出版社：Academy & Industry Research Collaboration Center (AIRCC)
摘要：Virtual worlds have become highly popular in recent years with reports of over a billion people
accessing these environments and the virtual goods market growing to near 50 billion US
dollars. An undesirable outcome to this popularity and market value is thriving criminal activity
in these worlds. The most profitable cyber security problem in virtual worlds is named Virtual
Property Theft. The aim of this study is to use an online survey to gain insight into how hackers
(n=100) in these synthetic worlds conduct their criminal activity. This survey is the first to report
an insight into the criminal mind of hackers (virtual thieves). Results showed a clear-cut profile
of a virtual property thief, they appear to be mainly aged 20-24 years of age, live in the United
States of America, while using virtual worlds for 5-7 hours a day. These and the other key results
of this study will provide a pathway for designing an effective anti-theft framework capable of
abolishing this cyber security issue.
关键词：Virtual world environments; virtual property theft; cyber security; hackers; massively
multiplayer online games
