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."
Gotta love capitalism (Score:5, Insightful)
They hate capitalism so much that they... let me get this straight... used it to make money and help fund their government? I don't know, guys, it seems a little disingenuous to me.
Re: (Score:2)
The real story is....
Some hacker broke the TOS of online games in South Korea. They made a barrel of money in the process, and are completely untraceable. The coup_d'état is that they managed to build a bread-crumb trail that points to the North Korean government, and South Korea fell for it!
Re: (Score:2)
They arrested 5 people and it shouldn't be that untraceable. If they're collecting money in SK for that kind of thing, they're doing it via bank transfer. Not hard for them to find out who owns the account.
Re: (Score:3)
*unless you bought enough politicians off first that your embezzlement becomes legal, in which case there is no problem
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.
Re: (Score:3)
It's more interesting that this was done in South Korea, where government-sponsored high-speed data lines mean that the entire population has a better running connection than anyone but the uber-rich in the USA, and the USA pays for their national defense leaving the nation with nothing else to do but play games online all day.
No kidding. It's not like those wussy South Koreans are conscripted into the Army [wikipedia.org] for two years or anything like that. O wait...
Re: (Score:2)
Y'know, maybe the USA should just fucking stop wasting our money being the world's goddamn police force?
Yes. Please.
The people who make the game can just ban (Score:2)
The people who make the game can just ban any one who deals with this on both sides.
any ways maybe the US should do this and the same TAX all others who do it as well.
Re: (Score:2)
Use your enemy resources to fight against your enemy. Common commie tactics made famous by the Chairman.
Re: (Score:1)
I pay more that $500 a month in tax (Not to North Korea fortunately), the north Korean government could make heaps more money by just keeping everybody gainfully employed.
Re: (Score:1)
There are thousands of economic sanctions against them, their economy is fucked, and they are technologically still in the last century. Farming (uh, the oldschool kind of farming) won't make them as much money you do with your job.
It also should be said that their government doesn't hate capitalism, it's just a dictatorship that does whatever it can to keep things as they are (since the status quo is great for the few higher ups). Anyhow, there's nothing wrong with stealing money from your enemy (remember
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Outside of famine stricken central Africa there is probably no place in the world whose people are in such desperate straits -and this is due to a stupid corrupt government -not acts of Nature.
I'm just sayin'
Detection (Score:1)
I thought there were anti-cheating mechanisms in place in all major online games.
One mechanism would be to block N. Korea's country IP range and issue an advisory notice.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.
Re:Detection (Score:4, Insightful)
Treason with life or the death penalty (Score:2)
Treason with life or the death penalty will be a big shock to some punk kid one day your playing a on line game next doing hard time facing life or death.
Re: (Score:1)
these are mostly games of the region, you would get pretty far blanket banning a significant portion of customers
why do they need to hack the servers when they are (Score:1)
Why do you feel the need to start the post in the (Score:2)
title? It is incredibly annoying to read.
A new WOW character: (Score:2)
Kim the sunglassed looking at the Sword of a Thousand Truths
Remember people! (Score:2)
When you buy game items for real money, you are funding Communists!
Hai Diablo 3.
So "ccording to South Korea" (Score:2)