North Korean hackers were hired to attack South Korean gamers

SOUTH KOREAN POLICE have picked up fifteen people for paying their North Korean neighbours to hack their southern gaming brothers.

Reuters reports that the fifteen people were arrested for their roles in setting up a hacking farm of 30 North Korean university graduates who were compensated for their efforts.

Big money must have been at stake, as according to Reuters some $5m was channeled to the north in "compensation".

The students, which the news agency said came from the best universities North Korea has to offer, were set up in a base in China, which for them might actually have been a cosy place from which to use the internet, and asked to break into a gaming network.

They did this, and stole personal information. In typical East Asian gaming fashion, these details were used to create in-game characters of high virtual worth that could be sold to the highest bidder.

None of the hackers have been charged, but since they were probably found in China by local authorities we are assuming that they have found similar employment somewhere, perhaps even in government. µ