Eleven-Year-Old Kid Writes Malware That Attains User Information

An 11-year-old kid was found to have coded a "Runescape" malware that promises a gamer gold and in the bargain collects sensitive information.

According to an AVG report, cartoons, television, bike rides and chocolates are not the only things that make up an 11-year-old kid's life these days. Nowadays, kids prefer brushing up their coding skills, reports PC magazine.

Reportedly, an 11-year-old boy coded a malware for an application named "Runescape Gold Hack" which promises users of the game free gold. All they need to do is enter how much gold they want and then fill in the app with their username and password. This sensitive information is then delivered to an email address, which according to an AVG representatives in an interview with BBC News, belonged to the 11-year-old boy in Canada. To make the app look genuine, the boy even added a message cautioning users not to use the app more than once a day or administrators may get suspicious.

"Mostly kids writing malware are doing it to show off to their peers, by demonstrating 'hacking' ability. It could be stealing someone's game logins. This might seem trivial at first, but online gaming accounts are often connected to credit card details to enable in-game purchases, and these may also have virtual currency accounts amounting to hundreds of dollars," wrote AVG CTO Yuval Ben-Itzhak in an associated blog post. "Furthermore, many gamers unfortunately use the same login details for social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, potentially putting the victim at risk of cyber-bullying, in addition to identity theft and major inconvenience."

AVG made the discovery after they examined the malware code that was camouflaged as a cheat tool for the highly popular multiplayer online game. However, since the kid was an amateur, it also provided personally identifiable information that led officials straight to him. This is not the first time kids have been found to be behind malicious codes, AVG officials said.

"We believe these junior programmers are motivated mainly by the thrill of outwitting their peers, rather than financial gain, but it is nevertheless a disturbing and increasing trend. It is also logical to assume that at least some of those responsible will be tempted to experiment with much more serious cyber-crimes," Ben-Itzhak said.

Details about the kid in question have not been revealed.