Hacker Steals Virtual Billions From Zynga

Tom Goldman

Crying on the inside.
Aug 17, 2009
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Hacker Steals Virtual Billions From Zynga



A thief that hacked into Zynga's servers to steal billions in virtual currency now faces serious jail time.

29-year-old Ashley Mitchell of the UK is in deep trouble for stealing billions from Zynga. Luckily for the social gaming company, he stole billions of the chips used in Zynga Poker, and didn't actually steal from the company warchest.

Zynga Poker is an online version of Texas Hold 'Em. Mitchell somehow found his way into the game's system and came out with 400 billion in virtual poker chips, vauled at $12 million. Before getting caught, he sold a third of the stolen chips at a steep discount and earned £53,000 ($85,700).

Mitchell recently appeared in court where a prosecutor said that in theory his theft was no different from a criminal stealing paper money from a government Mint, even though it was a virtual crime. Zynga can simply make more poker chips appear with the pushing of a bunch of keys, but Mitchell still took money out of its pockets by redirecting customers to the Zynga Poker "black market."

I find myself wondering exactly how Mitchell stole the chips, because according to reports it seems that he literally hacked into a server and removed them, but I would think Zynga generates virtual currency when a person buys it, attaching it to an account, and doesn't have servers that are simply holding billions in virtual chips, dollars, and coins. It's a little confusing, but the fact remains that Mitchell somehow found a way to award others with the chips.

Mitchell evidently faces some serious trouble for the crime, as it violates a suspended sentence handed down in 2008 from when he previously hacked into a government website. His defense attorney says that Mitchell was dealing with a gambling addiction and had spent £3,000 ($4,850) on online games.

For his Zynga Poker-related crime, Mitchell pleaded guilty to four counts of "converting criminal property" and one count of "securing unauthorized access to a computer with intent to commit an offense." His punishment wasn't laid out yet, but it probably won't be very nice, and it was all because of Zynga Poker. Definitely not worth it.

Source: Gamasutra [http://www.thisissouthdevon.co.uk/news/HACKER-ADMITS-STEALING-12m-POKER-CHIPS/article-3170994-detail/article.html]

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FlashHero

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Apr 3, 2010
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I don't think he should be charged as if he stole real money just for hacking and dealing in illegally distributed goods. No reason to say he stole digital items when they can be created at whim.
 

Notsomuch

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Apr 22, 2009
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He stole millions of dollars? Unless he works on wall street I'm going to have to say that his punishment won't be a slap on the wrist.
 

Wolfram23

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Mar 23, 2004
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Well he deserves whatever he gets.

That said, it would seem like a pretty basic principle that when commiting a crime, you want to cover your tracks. You know, so that you don't get caught.

You can be the best hacker in the world but if you can't cover your ass it doesn't mean shit.
*lol @ Anon*
 

Eclectic Dreck

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Sep 3, 2008
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FlashHero said:
I don't think he should be charged as if he stole real money just for hacking and dealing in illegally distributed goods. No reason to say he stole digital items when they can be created at whim.
Even if you ignore the part about what he stole, in many nations attempting unauthorized access to a computer system is a crime in and of itself. Yes, what he stole has no inherent value, but he then went and traded these chips to people for real money and thus gained something.

Zynga, as a company, makes money on products that deliver nothing concrete to the consumer. While stealing the "idea" of a chip might not seem bad on the surface, it certainly allowed several people to play a game without converting their real money to fake money for the privilege. Thus, while I agree that the actual theft itself was meaningless, he had to commit a crime in the first place to "steal" and then converted the valuless product he "stole" into money that, a lawyer would argue, would have otherwise gone to Zynga.
 

Kross

World Breaker
Sep 27, 2004
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Maybe his username was ';UPDATE players SET chips=-1 WHERE uid=MAX(uid)--'
 

Natdaprat

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Sep 10, 2009
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When stealing from a multi-million company, you don't steal 400 billion. That makes it very very obvious!
 

Fr]anc[is

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May 13, 2010
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Notsomuch said:
He stole millions of dollars? Unless he works on wall street I'm going to have to say that his punishment won't be a slap on the wrist.
Well Plaid!

OT: He probably just figured out a way to push the "Gimme moneys" button in the programing, I also think it's a tad silly to have virtual cash sitting around
 

Dastardly

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Apr 19, 2010
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Tom Goldman said:
In this thread, we'll cover an allegory for current opinions on piracy.

(And in this case, hopefully we'll establish some more legal precedent for the idea that stealing shit is stealing shit.)
 
Feb 13, 2008
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It bothers me when an organisation known for using 'pseudo-legal' terms gets to call legal shots, but I suppose there for one, there for all.
 

sageoftruth

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Jan 29, 2010
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FlashHero said:
I don't think he should be charged as if he stole real money just for hacking and dealing in illegally distributed goods. No reason to say he stole digital items when they can be created at whim.
Yeah. That seems to be the case in court. Like "stealing paper money from a mint" he did not deprive Zynga of anything, but it is still a bit of a copyright issue, since he used Zynga property to turn a profit through under-the-counter actions.
 

sageoftruth

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Jan 29, 2010
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It sure in interesting to be reading a Zynga vs some other guy article and feel compelled to side with Zynga, but I've always hated hackers.
 

MaVeN1337

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Feb 19, 2009
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I had a whole paragraph here about the value of virtual things and jail time but I got rid of it because it confused me.

I need to sleep.