While we were busy elbow-deep in the rich discussion and interesting revelations coming out of the Virtual Worlds Conference (Wagner James Au has a great "Top 5 Highlights" over at GigaOM), Korea was struggling with some RMT security issues.

Chosun.com, who reports the episode, values Korea’s digital money market at about 1 trillion won ($1.9 billion). The article says that some virtual item trades have begun to founder, stuck with connection problems, and worried Internet users suspect that hackers may be to blame.

From the article:

As of Tuesday afternoon, Korea’s main game item trading sites -- ItemBay, Item Mania and Item Play Forum ? were all experiencing log-in difficulties. The sites went through similar connection problems from Sept. 24 to 26. Users can post an item or “cyber money” on the sites or browse the site to pick up the item of their choice. Sought-after items can go for as much as W1 million. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism said that some W860 billion were traded on these sites last year with the number estimated to go up to W1 trillion this year.

But gamers are concerned about a hacker attack. In any week, some 100,000 users visit ItemBay, Item Mania and Item Play Forum. ItemBay, for instance, saw over W360 billion worth of transactions just from item sales last year. Each of the sites is being flooded with questions from customers demanding to know what is going on. But delays in restoring the sites are preventing them from even posting a notice to explain the situation. “We are in the process of expanding our memory storage to accommodate a sudden surge of users,” said an Item Mania spokesman. “As soon as things get back to normal, we will post a notice of explanation.”

[Via Chosun.com]