WoW a Target for Money Laundering : World of Warcraft General Discussions

Internet security company Symantec is warning that virtual worlds like Second Life and World of Warcraft are being targeted by organised criminals to launder money and spread key loggers and ID harvesters.

The warning is contained in Symantec's Internet Security Threat Report, which predicts that over the next six to 24 months a number of security concerns will emerge as the use of these virtual environments expand.

Many persistent virtual worlds (PVWs), such as Second Life, and massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) allow players to conduct real-money transactions in virtual worlds. Players can use credit cards or other payment methods to purchase virtual credits and then exchange those credits with players in other countries, where they may be withdrawn back into local currencies. These transactions have evolved into a de facto international monetary system with exchanges for trading (virtual) currency across virtual worlds or different games.

These secondary economies are still relatively small, but Symantec believes they could be used by criminals illicitly, especially as all identities are virtual in these worlds.

The report says, "... a criminal enterprise could open several thousand MMOG accounts. Each could be used to trade with other players in the purchase or sale of in-game assets, the funds from which would ultimately be withdrawn from the accounts. Since thousands of accounts may engage in millions of transactions, each with small profits or losses, it would be difficult to trace the true source of the funds when they are withdrawn. These transactions can be conducted worldwide without the oversight that typically accompanies international bank remittances. In fact, in February 2007, China's central bank and finance ministries called upon companies to stop trading QQ coins and virtual currencies, presumably to curb the unregulated exchange of currency."

The company also says PVWs and MMOGs are being used to install malicious software under the pretense it improves functions within the virtual worlds. Downloading these tools gives attackers an opportunity to incorporate malicious programs such as keystroke loggers and password and information stealers. Symantec says it has already observed malicious code that attempts to steal information and passwords from players, such as infostealer.wowcraft.

According to Symantec senior systems engineer Rogan Mallon, gamers often make themselves more susceptible to these types of threats. "Keen gamers will often disable security applications to increase the speed of their machines, and many join LAN parties [a temporary networking of computers for gaming] that can easily spread viruses.

"Gamers will also use cracked software that allows them to run games without having the disc in the machine. These all make it much easier for cyber criminals," he said.

Meanwhile, the Internet Security Threat Report also says that the US spawned most attacks against Australasia, Pacific and Japan (APJ) region computers, accounting for 29 per cent of attacks.

However, it was China that was targeted by 74 percent of attacks in the APJ region during the study period. The company says it observed around 15,447 active distinct bot-infected computers per day in the APJ region, 29 percent of the global total of 52,771.

And significantly for the growing threat to gamers, the top reported malicious code sample for the region was the Gampass Trojan. Symantec said that 84 per cent of worldwide potential infections of Gampass originated from this region.

Mallon said that in certain areas of the APJ region there is a greater concentration of pirated software that does not benefit from regular security updates. This, he said, makes gamers even more susceptible to attack.

The Symantec Internet Security Threat Report is a six-month update of worldwide Internet threat Activity that includes analysis of network-based attacks, a review of known vulnerabilities and highlights of malicious code. It will also assess trends in phishing and spam activity.

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