Hacking Pokémon Go: a classic case of follow the money

Pokémon Go released to a slew of historic firsts on July 6. In its first week, downloads for the augmented reality location-based game surpassed many of the top-used mobile apps like Snapchat, Tinder, and Instagram, leading to a massive influx of value and a 13 percent increase in stock price for the game’s IP holder, Nintendo, as players downloaded the app almost 8 million times in the days after its release and took to the streets hoping to “catch ‘em all.”

Unfortunately, its runaway popularity, combined with its exposure in the press, has also led to equally massive security issues. The risks range from reported cases of malware and exploits, to concerns from cybersecurity experts on the publisher’s storage and use of players’ personal data, to reported cases of real-world bad guys using the game’s system of visible Pokémon “lures” (which can draw huge crowds of players hoping to catch the resulting in-flux of virtual Pokémons to that location) as a honeypot for armed robberies. This has all happened within seven days of the game’s release.