Chinese Hackers Churn Profits, Targeting Gaming Market

According to Internet security companies, the Chinese netizens' avid interest in online games is resulting in a profitable market for those people who are executing computer hacks through Trojans.

Zhang Yumu, Vice-President of Beijing Rising International Software Co., a leading domestic security company, said - a big underground economy had developed where large chunks of revenue arose from the sale of game accounts or virtual goods from compromised PCs, as reported by China Daily on November 27, 2009.

Yumu's observation has also gained support of a recently released news report from CCTV, the State's broadcaster. According to the report, attacks with Trojan horses that give unauthorized control over infected PCs to remotely located hackers are building a market, which could value as high as 10 Billion Yuan ($1.4 Billion) during 2009.

CCTV, which broadcasted the report on November 25, 2009, also mentioned that it was possible for a hacker to amass a massive sum of Yuan each month through computer hacking for stealing game account and personal information of users.

Meanwhile, security researchers have said that a lot of the malicious trojans which seize online games' login credentials emanate from East Asia, especially China, and they most popularly attack the "World of Warcraft" and "Lineage Online" Internet games

Commenting on this problem, the researchers stated that China had a major online gaming business globally, chiefly because the country had a record number of Internet users. A most recent estimate reveals that the total revenue from online games is about $2.7 Billion. Thus, such a big market with a large number of online games providers naturally draws computer hackers as well.

Disturbingly, attacks from trojans have occupied the top position on the list of e-threats in China during the recent years, contributing around 95% of the country's total Internet attacks, as per the statistics from various Internet security companies.

According to Yumu, the total number of attacks from trojans in China increased ten-fold in 2008, with a further 60% rise expected during 2009. He also said that this increase was essentially because of growth in online games.

Related article: Chinese Hackers Threatening Korean Game Sites

» SPAMfighter News - 12/8/2009