US, UK spies infiltrate virtual online games: report

The US and British spies have now infiltrated the virtual world of global online gaming in an effort to identify terror threats, fearing that the realm could be used to plot attacks, a media report has said.
Looking at the possibility that terrorist or criminal networks could use the games to communicate secretly, move money or plot attacks, newly disclosed classified documents show, intelligence operatives have entered terrain populated by digital avatars that include elves, gnomes and supermodels, a New York Times report has said.
"The spies have created make-believe characters to snoop and to try to recruit informers, while also collecting data and contents of communications between players," the report said citing documents, disclosed by the former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.

As militants often rely on features common to video games - fake identities, voice and text chats, a way to conduct financial transactions - American and British intelligence agencies were worried that they might be operating there, according to the documents.
The spies have infiltrated popular games such as World of Warcraft, media reports said.
Online games might seem innocuous, a top-secret 2008 NSA document warned, but they had the potential to be a "target-rich communication network" allowing intelligence suspects "a way to hide in plain sight."

The documents, obtained by The Guardian and shared with The New York Times and ProPublica, do not cite any counter-terrorism successes from the effort.

The surveillance, which also included Microsoft's Xbox Live, could raise privacy concerns. It is not clear exactly how the agencies got access to gamers' data or communications, how many players may have been monitored or whether Americans' communications or activities were captured, the report said.
The New York Times report quoted an American company, the maker of World of Warcraft, as saying that neither the NSA nor its British counterpart, the Government Communications Headquarters, had gotten permission to gather intelligence in its game.
Many players are Americans, who can be targeted for surveillance only with approval from the nation's secret intelligence court, the report said.

The spy agencies, though, face far fewer restrictions on collecting certain data or communications overseas, it said.