North Korea Accused of Hacking Online Games For Profit 36
According to South Korean authorities, North Korean computer experts were tasked with raising money by attacking the servers of popular online games and using automated software to accumulate in-game enhancements they could sell to legitimate players. "In a little less than two years, the police said, the organizers made $6 million. The North Korean computer experts were each required to send at least $500 a month back to the Pyongyang government, the police said. It remained unclear how much of the rest of their profits they pocketed for themselves, given different layers of party and military officials involved in a typical illicit operation. What appeared clear from the case, the police said, was that North Korean agencies, increasingly hamstrung by international sanctions, were exploring any new means to raise cash for Mr. Kim and prove their loyalty."
Re:Gotta love capitalism (Score:4, Informative)
That's much harder in Korea since everything is tied to the national ID system.
You can't open an account with an ID that doesn't match the government system.
So in order to create a fake ID you'd need to basically hack the government system since every service that users your ID generally runs it through theirs first.
They could potentially create a semi-fake ID where they use a real name/number combo but put a different photo on the card. But since everything is tied together someone is likely to quickly find out their name/number is being used.
They'd have more luck creating foreign passports and creating bank accounts as foreigners, but a lot of banks severely limit the usage of those, and a foreigner suddenly getting those kinds of deposits is likely to attract attention.