Pentagon Researcher shows how MMOs can be used by terrorists |
Read this conversation scenario fromWorld of Warcraft, and see if you can spot what's terribly, terribly wrong with it. It's supposedly two players talking about an attack on the White Keep in the Stonetalon Mountains.
Spotted it? Well, first of all, there's no White Keep in World of Warcraft, and Dragon Fire is a spell in EverQuest. Weird, huh? Well yeah, the terminologies and scenario are a bit off, but the point is, this sounds like a typical conversation you might hear in an MMORPG, yes? It sounds innocent. But what if these were actually terrorists? (Gasp?) What if they weren't talking about this White Keep at all, but the White House? (Double Gasp!)
Seriously though. This scenario was presented at the Director of National Intelligence Open Source Conference, to demonstrate how terrorists can take advantage of MMORPGs as a meeting site for plotting out attacks.
Think about it: these are virtual worlds full of people from all over the globe, essentially hard to keep track of. Accounts are naturally pseudonyms, and secret codes can easily hide behind the already jargon-thick language of the MMO. If terrorists chose to use these virtual worlds as meeting grounds, they can easily blend into the crowd, even if they're talking about terrorist plans, since they sound like they're just talking about raids.
It may seem ridiculous - especially with how Jack Thompson kept on raving about how video games are murder simulators, and the thought that the level-70 shaman might actually be a terrorist - but it's possible. Don't let your imagination get the better of you though. It may be possible, but is it probable? Says Steven Aftergood, analyst who's been following the intelligence community for years:
This concern is out there. But it has to be viewed in context. It's the job of intelligence agencies to anticipate threats and counter them. [...] Could terrorists use Second Life? Sure, they can use anything. But is it a significant augmentation? That's not obvious. It's a scenario that an intelligence officer is duty-bound to consider. That's all.
Dr. Dwight Toavs, the one who gave the presentation, believes that spies should spend more time inside virtual worlds to monitor its players. Imagine that - highly-trained FBI and CIA agents raiding right alongside you.
Related Articles:
- Real-life terrorism in MMORPGs?
- ABC's island in Second Life obliterated
- Second Life terrorist reveals his secret - the Invisible Teleporting Grenades of Death
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With all the private servers and what-not, it would be near impossible to keep track of something like this.
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and if they didn't now they will
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Bearing in mind also in the last couple of years how many DoHS personnel in the US have been caught and convicted involved in criminal and paedophilic activities, it would be a grave error to allow agencies into closed secure environments like this especially when its your kids that could be targetted, groomed and exploited.
Bush's policy is that of "Full Spectrum" surveillance and a desire to have a file on everyone that lives on this planet, the American government is the LAST entity that you would trust with your private and personal information let alone your kids, bank details etc etc.
Anyhow there are already legal mechanisms in place to deal with potential suspects that require a court warrant and MMORPG operators would have no reason to not agree to such orders yet giving spy agencies carte blanche access is a grave mistake indeed especially from a government that has continually lied and lied its way through two illegal wars and destroyed American citizens constituitional rights on a wholesale scale whilst embracing corruption on a never before seen scale.
Warcraft isnt the first either to be "targetted", Knight Online due to its high Turkish population was frequently being cited as a hotbed of criminality/terrorism which proved foundless but let us not forget that these criminals are fully aware that Blizzard logs all convo's as do other operators and if they were to use such a vehicle for plotting it would likely be through TeamSpeak than a MMORPG which leaves a clear trail.
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