Korea’s W1 trillion (US$1=W919) digital money market is reeling after a series of virtual-item trading sites on the web started to encounter connection problems since the end of last month. Internet users are increasingly alarmed amid rumors that hackers have broken into the sites demanding money from the online trading firms. “Virtual items” are bonus weaponry and other aids acquired through progress in a game that function like virtual credit — “cyber money” — and are bought by impatient gamers online to allow them to progress to the next stage.
◆ Trading sites freeze
As of Tuesday afternoon, Korea’s main game item trading sites — ItemBay, Item Mania and Item Play Forum ? were all experiencing log-in difficulties. The sites went through similar connection problems from Sept. 24 to 26. Users can post an item or “cyber money” on the sites or browse the site to pick up the item of their choice. Sought-after items can go for as much as W1 million. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism said that some W860 billion were traded on these sites last year with the number estimated to go up to W1 trillion this year.
But gamers are concerned about a hacker attack. In any week, some 100,000 users visit ItemBay, Item Mania and Item Play Forum. ItemBay, for instance, saw over W360 billion worth of transactions just from item sales last year. Each of the sites is being flooded with questions from customers demanding to know what is going on. But delays in restoring the sites are preventing them from even posting a notice to explain the situation. “We are in the process of expanding our memory storage to accommodate a sudden surge of users,” said an Item Mania spokesman. “As soon as things get back to normal, we will post a notice of explanation.”
◆ Hackers from China?
Despite the barrage of inquiries, the troubled sites are keeping mum until then. Only Item Ria, which experienced connection problems, posted a notice on its site explaining the reason behind the shut-down. “We were under pressure from hackers, and a temporary shut-down for maintenance was necessary to scale up our security,” it said.
An Internet security expert said they got an inquiry demanding to know why so many Chinese users are logging on to the trading sites. He suspects it is highly likely that hackers have broken into the sites. Whereas in the past hackers simply took money from Internet users by tracing down their IDs and passwords, now they reached the point of threatening the sites themselves.
◆ A foreseen disaster
Cyber item trading has long been considered a time-bomb. Cyber money was always vulnerable to hacking and cyber inflation. NHN and other major game firms have already hired special staff to coordinate the total amount of cyber money that can be used in online games. In other word, the firms are carefully coordinating at the back to prevent extreme ups and downs so as to hold on to their customers — they are the cyber equivalent of the Bank of Korea. Unfortunately, that stopgap is nowhere near enough to prevent the negative effects of the cash trade. With mounting pressure from hackers, many point out the need for tighter regulations. “A new act will soon be tabled based on the result of wide-ranging survey of item trading sites,” said Kim Jin-seok from Korea Game Industry Agency.
