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.
This includes titles such as Gears of War 3, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, and the Apache helicopter simulation which they took from the US Army. The hackers also reportedly obtained information about the Xbox One console. The hackers are aged 18 to 28 and according to assistant US attorney, Ed McAndrew, “These were extremely sophisticated hackers … Don’t be fooled by their ages.”
Two of the hackers have since pleaded guilty to the charges, which include conspiracies to commit computer fraud, copyright infringement, wire fraud, mail fraud, identity theft and theft of trade secrets. The hack was reported as far back as 2011, so safe to say that this case has been under investigation for a pretty long time.