11 Year Olds Hack Social Networks and Gaming Sites

According to a new report from the experts, children as young as 11 years old write malicious computer code for hacking accounts on social networking sites and gaming sites.

According to TOI, a report from antivirus company AVG explained about the evidence of programmes written to “steal” virtual currency.

In a particular case, researchers revealed the data about the identity of 11-year old kid in Canada reversing engineer “amateur” code. As per BBC reports, the researchers found many instances of malware targeting games popular among children shared the same traits.

Majority of them were written using basic coding languages such as Visual Basic and C# and it included quite a few basic errors that professional hackers were unlikely to make, many exposing the original source of the code.

Nearly all schools around the world are changing education programmes in schools to teach children to code, rather than simply using computers. Several after-school clubs and initiatives have been set up in UK backed by the likes of Google and Microsoft to get kids into programming.

As per the reports, the researchers examined keenly a particular instance of code that covered up as a cheat program for gamers playing Runescape, an online title that has over 200 million signed-up players. Furthermore, the programme promised to give the gamer free virtual currency to use in the game, but it was used to steal log-in details from unsuspecting users.

Source: TOI