An Overwatch hacker in South Korea has just been sentenced to one year in prison – TechCrunch

28-year-old man in South Korea faces jail term for hacking Overwatch . The sentence, reported by SBS News and Dot Esports, gave the hacker a year in jail and two years probation for illegal activities related to the online multiplayer game. The particularly strong punishment is a result of the continuing nature of the business and the fact that the individual has generated 200 million Korean won (around 180,000 USD) from Overwatch-related hacks.

The charges of hacker come from the violation of two Korean laws: the Game Industry Promotion Act and the Law on the Protection of Information and Communication Technologies. Last year, Overwatch developer, Blizzard Entertainment, worked with the cyber security department of the Seoul National Police Agency to crack down on piracy that compromises integrity. the high-level game, especially because of its importance in the world.

"Cheating on the Asian Overwatch server is rampant and widespread," Kotaku said in an article about Overwatch hacking last year. "On the Battle.net and Reddit forums, complaints about the hacking of South Korean gamers' exact headshots, immediate submachine attacks, and even DDOS attacks against competitive winners are widespread."

Hacks for a game like Overwatch can take many forms, including scripts that allow for perfect targeting, match-fixing, and a practice of rank manipulation known as reinforcement.

"Doing anything to manipulate your internal MMR or evaluating skills (that is, boosting or throwing) is not good," Jeff Kaplan, Artistic Director of the company. Overwatch, wrote on a forum last year. "The penalties for boosting and throwing are about to increase dramatically."

The new sentence is not the first to be passed on by the Korean government for gambling-related hacking, but since punishment usually leads to heavy fines, it is particularly harsh. The laws to discourage gambling came into effect in the country last year and stipulate that offenders incur up to $ 43,000 fine and up to five years of age. # 39; imprisonment.