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UK's Top Police Warn That Modding Games May Turn Kids into Hackers (vice.com)
Joseph Cox, writing for Motherboard: Last week at EGX, the UK's biggest games event, attendees got a chance to play upcoming blockbusters like Battlefield 1, FIFA 17, and Gears of War 4. But budding gamers may also have spotted a slightly more unusual sight: a booth run by the National Crime Agency (NCA), the UK's leading law enforcement agency. Over the last few years, the NCA has attempted to reach out to technologically savvy young people in different ways. EGX was the first time it's pitched up to a gaming convention; the NCA said it wanted to educate young people with an interest in computers and suggested that those who mod online games in order to cheat may eventually progress to using low level cybercrime services like DDoS-for-hire and could use steering in the right direction. "The games industry can help us reach young people and educate them on lawful use of cyber skills," Richard Jones, head of the NCA's National Cyber Crime Unit's 'Prevent' team, told Motherboard in an email. "Through attendance at EGX and various other activities, we are seeking to promote ethical hacking or penetration testing, as well as other lawful uses of an interest in computers to young people," Jones said.
So why aren't they teaching game modding in high school?
bad education is turning our cops into blathering idiots.
Table-ized A.I.
Just another clickbait article from Vice, nothing to see here, move along.
I swear, there's no other journalist these days that writes more half-baked articles than Joseph Cox.
Sounds really clickbaitey.
"Modding Games May Turn Kids into Hackers" is a very different statement than "those who mod online games in order to cheat may eventually progress to using low level cybercrime services like DDoS-for-hire".
Hacking, the new gateway drug...
The term "Mod" is abused here, when I think of a mod I think of something that is a positive effect on a game. Someone who is doing something to cheat in an online game is referred to as a hacker or cheater, not a modder.
Really should read "UK's Top Police Warn That Making Aim-Bots/Game Cheats May Turn Kids into Cyber Criminals"
I'm not an expert in sociology, but it seems plausible that unethical behavior in online video games can be a gateway to unethical online behavior in general. From a technical standpoint I know that the skills developed by hacking games are similar to the skills needed to hack financial software.
“We have undertaken analysis on pathways into cyber crime offending and can conclude that some young people who have an interest in online games may begin to participate in gaming cheat websites and ‘modding',”
This is not what most gamers think when they read "modding." I could see how some script kiddies might get their start trying to cheat at online games.
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In similar news, parents who are complete pricks do run the risk that their children grow up to be policemen.
This may kinda, possibly, lead to kids who might at some point think of being a script kiddie. We have also found a correlation between these modders and drinking Mountain Dew. We're drawing up new legislation as we speak.
Or does this sound like somebody got their job from an uncle or maybe because they know a Lord or something (forgive me, I'm a yank) and is just looking for something to do?
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One of our pre-teens is an avid gamer, and lately, we've noticed she started complaining about getting banned from online games she plays. When we looked into it more closely, we found out most of it was for attempts at hacking. Even in Pokemon Go, she had two accounts set up .... one "regular" one, and the other she was using to hack.
She definitely exhibits the interest in manipulating software to get the results she wants, and despite our lectures about why cheating is bad, etc. -- it seems to increasingly fall on deaf ears.
Now, would I say all of this means she's headed down the road of becoming a cyber-criminal? Not exactly .... In daily life, she abides by most of the rules. She's not the type to try to steal something from a store, for example. She generally knows right from wrong. But I think when it comes to games where everything is virtual, she has a feeling, deep-down, that it's more "ok" to cheat and hack. And in 1 or 2 cases where I thought she was "permanently banned" from a game, she got her accounts back again. I'd say it's quite likely that required a bit of bending the truth to an admin somewhere, to make that happen.
So all I guess I'm saying is, there's probably kind of a mushy grey-area here. Once you start taking an interest in dishonest play in a computer game and experience the thrill of successfully beating the system to do it -- you're exhibiting the same characteristics the common criminal does (enjoys the challenge of outsmarting the system for personal gain). I think many will draw a line in the sand, deciding that for example, "copying a copyrighted piece of music is acceptable" (because you didn't actually deprive anyone else of their copy by doing it) and "cheating in games is acceptable" because they're just entertainment anyway and nobody's really getting hurt. But you have a sense of morals/ethics that says you'd stop at something that was actually emptying another person's bank account or taking tangible goods without compensating someone for them. Others won't, especially if nobody really tried to teach them right and wrong....
Marijuana is a gateway drug to hardcore drug use and therefore should be outlawed
Remember that old line? Meanwhile the people claiming that were sipping their ethanol-laced beverages or taking a drag off their cigarettes. Modding video games isn't going to create cyber-criminals any more than smoking marijuana led people to become heroin addicts; the tendency to use hard-core drugs existed in the first place. Correlation is not causation. All discouraging kids from experimenting with code is going to do is discourage them from being creative. In fact getting all serious with them about this might actually become the cause of them being criminals, seeing as how contrary and rebellious teenagers, especially teenage boys, can become. Since when did telling someone "don't do such-and-such" actually deter them, anyway?
... are "corporate".
That's very interesting
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had bank accounts before they become bank robbers. Clearly we should make possession of a bank account an indicator of likelihood to rob banks.
Also, 95% of killers know how to drive, and 95% of people committing white collar crime went to college.
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If modding games might turn kids into hackers, imagine what *writing* games and apps can do.
Kinda. Not really hacking, but programming. I was too cheap to be able to afford any games on my Sinclair Spectrum so I wrote my own. Then when I first moved to PC I did the same. Learnt programing- never meant or wanted to do it as a career but accidentally fell into it (because it's easy when you've been doing it since you were 5) and now it's my career.
Now I program for work and so I don't write games because the last thing I want to do when I get home is program some more. Killed my hobby, but it's a decent career to have.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
To me it seems obvious that it's true. Let's take a closer look a the claim and perhaps I can better understand your thoughts on the matter. The claim is:
> "some young people" ... who mod online games in order to cheat may eventually progress to using low level cybercrime services and could use steering in the right direction
Let's break that down and you can tell me which part you disagree with:
A) some young people mod online games in order to cheat
B) may eventually progress to using low level cybercrime
C) could use steering in the right direction - "into gaming, cyber security, law enforcement, etc where they can use their cyber skills positively to have interesting and prosperous careers."
I'm guessing (B) is where you're taking issue with the idea? I assume you agree (A) is true - some people hack games to cheat the rules. I would also assume that it's obvious that young people experimenting with hacking would use some steering in the right direction, such as careers in the gaming or security industry rather than the spamming or malware industry.
Is my guess right? Would you say it's false that some young people who hack games in order to cheat may later apply similar skills to "cheat" the law, to be involved in "low level cybercrime"?
A post from a long long time ago.
When men were real men. Women were real women and Trolls were real trolls!
opposable thumbs and large brains, god damn them they need to be banned.
Look up what a hacker actually is.
But no wonder, that police, government and so on fear people who can think and build things. Indepence and doing stuff yourself is dangerous! Let's consume only one devices which just allow netflix, but no pirated movies. Which track you via google/apple, but do not allow you to firewall it.
Do not mod your games, do not upgrade the pc yourself. Do not build cool stuff. Do not thing, do not question things.