There are a variety of reasons as to why people hack. It could be because there is a thrill in obtaining information that you’re not supposed to, or it is the thrill of bypassing security, or it could simply be for the money. Well whatever the case, when you’re caught you tend to go down pretty hard. That’s pretty much what happened with four hackers. According to the reports, four men have been charged with breaking into the computer systems of companies like Microsoft, Valve, Epic Games, and even the US Army, thus stealing intellectual property in the process which has been valued to be around $100 million.
Four men have been charged with breaking into the computer systems of Microsoft, the US army and leading games manufacturers, as part of an alleged international hacking ring that netted more than $100m in intellectual property, the US Department of Justice said on Tuesday. The four, aged between 18 and 28, are alleged to have stolen Xbox technology, Apache helicopter training software and pre-release copies of games such as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, according to an indictment dating from April that was unsealed on Tuesday. Two of the hackers pleaded guilty earlier in the day, the DoJ said. “These were extremely sophisticated hackers … Don’t be fooled by their ages,” assistant US attorney Ed McAndrew said after a court hearing on Tuesday. According to prosecutors, the defendants stole intellectual property and other proprietary data related to the Xbox One gaming console and Xbox Live online gaming system, and pre-release copies of popular video games. The Department of Justice (DoJ) claimed the technology was worth between $100m and $200m, a figure hotly disputed by one of those facing charges.