A day late and a WoW short
The big news seems to be the discovery of malware designed to steal BitCoin currency. In an article published recently at PCWorld, the author has the sensational title of “World's First Virtual Heist?” The answer is “No Virginia, Santa's come and gone” :)Seriously, the first? Hello! Good morning! Wake up and smell the password stealers. For the past few years, online gaming password stealers have been among the top threats out there. The purpose of these password stealers is to commandeer accounts so that attackers can sell virtual weapons, virtual characters, and WoW Gold, as well as other virtual currencies, for REAL CASH!
As long as virtual currencies, both inside and outside of limited virtual environments, have been around, it would be incredibly naive to think that a heist of $500k worth of BitCoins was the first virtual currency theft.
The reality is that, in many areas, virtual currency is all we use anymore. If I want to buy a drink on an airplane in the United States, in most cases, a piece of gold, a coin or a dollar bill is going to be useless. I have to use a credit card. The money is all virtual and is never touched.
No matter what you call it, BitCoin, dollar, pound or peso, it's all gone virtual and it's all been stolen before. A $500,000 theft is noteworthy, but not new or unexpected.
