Steam Chat Spreading Dangerous Malware

[Marshall Honorof]

Steam chats can spread malware by hiding a nasty program in a supposedly innocuous screenshot from a trusted friend.

Steam Chat Spreading Dangerous Malware : Read more

 

[tom10167]

This article is only late by one year and four months.

 

[soccerplayer88]

Yeah this malware has been around for a little while now (over a month). It's actually much worse then what's depicted here.

Not only will the virus spread to all your friends via chat and steal your account information, it will dump all your items, cards, etc. into a dummy account and deletes anything it can't take.

As a suggestion, if you're worried about this sort of thing enable your Steam Guard in your Steam Settings. At least your account information should be safe.

 

[fimbulvinter]

LATE BREAKING NEWS

Like several months late. Thanks for looking out Tom's Hardware! It would've got to us faster if you mailed the info.

 

[TechyInAZ]

Good thing i don't use steam chat or steam friends hardly at all.

 

[Jak_Sparra]

Although, as other people have pointed out, this issue has been ongoing for several months the shear lack of feed back or care from Steam is astounding. Clearly not everyone is tech-savvy and many people actually have both the anti-virus software AND malware detection software that Steam actually give as Examples (i.e Avast! and Malwarebytes) and have still been effected by the virus.

Many parents, with the above software to make things safer, allow their kids to play games on Steam and a lot of kids will click on a link a known friend seems to have sent them.

I accidentally got infected and lost several items from my trade bit of steam, but the value was only about $30.00. I raised a ticket several weeks ago and have received only one automated response and none of my items back yet even though I gave all details, screen shots of the 'trade/theft', the steam name of the user that got the items etc.

Looking at the steam forums there are hundreds if not thousands of effected users some whom have lost over $200 worth of items and have had tickets raised with steam for months with no reply. Just the standard automated response!

I also went onto the steam forums to the ideas/suggestions part and suggested they design a 4 digit pin option that the user has to enter for each trade to go through. But one of the admins scoffed at the idea and basically said it was all the victims fault and that people should be more tech-savvy.

I for one AM GLAD that the issue is still making news as it is both a warning to others to be vigilant and also to maybe shame steam into actually doing something about it.

I no longer bother collecting card/badges/wallpapers etc as it seems a waste of time if they can be so easily stolen with no chance of getting them back.

 

[ccampy]

People actually collected that stuff and put a value to it?

 

[AJSB]

I actually won a bunch of cards and badges by playing the games that i own but i never looked to that stuff...but hey, if people value that stuff and i can win something like a game in exchange for them... >

 

[whiteodian]

It's a good thing my Xbone doesn't get viruses trollololololol

 

[alidan]

Although, as other people have pointed out, this issue has been ongoing for several months the shear lack of feed back or care from Steam is astounding. Clearly not everyone is tech-savvy and many people actually have both the anti-virus software AND malware detection software that Steam actually give as Examples (i.e Avast! and Malwarebytes) and have still been effected by the virus.

Many parents, with the above software to make things safer, allow their kids to play games on Steam and a lot of kids will click on a link a known friend seems to have sent them.

I accidentally got infected and lost several items from my trade bit of steam, but the value was only about $30.00. I raised a ticket several weeks ago and have received only one automated response and none of my items back yet even though I gave all details, screen shots of the 'trade/theft', the steam name of the user that got the items etc.

Looking at the steam forums there are hundreds if not thousands of effected users some whom have lost over $200 worth of items and have had tickets raised with steam for months with no reply. Just the standard automated response!

I also went onto the steam forums to the ideas/suggestions part and suggested they design a 4 digit pin option that the user has to enter for each trade to go through. But one of the admins scoffed at the idea and basically said it was all the victims fault and that people should be more tech-savvy.

I for one AM GLAD that the issue is still making news as it is both a warning to others to be vigilant and also to maybe shame steam into actually doing something about it.

I no longer bother collecting card/badges/wallpapers etc as it seems a waste of time if they can be so easily stolen with no chance of getting them back.

yea, valve is a pretty crappy company... its really sad they are the best place to go to for games.

 

[f-14]

LOL@Tom's reporting speed. this was going on about a year and a half ago, ESET NOD32 caught it immediately. it's the whole reason i unistalled steam and all steam related games and haven't touched them since. i'd sooner shut my fire wall down uninstall my antivirus and run an auto clicker in microsoft outlook.

i avoid steam and origin like it's the black plague or outlook

 

[zthomas]

I turned off the chat program in steam.. and stopped trading couple months ago.. had some problems.. people want to follow them to unsecured sites.. then wam bam a nice little trojan.. even found some Russians name in-bedded in some start file .. At the moment I got 30 requests to follow someone to trade.. forget that.. ain't going to happen

 

[Felix Caouette]

I accidently opened it on my phone (android) and deleted automaticly the file. Is this dangerous for my phone?

 

[zthomas]

I accidently opened it on my phone (android) and deleted automaticly the file. Is this dangerous for my phone?

Some paid services have anti virus phone apps.. I believe Norton has such a app.. for paid members.. I was offered the service but declined.. not yet using a smart phone.. may even be freeware.. but you gotta do the searching..

 

[zthomas]

LOL@Tom's reporting speed. this was going on about a year and a half ago, ESET NOD32 caught it immediately. it's the whole reason i unistalled steam and all steam related games and haven't touched them since. i'd sooner shut my fire wall down uninstall my antivirus and run an auto clicker in microsoft outlook.

i avoid steam and origin like it's the black plague or outlook

There were some problems with Steam few months back.. seems valve was very aggressive and solved the problems.. we members can report issues.. seems everyone is ratting .. on whom ever is trying to slide in some sort of hack.. I play on steam daily.. no issues at all through the holiday season. Origin seems more stable also.. Norton works fine with both..