92,000+ Gamers May Have Malware-Infected Games After a Recent Hack
A new report has found that a hacking attack which took place last year may have had more widespread reach than initially thought. A 2018 hack targeting the Asus Live Update tool was able to infect the software with malware. As a result, almost a million unfortunate Asus computer users were exposed. However, the latest reports from ESET and Kaspersky suggests that the same group of hackers also infected a development tool, leading to malware infecting several video games.
New Report Finds the Widespread Impact of Malware-Infected Games
As reported by Wired and Game Rant, the new report links the Asus hack with a secondary attack targeting the Microsoft Visual Studio software. At least three developers made use of this infected tool, causing malware to infect their games. Since then, at least 92,000 computers are known to have been exposed to malware through one of these malware-infected games. Unfortunately for gamers, the actual total is likely to be a much higher figure.
Fortunately for gamers in the west, the vast majority of the infections occurred in Asia, especially in Thailand. However, there have been some cases of infection outside of the region. Two of the studios affected by this hack are Electronics Extreme and Zepetto. The identity of the third studio is not currently public knowledge. Of the two that are known, their games ‘Infestation’ and ‘PointBlank’ were among those infected. As such, gamers should definitely avoid them for the time being.
The group responsible for the hack is most likely Chinese in origin; According to ESET, the malware doesn’t function on computer systems set to use Simplified Chinese. The worst part about this hack is that the hackers were able to infect gamers before they release. Normally, malware spreads through games when they are re-sold illicitly after third-party tampering. In this case, however, there was no reason for consumers to be suspicious. After all, the game purchases were presumably legitimate and should have been safe.