Data Security

[RampagingHoardes]

I am not sure if this has been addressed it if has I apologize but I have some concerns about intellectual property and the safety of it.

In a world where data security is compromised daily and no one seems safe (cough cough Target cough cough) ...



1. What sort of protections are there against our intellectual property being stolen?

2. Is the data on your server encrypted?



Does all of staff have unfettered access? (Not meaning to offend but I feel this is a valid question you never know when an you may wind up with a disgruntled employee)

Now I have the product it seems I have to login to create a world. After I make further changes to my world...


3. Is this only updated if I choose to update it meaning it is only an empty shell on the server unless I synch?



Not that I am sitting on any goldmine or anything I just want to know that if you are making copies of my stuff it cannot be taken from me.

I love this software and this really is my biggest concern. Hopefully you can ease my worries.


thanks!

 

[rob]

1. What sort of protections are there against our intellectual property being stolen?

The server where the data is actually stored is not even accessible to the outside world. The only way to get access to it is through a separate server. So anyone trying to hack into the server will need to hack through multiple servers.

2. Is the data on your server encrypted?

I can't go into details about our security publicly - hopefully, the reason for that is obvious. That being said, I can tell you that we've taken a lot of steps to secure everyone's data from unauthorized access.

One thing to keep in mind here is that the data on our server is broken up into lots of tiny pieces. For example, a 100-page adventure probably consists of well over 100,000 different pieces. And all those pieces are jumbled together with everyone else's content. So let's assume someone actually gets access to the server (highly unlikely). They would now have to identify all the pieces of your content and then reassemble all that content. So we're talking about a task akin to putting Humpty Dumpty back together here.

Given that hackers are always looking for something that yields a high financial return on all the time investment they put in, it's pretty unlikely that a hacker would consider us a target. First, getting through our security would entail a lot of work. Then they'd have to find all the pieces for each world and put Humpty Dumpty back together again for each of them. And then they'd have to turn all that work into a financial return. Unless your real name is something like George R.R. Martin or J.K. Rowling, I honestly don't foresee there being enough financial return to justify all that work. And if your real name IS someone famous, I'm quite dubious whether it would be worth the effort. It would probably be a whole lot simpler to obtain the information through other avenues that are significantly easier to crack/intercept.

Does all of staff have unfettered access? (Not meaning to offend but I feel this is a valid question you never know when an you may wind up with a disgruntled employee)

Only the staff that need access to the material to do their job have access to it. So only a subset of the team has access.

Now I have the product it seems I have to login to create a world. After I make further changes to my world...

3. Is this only updated if I choose to update it meaning it is only an empty shell on the server unless I synch?

When you create a realm via our server, you give it a name. The server stores the name, issues some important key information to reserve a place for the realm, and then hands that info back to the client. That's all the server ever know until you next sync to the server.

If you prefer, you can use a silly name when creating the realm on the server and then never sync. Doing that ensures that absolutely NOTHING about your realm ever makes its way onto the server. You can then use the built-in Backup and Restore mechanisms to manage your data under your sole control.

Hope this helps!

 

[RampagingHoardes]

Hi Rob,

Thanks for the quick and enlightening reply. The information you have provided makes me feel much more at ease as I move forward. Again thanks for getting back with me so promptly.