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Chinese Hack Into Lineage
John Stith
Staff Writer
2006-02-21
 Insider Reports RSS Feed
South Korean network security firm GEOT blamed Chinese hackers for a massive hit, raiding private information from tens of thousands of people involved in the popular South Korean mmorpg known as "Lineage.
According to the story from Interfax China, the period of May 2005 to February 2006, South Korea reported some 4,000 online game theft cases. Online gamers were attacked through malware and lost their game accounts, passwords and virtual items.
The tactics seemed relatively standard for such attacks, using malware embedded in websites and infecting unsuspecting gamers. The hackers would then get the usernames and passwords via email and send them back to Chinese sites.
The real theft part came in as hackers then took over the characters and stripped them down of their virtual equipment, which has actual financial value. In some cases, professional online gamers have been known to bring in six figure salaries on the sale of these types of items. Interafax quoted an official from a private investment firm:
"Hacking for virtual items used in online games is quite popular in China as China does not have explicit laws and regulations to protect online virtual assets," Mao Jieming, an official with private equity firm Richen, told Interfax. Richen has invested in V516.com, a major online gaming trading platform in China. The virtual items they get from foreign game servers can only be sold to gamers playing there.
"A large number of what are termed 'Chinese online game substitute playing companies' usually employ a lot of professional gamers to play for virtual items on foreign game servers, but it is more efficient and profitable for them to get these virtual items through hacking."
While some may scratch their heads in wonder about the lucrative business of black market virtual items, obviously the market is there. As long as profitability remains, so will hackers looking to utilize that profitability. This is quite probably an organized crime effort in the classic sense and they have goods for sale. The question remains though, how can game companies improve upon such events.
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About the Author:
John is a staff writer for SecurityProNews covering cyber security.
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