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Ukara being down and all...


Sitye
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My ukara membership expired a while back, i've been back on the scene at my local for a few months now and clocked up enough games, but i can't get registered again as the website is apparently down, and looks like it's been that way for some time.

 

So now what? I want to buy f*cking big old scary RIFs not something from the latest CoD with a rainbow on it... ...not that it's a massive issue as i'm skint anyway.

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1 hour ago, Sitye said:

My ukara membership expired a while back, i've been back on the scene at my local for a few months now and clocked up enough games, but i can't get registered again as the website is apparently down, and looks like it's been that way for some time.

 

So now what? I want to buy f*cking big old scary RIFs not something from the latest CoD with a rainbow on it... ...not that it's a massive issue as i'm skint anyway.

 

If I recall correctly you don't need a UKARA yo buy RIFS if you have a site ID card. I have one with UCAP and have never had a full UKARA license yet I am able to buy RIF's from shops and sites using this. 

 

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Ah ok, well i contacted my site with regards to UKARA registration, a single sentence reply was all i got;

 

"UKARA Site has been down for months"

 

Not the best customer service to say the least, but i didn't expect much more.

 

Guess i'll just keep my already owned RIFs and carry on not giving a toss about a membership then... My new local charges for membership, which i think is a bit cheeky but they do offer a discount when you play for being a member, so not all bad i guess. 

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14 minutes ago, skillfulmmd said:

 

If I recall correctly you don't need a UKARA yo buy RIFS if you have a site ID card. I have one with UCAP and have never had a full UKARA license yet I am able to buy RIF's from shops and sites using this. 

 

 

It is not a license. :rolleyes:  Andy at UCAP hates UKARA and so is not part of the scheme, likewise I just used my membership card and purchased guns from local stores.

 

And this subject has recently been covered in another thread in General Discussion started on 30 April  - https://airsoft-forums.uk/index.php?/topic/35397-ukara-website-not-functioning/

 

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If I was suspicious, I'd  be starting to think they've had a massive data breach and either lost it all or exposed it all.  It's been out of action  for too long without any reasonable explanation forthcoming.

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I did put a post on the first one of these that popped up. I was told by a site owner, a reputable one at that, that the site had been hacked, and they had taken it "offline" to prevent data being stolen. So  your not wrong .

7 hours ago, AndyGif290368 said:

If I was suspicious, I'd  be starting to think they've had a massive data breach and either lost it all or exposed it all.  It's been out of action  for too long without any reasonable explanation forthcoming.

 

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On 5/18/2017 at 4:39 PM, Jedi_Master said:

 

It is not a license. :rolleyes:  Andy at UCAP hates UKARA and so is not part of the scheme, likewise I just used my membership card and purchased guns from local stores.

 

And this subject has recently been covered in another thread in General Discussion started on 30 April  - https://airsoft-forums.uk/index.php?/topic/35397-ukara-website-not-functioning/

 

 

Yeah I did think this is how it worked. I can understand wanting to log every player that buys guns but its not a perfect system as people sell them without the need etc. 

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4 hours ago, sokar666 said:

What do you think would happen if they had been hacked.  Those dastardly criminals would be able to buy RIF'S  and have them sent to your house. Bring it on let them do it lol, could do with a new gun :)

Really? That's all you can think of. The internet is run on advertising, think what personal information is attached to the UKARA database, and it's pretty specified, makes some ones job in marketing very easy. 

 

Plus personal info means they know who has Rifs, and where they live. Burglary, then "armed robbery" with your Rifs, no way of tracing who owns those Rifs since they are stolen. 

 

Airsofters get get a bad name. No more airsoft. The world is full of arseholes. If you can think it, they will try it.

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1 hour ago, Prisce said:

Really? That's all you can think of. The internet is run on advertising, think what personal information is attached to the UKARA database, and it's pretty specified, makes some ones job in marketing very easy. 

 

Plus personal info means they know who has Rifs, and where they live. Burglary, then "armed robbery" with your Rifs, no way of tracing who owns those Rifs since they are stolen. 

