The Shadow of the State Lurking in the Virtual Battlefield: North Korean Hackers and the "Lineage" Abuse Case (2011)

The Shadow of the State Lurking in the Virtual Battlefield: North Korean Hackers and the "Lineage" Abuse Case (2011)

In 2011, South Korean police discovered that a group of North Korean hackers had established a base in China and were abusing the popular South Korean online game "Lineage" to make huge illicit profits.

Lineage" is an MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online RPG) released in 1998 by the Korean game company NC Soft. Set in a medieval fantasy world, the game features a system in which players gain experience and items by defeating monsters. Many sequels and derivative works have appeared since then, and the game is highly popular throughout Asia.

In this case, North Korean hackers used an automatic operation program called a bot to automatically kill monsters in the game and accumulate points and items that could be obtained as loot. These points were sold to game users as in-game currency and expensive equipment, which were then cashed in. According to an investigation by South Korean authorities, the proceeds from this cybercrime amounted to approximately $6 million (about 2.6 billion won at the time).

These hackers were IT personnel trained in North Korea who traveled to China and teamed up with local collaborators, including South Korean gangsters, to conduct the operation. At their base, they operated dozens of PCs and conducted automated operations for several months to gain fraudulent points.

Police believe that this activity was likely supported by North Korea's foreign currency acquisition agency, Room 39. The seemingly innocuous entertainment venue of gaming had become a hotbed of state-sponsored cyber operations.

This incident showed the world for the first time the dangers of the intersection of games, the state, and security in cyberspace. The fact that this was not just a case of unauthorized access, but the fact that the virtual space of games had been used as a "battlefield" to systematically and continuously build up a source of funding for the state, drew the world's attention.