NSA targeted on-line games to track terrorists

US and UK spy agencies apparently believed that there were real-life terrorists among those who played online games. The National Security Agency (NSA) and its UK counterpart, the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), had secretly monitored activity and collected data from online game networks like World of Warcraft and Second Life.

There was no evidence yet that the monitoring had led to any success in tracking terrorists, but according to the agencies, terrorists might be using such networks to communicate with each other, move money and plot attacks around the world without being noticed, The New York Times reported yesterday, quoting documents obtained from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

Agents from the NSA and GCHQ had created make-believe characters and entered online fantasy game terrains in a bid to recruit informers and tap communications between players.

"Because militants often rely on features common to video games, fake identities, voice and text chats, a way to conduct financial transactions, American and British intelligence agencies worried that they might be operating there," according to the Times.

Though the security agencies were able to intercept emails and phone calls, many online games were considered possible safe havens for illegal activity.

Responding to the threat perceptions intelligence operatives created their own avatars and joined the games, and logged communications between other players. Leaked documents provided to The Guardian and shared with The New York Times and ProPublica, show that Second Life, Xbox Live and World of Warcraft were all targeted, potentially affecting tens of millions of users.

According to the The New York Times, in 2008, GCHQ had sent operatives into Second Life and helped police in London break a ring of criminals that were selling stolen credit card information in the virtual world.

According to other documents reportedly RAF Menwith Hill in Yorkshire was used as a base for US and UK operatives to enter World of Warcraft using their own characters.

The minutes of a meeting involving GCHQ's "network gaming exploitation team" show, among those identified for possible recruitment were engineers, embassy drivers and foreign intelligence operatives as players of the games.