The CSM 9 Winter Summit: The Great Team Security Chili Cookoff

To the amazement of all, CCP and CSM are the minutes of the CSM 9 Winter Summit during the summit.  The minutes for day 1 included sessions titled "Roadmap & Release Cadence", "New Player Experience", "Web Team", "Team Size Matters", "Corporations & Alliances", "Team Homegrown", and "Team Security".  Needless to say, I was interested in the Team Security session.

I'll have to admit, I was a little disappointed by the minutes for that session.  The chili recipe was kind of weak.  Huh?  That's right, the session was almost entirely NDA'd, so one of Steve Ronuken's recipes was inserted instead.  However, the topics discussed were revealed, which is a plus.  Those were: multiboxing, account authentication, DDoS attacks and mitigation, and a status on the effort against illicit RMT.  All topics I'd like to know about.

I'm pretty sure that a lot of people are disappointed in the news blackout, but I'm not.  Considering the speed with which the minutes were released, the security guys probably decided to NDA everything to make sure no information leaks to the bad guys.  Personally, I can wait for the sanitized version Team Security will present at Fanfest in less than two months.

Don't I want to hear about all the people banned?  Yes, I do.  I'd like to hear that the numbers are low because players are obeying the rules.  However, I know human nature. Even though the ISBoxer developer changed the defaults to turn the input broadcasting features off on 1 January, I expect some ISBoxer users to get banned simply for thinking they can't get caught.  I also expect that a lot of people didn't get the word about the new ban policy for those buying ISK from shady people and so those numbers are higher than CCP would like.  I already know that over 300 players were banned for purchasing ISK in the first week of 2015.

But, do I really want to hear interim figures?  The policies only went into effect three weeks ago.  I can wait a couple more months, when hopefully Team Security will release figures for the first 2 months of 2015.  I'll admit my attitude is probably shaped by the fact I have to scrounge around and dig up a lot of my own facts about illicit RMT, which includes things like botting and hacking accounts.  I'm used to CCP not just handing out facts.

Also, what's more important, satisfying my curiosity or keeping sensitive security methods under wraps?  While the ban numbers probably aren't sensitive, details about account authentication methods (dual factor authentication coming soon?) and how successful CCP is at fighting off DDoS attacks and how they have achieved any successes probably need to stay secret, at least for now.  If the whole session is overclassified, well, as I mentioned before, we'll get a sanitized, more comprehensive version at Fanfest.  I'm patient.  I can wait.

Still, for the next sessions that are heavily NDA'd like this, could we get some shopping and restaurant recommendations for Fanfest goers.  Would you believe some people attending probably haven't heard of Nonni's?