terrible malware rids cheaters of their cryptocurrencies

Activision, the American publisher of Call of Duty and other popular games, is currently investigating a hacking campaign. According to the first elements, the targeted players are affected by malware capable of stealing their identifiers, but also their cryptocurrency assets. Surprisingly, only cheaters would be targeted.

Call of Duty Warzone, but also the multiplayer modes of canon episodes like Modern Warfare 3, are not spared from cheating. This scourge ruins the games of millions of players around the world, who regularly find themselves facing unbeatable opponents thanks to aimbots, wallhacks and whatnot.

In recent years, the American publisher has stepped up measures against “hackers”, with varying degrees of success. We remember, for example, this original functionality added in November 2023 to Ricochet, Activision’s anti-cheat software. Baptized Splat, this feature deprived cheaters of a parachute before being dropped onto the map in Warzone, which resulted in a fatal fall. The slightest jump was also synonymous with a fatal fall for any survivors.

Activision’s war against cheating also took place on the legal front. In February 2023, the publisher of a famous cheating software was fined 3 million euros. A strong message to all other publishers.

Malware targets millions of cheaters on Call of Duty and Activision games

And ironically, we have just learned that a massive hacking campaign is currently affecting more than 5 million Call of Duty players. And they all obviously have one thing in common: they cheat. As the VX-Underground account on X (Twitter) explains, a cheat software provider (Phantom Overlay) was alerted to fraudulent activity when user accounts began making unauthorized purchases.

From what we know, hackers released seemingly genuine cheat software that actually contained malware. The malware in question was used to steal the credentials of targeted players on several Activision-Blizzard games like Call of Duty, Diablo IV, World of Warcraft Or Overwatch. According to the IT security specialist, more than 3.6 million Battle.net accounts were compromised, as were 560,000 Activision accounts.

But that’s not all. Some impacted users also claim to have been victims of crypto-draining. In other words, their cryptocurrency assets were emptied. For the moment, we have no idea of ​​the amount of the damage. Remember that in 2018, Fortnite players were impacted by similar malware.

Activision investigates with cheat software providers

Note that Activision is aware of the matter, the American publisher even working in concert with cheating software suppliers (we will have seen everything) to help affected users.

“We are aware that the credentials of some players across the industry could be compromised by malware when downloading or using unauthorized software,” declared an Activision spokesperson to our colleagues at TechCrunch. In his press release, the American publisher nevertheless assures that these servers “remain secure and uncompromised“. In addition, they advise targeted players to strengthen the security of their account by changing their password and activating two-factor authentication.

Source: TechCrunch