America’s National Security Agency is reportedly spying on players using Xbox Live, World of Warcraft, Second Life and other services.
The report follows a joint investigation carried out by The Guardian, New York Times, ProPublica, and backed by documents unearthed by whistleblower Eric Snowden.
NSA records indicate that the agency sent agents into World of Warcraft under the guise of avatars to snoop on players, and in some cases attempt to recruit seasoned players to the cause. The paper, entitled ‘Exploiting Terrorist Use of Games & Virtual Environments’ shows that the agency also has the means to collect mass data from Xbox Live’s 48 million players.
The documents warn that leaving online game services unchecked renders them ideal for terrorists or wrongdoers looking to, “hide in plain sight”. They reveal that so many NSA agents and other third-party agencies were snooping around in games, that the task forces had to be properly measured to ensure they weren’t disrupting each other’s projects.
One page suggests that online games can be used to offer weapons training. An excerpt reads, “These games offer realistic weapons training (what weapon to use against what target, what ranges can be achieved, even aiming and firing, military operations and tactics, photorealistic land navigation and terrain familiarization, and leadership skills. While complete military training is best achieved in person, perfection is not always required to accomlish the missions. Some of the 9-11 pilots had never flown a real plane, they had only trained using Microsoft’s Flight Simulator.
“When the mission is expensive, risky or dangerous, it is often a wiser idea to exercise virtually, rather than really blow an operative up assembling a bomb or exposing a sleeper agent to law enforcement scrutiny. Militaries around the world use virtual simulators with great success and the Hizballah even hooked up a PlayStation controller to a laptop in order to guide some of its real missiles.”
There is also mention of Al Qaida using Xbox Live, Second Live and World of Warcraft, along with Chinese hackers, an Iranian nuclear scientist, Hizballah and Hamas members.
