A laptop, a small bungalow home, and a 21 year-old man with Asperger Syndrome who has been home schooled since the fourth grade and who has amazing self-taught computer skills were all it took to hack into the online game League of Legends, developed by Riot Games, which is based in the US.
Shane Duffy, a Kingaroy resident, hacked the servers of the developer and was able to acquire player details and details on IP addresses, and sold them all online. These details are very useful for online players of the game to exact gaming revenge on their online opponents in the game, which works by slowing down the playing abilities and denying the attacks of these opponents, thereby causing them to be killed and eliminated in the game.
IP addresses, or Internet Protocol addresses, are assigned by internet providers to each of their users. Knowing the IP address of an opponent in an online game allows the player to knock off these opponents by overloading the connections with their IP addresses.
The Queensland Police has been working with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation on this case, and their investigation has gone on for six months before they finally found this break, which identified Duffy as the sole hacker. They have been able to father about 800 transactions to Duffy that have been linked to a website, which had been set up specifically to sell the hacked data last February. The authorities said that offences happened between July 14 and 26, 2013.
Brian Hay, Detective Superintendent of the Fraud and Cyber Crime Squad of the Queensland Police, clarified that hackers can come from anywhere and can use any tools that they are able to master.
"When you get the imagery that a skilled hacker has to be in a major city with a big bank of computers and sophisticated file servers surrounding them in a little bungalow ... we are talking about a 21-year-old living with his mother and family with a laptop," Hay said.
Duffy's mother, Leah, defended her son. She said Duffy had been in school only until Year 4, because the school system did not want him. Duffy has been suffering from Asperger Syndrome, which causes him difficulty in normal social interactions, but allows him to be highly skilled in introverted activities, such as in mathematics and, apparently computer hacking. Since Duffy has been out of school, he stayed home most of the time and taught himself all about computers.
Leah alleged that her son indeed was a computer whiz, and had more computer hacking knowledge than Queensland's best cyber detective, but she also explained that he did not commit those cybercrimes. She said that whatever information Duffy has was readily available on the internet for free, and that it was someone else who had made the hacked database public.
Duffy has been charged with three counts of computer hacking and misuse, two counts of fraud for dishonestly applying property to his own use, two counts of fraud for dishonestly obtaining property from another, and one count of fraud for dishonestly causing detriment and possessing equipment for purpose of committing/facilitating the commission of an offence.
He is due to appear in the Maryborough Magistrates Court on April 8.