 

Airsofters get get a bad name. No more airsoft. The world is full of arseholes. If you can think it, they will try it.

Data theft will also have an impact on UKARA as they'll have to declare it if that is the case, meaning a pretty substantial fine - they're lucky the new GDPR isn't in effect yet!

 

But yes, exactly, loss of personal data will be sold to all sorts of advertising companies, PPI callers etc. Frankly it's enough information to open a bank account, claim a credit card, or if the photos are stored too (as my old card had my photo on!) a passport potentially.

 

Don't know what's verbatim in that claim, but it would certainly seem like something bad has happened from the long outage.

 

 

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either way until its back up a lot of people are pretty screwed. I can imagine a lot of new players are waiting to sign up so they can buy a RIF

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*sits and waits*

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FOI request to the ICO? ;)

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God, for their sake i am not going to do this, having dealt with breaches in IT for a companies before...

 

I am shocked that UKARA haven't really announced anything though, kinda glad my details are out of date thinking about it. :)

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Lol, been on the receiving end of a breach too. 3 years of featuring in a journalists annual call diary for updates trying for more dirt digging was not fun.

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when you think about it it is pretty bad.

 

its the generally most accepted way of obtaining a defense, not the only way but the most accessible and for a lot of stores and imports pretty much the only way some retailers would touch you.

 

It is not Law but as the most suitable defense you would assume it would be managed better or even regulated by a proper governing body or some such.

 

Surely retailers would notice an impact at some point if it stays down and maybe look at a new system?

 

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I've always seen the UKARA Membership scheme as a way of charging retailers to do business, hiding behind the merit that it's a legality solution sure, but it's so lapse and with a law that is so easily bypassed in it's definition it hardly exists in that merit. The VCRA states what it states as we all know, but would be incredibly hard to enforce, it has never slowed me down if i'm honest, i've bought with and without membership, i've used "I'm an airsofter" as my sole defence, which is completely legal by the way and equates to about as much officialism as a site membership, and to top it off UKARA clearly wasn't being particularly well managed if it were hacked to the point it's been shut down under the guise of upgrades gone wrong (for like 6 months?!) if that is at all true, it's worrying what data has been leaked and may explain the rise in number of calls i've had about an accident i was in recently apparently...

 

Anyone could provide a similar database, so you'd think they want to protect their business model fast before one of us steps in to the rescue.

 

*starts learning SQL again*

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I've have no idea why UKAPU don't run something like UKARA and charge annually for it but you can only apply if you're a member to a site and have played a certain amount of games. 

 

do the maths £25 x 20,000 = £500.000 pa.

(rough estimate on the amount of legit players)

 

that kind of money could be spent on defending Airsofters rights and keeping a safe database.

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42 minutes ago, Andyraven said:

I've have no idea why UKAPU don't run something like UKARA and charge annually for it but you can only apply if you're a member to a site and have played a certain amount of games. 

 

do the maths £25 x 20,000 = £500.000 pa.

(rough estimate on the amount of legit players)

 

that kind of money could be spent on defending Airsofters rights and keeping a safe database.

careful you'll be giving the government ideas,  a paid yearly license fee.  20k at £25 a go,  pah let's make it £100 a year and you dont have to have played any qualifying games.   Though they won't as it would cost too much to run the scheme so wouldn't make any money.

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8 hours ago, Albiscuit said:

when you think about it it is pretty bad.

 

its the generally most accepted way of obtaining a defense, not the only way but the most accessible and for a lot of stores and imports pretty much the only way some retailers would touch you.

 

It is not Law but as the most suitable defense you would assume it would be managed better or even regulated by a proper governing body or some such.

 

Surely retailers would notice an impact at some point if it stays down and maybe look at a new system?

 

 

Well, we don't get that many "I can't buy a RIF" posts by people already on the database or that have purchased a RIF without ukara previously. I imagine it being down makes buying easier if anything as retailers feel the pinch.

 

I really feel for those retailers which are not in the inner circle though - probably feeling really under pressure having built up a business which was reliant on very few people - I would think now is the best time to buy a RIF if you were never able to get UKARA eligible (ie you don't play airsoft).

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