RMT funds North Korean nukes

[Vimes]

RMT auction houses in our games, buying a bit of gold in Dragon Nest, it all seems so harmless.

Right??

Report – North Korean ‘hacker army’ targets MMOs

South Korean police have reportedly outed a ring of gold farmers dispatched from North Korea.

According to a New York Times report, Seoul police discovered a squad of hackers based in Northern China attacking games like Lineage and Dungeon Fighter Online.

The hackers had set up a fully-automated, script-driven gold farm to harvest in-game currency, which was then exchanged for real money on third-party websites. The software used was also sold to players.

The ringleaders had apparently amassed $6 million in two years, of which 55 percent was paid out to the thirty North Korean hackers behind the software.

The hackers allegedly forwarded some of the funds – around $500 a month – to North Korean government agents, with whom the International Crime Investigation Unit believes the hackers were in regular contact.

The agents are said to be part of Office 39, a “shadowy” bureau which collects foreign currency. The resulting fund is thought to be worth billions of dollars and is apparently used to fund nuclear weapons development programs.

http://www.vg247.com/2011/08/08/repo...-targets-mmos/

[Shenrien]

All I ever do is sell to them, fuck buying virtual currency, doesn't do anything but make you happy for all of 20s.

[Callisto]

http://wiki.bluegartr.com/images/thu...escription.png

?

[shidobu]

fucking knew it!

[Dryr]

Wait a tic, forget about the fact that they have script-writers capable of making this happen and that there is a massive profit-share, since when does north Korea allow people on the internets?

[Skidz]

what have i done...

[Vimes]

Wait a tic, forget about the fact that they have script-writers capable of making this happen and that there is a massive profit-share, since when does north Korea allow people on the internets?

Well the article is a bit sketchy. But it's run out of South Korea and China it seems:

Apparently, specially trained North Korean hackers, working in concert with South Korean and Chinese operatives, have been infiltrating popluar South Korean MMOs like Lineage, accumulating in-game points, then selling them on the Internet black market. Teams of farmers work around the clock from a base in Northern China. The Times says they have earned over $6 million for their efforts, over half of which has been delivered to North Korean agents in the captial of Pyongyang, .

Here is NY Times article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/05/wo...orea.html?_r=3