zhongguohua88
12-26-2009, 11:09 AM
China jails 11 members of suspected malware gang over online game hacking
Thursday, December 24, 2009
A Chinese court sentenced 11 cyber criminals to prison terms of up to three years for stealing passwords and login information from over five million players of online video games.
The Chartered Institute for IT reports that the two ringleaders of the group, Lv Yizhong and Zeng Yifu, were found guilty of creating the spyware virus that enabled the theft, while others received sentences for their role in the distribution and use of the malware. The institute also reports that the two malware writers received more than $94,000 for their efforts, while two accomplices made roughly half of that.
PC World reports that other Chinese cyber criminals have recently been targeted by the authorities, including a hacker who attempted to take down a rival website with a DDoS attack.
Experts say that online games like World of Warcraft are rich targets for cyber criminals, who can use hijacked user accounts to steal virtual goods and money for trade on the thriving online black market that exists for such items. The World of Warcraft gold piece even has a stable exchange rate against the U.S. dollar.
I recently read this in local newspapers and thought it was quite interesting.
Thursday, December 24, 2009
A Chinese court sentenced 11 cyber criminals to prison terms of up to three years for stealing passwords and login information from over five million players of online video games.
The Chartered Institute for IT reports that the two ringleaders of the group, Lv Yizhong and Zeng Yifu, were found guilty of creating the spyware virus that enabled the theft, while others received sentences for their role in the distribution and use of the malware. The institute also reports that the two malware writers received more than $94,000 for their efforts, while two accomplices made roughly half of that.
PC World reports that other Chinese cyber criminals have recently been targeted by the authorities, including a hacker who attempted to take down a rival website with a DDoS attack.
Experts say that online games like World of Warcraft are rich targets for cyber criminals, who can use hijacked user accounts to steal virtual goods and money for trade on the thriving online black market that exists for such items. The World of Warcraft gold piece even has a stable exchange rate against the U.S. dollar.
I recently read this in local newspapers and thought it was quite interesting.