information because I, in good faith, told them. Now they are betraying that trust to lash out at Scardino after a full decade.

Also, trying to link this incident with Hersfold's retirement is very bad form, Elu. I've seen nothing to give credence to that assertion. I'd also very much like to know which three players "left the game" because of Limi's leak, because, again, the claims don't seem to be matching up to facts.

 

[Gradea]

I thank the Admin team for the steps they have taken to protect the forum of the North Pacific however I am confused as to why this ban has been enforced now instead of sooner.

 

[Deleted User (Guest)]

Scardino only recently returned to NationStates. This discussion was on-going since they first appeared in IRC.

 

[Gradea]

Scardino only recently returned to NationStates. This discussion was on-going since they first appeared in IRC.

Understandable but surely Scardino should have been permabanned when he committed his crime?

 

[Flemingovia]

Scardino only recently returned to NationStates. This discussion was on-going since they first appeared in IRC.

Understandable but surely Scardino should have been permabanned when he committed his crime?

In retrospect, Yes, he should. But since it appeared that he had permanently left the game that step was not taken. But the admin team said that if he did return, the ban would be enforced.

 

[Blue Wolf II]

I'd still like to know what players "left the game" because of the leak indirectly caused by Scardino, and directly caused by Limitless, who isn't banned from these forums.

This seems to be the real reason why Scardino was banned, and if it was simply the theft of IP information, why isn't Shoeless Joe banned for providing TNP the entire IP Address list from The Lexicon?

I might also like to add that the list was initially used to check for NPIA spies in LWU, of which we caught two, Daimiaena and later Mesian. He had quite a lot of reason to collect that information, given TNP's old habit of spying upon his region. What happened to the information later was unfortunate, but I find it ironic that the person who actually leaked the information, without permission I might add, isn't banned on these forums.

This isn't the Admin Team "taking a tough stance", this is pure vengeance for an act that is now so out of context that we must remember that it occurred when: TNP was officially a defender region, when NPIA openly and unapologetically spied on raider regions, when defenders routinely used spies to infiltrate and destroy invader forums, when defenders kept entire forums full of IP addresses for spy catching, when ADN and RLA still existed, and before Influence was instituted.

But hey, dish best served cold and rotted, am I right? Sorta like Hakarl.

 

[Cormac]

I'm curious why it was all right for The North Pacific and the Alliance Defense Network, of which The North Pacific was a part, to use similar tactics against other regions, but not all right for other regions to use these tactics. Either IP address collection and collection of other information, such as e-mail addresses, constitute unacceptable invasion of privacy for everyone, or they're valid security and intelligence tactics -- for everyone.

IP addresses remain central to security and intelligence throughout NationStates gameplay. TNP shares IP addresses with allied and friendly regions on request, without seeking the permission of the individual(s) that are the subject of the request. Other regions share such information with TNP. Is that an OOC invasion of privacy that should get TNP's officials and forum administrators banned from other regions? If not, why should it get Scardino banned here?

 

[Eluvatar]

I'm curious why it was all right for The North Pacific and the Alliance Defense Network, of which The North Pacific was a part, to use similar tactics against other regions, but not all right for other regions to use these tactics.

A central aspect of the problem in this case was the transmission of the information in the direction of Insane Power. He had a certain degree of loathing for many contemporary TNPers. Insane Power is well-known in contemporary circles for having little self-restraint and having made threats of doing RL harm to other players.

Edit: As a minor historical note, TNP's association with ADN was limited to the Military Guidelines for consideration between The North Pacific Governemnt and The Alliance Defense Network -- TNP did not rejoin the ADN following the Pixiedance wars of January-May 2005.

Either IP address collection and collection of other information, such as e-mail addresses, constitute unacceptable invasion of privacy for everyone, or they're valid security and intelligence tactics -- for everyone.

One has to be careful with any and all personal information.

IP addresses remain central to security and intelligence throughout NationStates gameplay.

They are often reviewed, examined, and compared, yes.

TNP shares IP addresses with allied and friendly regions on request, without seeking the permission of the individual(s) that are the subject of the request.

You've not cited or characterized this assertion in any way. The implication of "on request" is that any request will be answered favorably, which certainly isn't the case. I don't believe we do so often, but I could be unaware of an instance that could be compared. Would you be able to give one?

Other regions share such information with TNP.

As far as I know, no region has given TNP a complete index of all IP addresses and email addresses used on their forum. (Unless one credits claims by certain Lexiconians that Shoeless Joe gave the NPIA a complete dump from the Lexicon's forum when he let the NPIA know of Limitless Events's actions back in 2006.)

Is that an OOC invasion of privacy that should get TNP's officials and forum administrators banned from other regions? If not, why should it get Scardino banned here?

If comparable conduct can be found by TNP officials or forum administrators, I am sure we would be very interested in looking into it.

To my knowledge, we occasionally share information relevant to forum destroyers or other OOC problems such as porn spamming or sexual harassment. I don't believe we have a habit of sharing information for gameplay purposes, though of course if it is essential to an ally's security I could conceive of share some information with a certain degree of care.

 

[Blue Wolf II]

Wait, so Cormac gets all his claims addressed in a sentence by sentence break down and yet no one can answer my one simple question of who those three mystery people are that Scar supposedly drove off Nationstates?


...It's because those people don't exist, isn't it?

 

[Blue Wolf II]

I'm going to take the deafening silence coming from the Admin Team to mean that I am correct, and that those people don't exist.

So part of the justification for this ban, right off the bat, is based upon a complete lie. Now, if the Admin Team had to lie about their reasoning, that sort of makes it seem like they didn't have a very good argument to start with.

But, hey, I'm sure Scardino is a tremendous threat to this forum...provided another Admin grants him administration powers after he specifically tells them he'll copy every bit of intel he can find if he's masked as such.

Like what happened between him and Hersfold.