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>Now intelligence officials estimate that North Korea reaps hundreds of millions a dollars a year from ransomware, digital bank heists, online video game cracki
by rl3 9y ago
>Now intelligence officials estimate that North Korea reaps hundreds of millions a dollars a year from ransomware, digital bank heists, online video game cracking, and more recently, hacks of South Korean Bitcoin exchanges.
How does "online video game cracking" even compare to the other items listed?
Most titles are cracked by elite teams of reverse engineers who are mostly located in Western countries, and they do it for free.
All I can figure is they're providing cracking support to street-level piracy operations that primarily deal with heavily localized software or games that the mainstream scene wouldn't normally touch. Perhaps the author was referring to the sale of cheats, or even real money trading in MMO games.
Whichever the case, I find the mention odd given it has no further explanation. It almost sounds like a nod to special interests, except there's no telltale mention of film piracy beyond the Sony affair.
- rtpg 9y agoGold farming? Hacking mobile games (and their payment systems)? I'm also a bit confused, but there are ways to turn "game accounts" into cash in a lot of spaces.... Kinda feel like intelligence officials are not exactly at the beck and call of the ESA.
- rl3 9y ago>... Hacking mobile games (and their payment systems)? Good point. Add social games to that as well. It's probably easier to pull off shady activity when targeting a sea of shady activity in the first place. >Kinda feel like intelligence officials are not exactly at the beck and call of the ESA. DHS and State do tow that line, however. Intellectual property and anti-piracy matters are a non-trivial component of U.S. foreign policy these days.
- danmaz74 9y agoI suppose that they were talking about cracking online video games which allow exchange of digital goods for money, as a way to make money for NK.