Four members of an international computer hacking ring are being charged with breaking into computer networks and stealing more than $100 million in intellectual property and data related to unreleased Xbox games and software used to train military helicopter pilots.
One of the members is a teenager from Indiana.
Indiana University cyber security expert Fred Cate calls this attack a sophisticated one considering the technology they used and the data they stole, and anticipates the four men will face serious punishment.
"The internet can facilitate crime, it can also provide a way in which these people meet, but it can also pretty quickly turn something that might feel like a harmless or kind of low grade activity into something that's really serious," Cate says. "And certainly the criminal charges alleged against these people – if they are convicted of even just a portion of them, they could go to jail for decades."
The four men were charged in mid April by a federal grand jury in the District of Delaware. The indictment was unsealed Tuesday.
A release from the United States Department of Justice says specifically, the hackers stole source-code for the then unreleased Xbox One gaming console and intellectual property and proprietary data related to Xbox Live from Microsoft.
They acquired Apache helicopter simulator software developed for the U.S. Army, a pre-release version of Epic's video game, "Gears of War 3," and pre-release version of Activision's video game, "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3."
The defendants allegedly conspired to sell, share and use the stolen data.
Combined with the costs victims paid to combat the threats, the value of intellectual property stolen is estimated between $100 and $200 million. The U.S. government also seized more than $620,000 in case and proceeds related to the conspiracy.
Austin Alcala from McCordsville is 18 years old. Cate says his status as the youngest member of the group might lend to some leniency in his sentencing.
