Last week FlightSimLabs once again found itself at the centre of a discussion in the flightsim community regarding some suspicious files in their A320X installation. This discussion caused such an uproar, most notably on Reddit, that FlightSimLabs felt the need to act on certain claims that were being made. In doing so, FlightSimLabs took to the moderators of the subreddit and send them a message with legal threats. Instead of giving in to the demands and threats made by FlightSimLabs, the moderators decided to play with open cards and let the community know what was going on. This, obviously, was cause for the debate to become even more heated, with many users giving up their trust in FlightSimLabs coupled with their DRM scandal earlier this year.
This was apparently not enough for someone. Someone, going by the name of ‘RandomRedditor’ had hacked the FlightSimLabs website and published all kinds of administrative information, such as admin email accounts and passwords. The hacker also left a message, which has since been removed, stating the following:
Dear Flight Sim Labs,
The internet is a wonderful tool which has enabled communication on a worldwide scale and it’s use has accelerated our learning and advancement as a species.
Internet users share knowledge and opinions and where these differ, debates take place. People can choose to take the opinion of others, question them or give alternative opinions. The internet allows freedom of speech and expression and through that we can get to know what others feel or think about any subject rather than the echo of our own little bubble and world.
Flight Sim Labs recently tried to gag free speech on Reddit with passive-agressive threats of legal action simply because you did not like what was being said.
Many smaller platforms do not have the money, legal team or will to fight such threats and give in without a fight. Speech and publishing on the internet being dictated by those with more money to spend on lawyers and a legal team bothers me tremendously. This spreads outside of the internet and makes a joke of the laws and justice system of many countries and is a rot that needs resolving.
FSL has intentionally distributed malware with it’s product – Fact
FSL recently used malware tactics again, not learning from previous mistakes – Fact
FSL tried to cover this up and gag Reddit with legal threats and claims of libel – Fact
FSL customer user information is compromised – FactNow your customer and company data is compromised as a result of the way you treat your customers and the internet. Making a public apology for your wrongdoings, with no blame apportioned elsewhere or PR spin, would go a long way in to making sure the copy of product serial numbers along with associated customer data gets destroyed.
DRM and censorship are a scourge which hinders the development of mankind by limiting sharing of information. The people of the internet will always find a way to bypass both as they know freedom is more important than the profits of a business.
Love and hope for the future.
RandomRedditor
Multiple server pwnage. It is unforunate that one has to publish even this to pre-empt more hole digging denials and threats of lawyers from FSL. Published root mysql user password to show hashed passwords are not secure and easily reversible.
At the end of the message, there was user accounts and website data which we won’t post here.
The website was taken down shortly after the hack became public. FlightSimLabs have come out with a statement, saying that no credit card information was compromised. It seems both the website and the forum are restored, though temporary outages may still occur in the product installation system.
Though it is not yet know if, and what data has possibly been compromised, the hacker seems to have gained a rather deep level of access. Coupled with the quote “Now your customer and company data is compromised”, this is rather worrying. It’s advised to everyone to change your password for flightsimlabs.com. The identity of the hacker is still unknown, and though the name they’re going by is ‘RandomRedditor’, it has not been confirmed whether we are actually talking about a reddit user. Black hat hackers often use events such as those from last week as a cover for their actions.
We have reached out to FlightSimLabs for a statement, and in the hope to get some important questions answered. Unfortunately we have yet to receive such answers or a statement, though we are in contact with them. We will update this article as more information becomes available.
