Virtual Crime - something more traditional

It had to happen, given the huge explosion of virtual worlds for children and adults. The following article "Teen hacker arrested for stealing virtual furniture" goes on to discuss the theft or supposed theft of furniture from within the Habbo Hotel world, is this the start of a new form of criminal activity? I love it how the article assumes the student is a 'hacker' to get access to other accounts - there is no report if he knows the other people he allegedly stole from or if he had access to their personal details. There is also no detail on how he was detected - did one of the victims come home and notice a nice lounge missing or a table missing. Or did the administrators of Habbo notice someone sneaking around online slinking in and out of other people's environments?

Whilst I make light of this issue - I am sure it will be one that continues to grow and become more prominent in the media. This is a great example of why keeping our personal information safe is crucial to make this type of activity  harder to undertake, additionally the owners of these sites need to ensure there systems are safe and protected - are they?

I will endeavour to find more information on this issue...