Facebook Accidentally Broke Thousands of Oculus Rifts – What Happened?

It appears Facebook cannot catch a break lately. Oculus, a Facebook-owned virtual reality company, broke thousands of Oculus Rift headsets when it forgot to renew a security certificate for its software last week- oops! Essentially, software needs an SSL certificate to authenticate a server to a user which makes middle-man attacks more difficult. Without it, an attacker could set up a proxy between the user and the real server, and record all communications even when they are encrypted. Needless to say, it was a small overlooked detail that led to a large outcry from VR users.

Oculus Rift Users Were Less Than Pleased

All Oculus Rifts were out of commission because the software which the headsets run on did not load properly. Naturally, many users took to Reddit and most were not thrilled with the mistake. Some even started reinstalling the software, thinking it was on their end. Unfortunately, users discovered reinstalling was pointless since the issue was out of their control. Needless to say, Oculus could have had a better way of notifying users immediately while they were in the process of fixing the issue.

Oculus Fixed the Issue & Provided Store Credit

Fortunately, Oculus released an update which ended up fixing the issue. Furthermore, to lessen the blow, the cofounder, Nate Mitchell, stated on Twitter,

“Rift is back online as of ~12am. This was a mistake on our end, and we apologize. Folks impacted by today’s downtime will be provided with an Oculus store credit. More details to follow soon. Thanks again for everyone’s patience as we worked through this one.”

This entire mistake is proof that Google is mandating the use of SSL/HTTPS certificates. HTTPS stands for Hyper Text Transfer Protocol and is essentially a language for passing information between web servers and clients. Fortunately, this enforcement has some great side effects. As stated in our previous blog, the HTTPS requirement increases security, includes better referral data, and creates a boost in rankings.

How to Prevent this in the Future

In order to avoid disruptions in the user experience and increase security of your website, you will need to purchase an SSL certificate. Talk with Bigfin to ensure you get the right type of SSL certificate for your site. There are two primary types to choose from:

Standard Validation (SV) SSL – Standard level. Costs about $100.

Extended Validation (EV) SSL – Offers the highest level of validation and costs between $100 to $500

How Can Bigfin Help?

Bigfin is an industry leader in mobile advertising, SEO and custom web design. We care about the success of our clients. Our comprehensive digital marketing solutions include social media management as well as content creation and PPC management. With an expertise in social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and Instagram, Bigfin can help you make the most out of your search engine optimization. Looking for help boosting your social media following? Contact us online or by phone at (425) 822-8200.