A few hours ago, Google Wave was victim of the its first (?) troll attack.
A 12 year old, named Chris W., decided to start deleting content from as many as 7 waves, editing and counter-editing information inside blips and wavelets, in a live war watched by many. Two of the Waves that I had setup to help newcomers to Google’s new platform were victim of these attacks and some of the its content has been lost forever. You can read a first hand account of what was happening, while it was happening, here.
The attack only finished, and a public apology was posted in all of the waves that were attacked, after I used “old-school” methods and found out Chris’ website and, with the information that he has in there [and some Swedish geek magic], contacted his uncle via e-mail, sending a copy of that same e-mail to Chris’s mailbox.
That a 12 year old is on Google Wave is already something that should raise some questions. But what really is important to address, in my opinion, is the lack of moderation that you have at this moment all around Google Wave. You can only create a private wave or a public wave and nothing else in between. The creator of a wave doesn’t wave any moderation/administration powers and that makes any content, posted on any public wave, subject to the good will of all of those participating in it. If someone decides to delete, blip by blip, all the information you can use the playback function to see what happened but you can’t reset the wave’s state to any given point in the past. Also it is impossible to to copy all the content of a Wave to a new wave without taking authorship from the different entries. Even if you could copy all content with one click, to get all the users participating on the attacked wave, to the new one, implies adding all of those users to your contact list, one by one and then, again one by one, add them to the new wave.
Today’s events have shown how the work of many can be destroyed in just a few minutes by a 12 year old that “thought it would be funny to delete stuff“. As Google Wave grows I am sure that others will come that will aim to do more damage in more dangerous ways. If Google doesn’t address these issues, at this early stage, I am afraid that the positive things that public wave’s can bring to all users will be small compared to what the damage that a few can make.
What do you think?
[wave id="googlewave.com!w+gMjdmPmAU" color="#7f7f80" bgcolor="#ffffff" width="500"]
Strategist, Sound Designer, Electronic Music Producer, New Media Artist, Activist, Blogger, A&R of the 
Has nothting to do that this trolll was just 12. There are fuckwits who are much older, some of them sit parliaments around the world.
Other than that I agree that there should be greater control for who can participate on waves and that there should be a Wikipedia like restore function.
While your points are 100% valid, Google Wave can’t even be considered to have taken baby steps yet.
We as CONSTRUCTIVE consumers need to be bringing up these points so Google is made aware of them, but the negative implications you are trying to infer are absolutely no different in any other device or system we use to facilitate communication.
Should we stop using e-mail because of all the spam? Should we stop using Skype because of the account phishing schemes?
Of course not! We just need to advise the powers that be, that stronger security and control measures need to be put in place to prevent that kind of malicious intent from happening.
At this time, we can’t even say “Gwave needs stronger” protection as Google has not yet unveiled to us the measures they plan on implementing, but I have faith when they do, they are going to work and work well!
I don’t understand your comment to be honest. On this post I am addressing one issue and one issue only: Public Waves inside of the Google Wave universe. Nothing in this post refers to stop using the service.
Taking your own example yes I stopped using Skype in a public way, have my account protected and not visible to anyone. Ditto for my Facebook. And not protecting my updates on Twitter gives me a lot of work.
I am not trying to “infer” anything: I have experienced this situation first hand and have been involved in discussion regarding the future of public waves. This is a problem that should be addressed immediately by Google for two main reasons:
1. At this moment it is still possible to control this. Maybe in 30 days it won’t.
2. The level of frustration this will bring to current users will give way to Google Wave becoming a universe of private waves. So much for collaboration.
Thank you, this is very thought provoking. I agree, the creator of the wave should have some moderation/administration powers. Wow, it’s nuts that this even happened. I would have never thought about this if not for reading your post. I’m looking forward to seeing if and when this gets addressed.
RT: @adamsconsulting: #GoogleWave "1st Troll attack shows @Google Wave’s vulnerabilities" http://tr.im/EbMM via @fjfonseca
RT @adamsconsulting: #GoogleWave "1st Troll attack shows @Google Wave’s vulnerabilities" http://tr.im/EbMM #zargon
RT @fjfonseca: RT @adamsconsulting: #GoogleWave "1st Troll attack shows @Google Wave’s vulnerabilities" http://tr.im/EbMM #zargon
Troll attack shows #Googlewave ’s vulnerabilities http://bit.ly/O4jhp
RT @russelltripp: Moderation should be at the top of the #googlewave team's list http://bit.ly/1P3Ca (it's coming, but quickly enough?)
RT @adamsconsulting: #GoogleWave "1st Troll attack shows @Google Wave’s vulnerabilities" http://tr.im/EbMM via @fjfonseca
Troll attack shows @Google Wave's vulnerabilities – http://cli.gs/HMyNg (via @fjfonseca)
#GoogleWave "1st Troll attack shows @Google's vulnerabilities": http://tr.im/EbMM
Google Wave's first tragedy of the commons: http://bit.ly/4laWdZ
12 yo exposes @Google Wave's vulnerabilities – http://cli.gs/HMyNg (via @fjfonseca)
RT @alexhudish: 12 yo exposes @Google Wave's vulnerabilities – http://cli.gs/HMyNg (via @fjfonseca)
12 yo exposes @Google #Wave 's vulnerabilities – http://cli.gs/HMyNg (via @fjfonseca)
RT @ShellyKramer: RT @alexhudish: 12 yo exposes @Google Wave's vulnerabilities – http://cli.gs/HMyNg (via @fjfonseca)
RT @ShellyKramer: RT @alexhudish: 12 yo exposes @Google Wave's vulnerabilities – http://cli.gs/HMyNg (via @fjfonseca)
RT BuzzEdition: 12 yo exposes @Google Wave's vulnerabilities – http://cli.gs/HMyNg (via @fjfonseca @ShellyKramer @alexhudish)
SWEET! 12 year old reveals flaw in Google Wave http://cli.gs/HMyNg via @RuudHein #Fjfonesca @ShellyKramer @Alexhudish
12 yo exposes @Google Wave's vulnerabilities http://cli.gs/HMyNg /@fjfonseca @ShellyKramer @alexhudish @BuzzEdition
RT @mparent77772:12 yo exposes @Google Wave's vulnerabilities http://cli.gs/HMyNg /@fjfonseca @ShellyKramer @alexhudish @BuzzEdition [uh oh
RT @mparent77772: 12 yo exposes @Google Wave's vulnerabilities http://bit.ly/42YMK5 /@fjfonseca @ShellyKramer @alexhudish @BuzzEdition
Liked "RT @mparent77772:12 yo exposes @Google Wave's vulnerabilities http://cli.gs/HMyNg /@fjfonseca @ShellyKramer…" http://ff.im/-bt1oT