Virus Danger in Minecraft Skins
Avast specialists found out that players in Minecraft download malware along with the skins. Over the 30 days after that unpleasant situation, more than 50,000 user accounts have been affected.
According to research by Avast Threat Labs, the virus reformats the hard drive and removes backups and system files. The malicious script Powershell uses for distribution the so-called Minecraft “skins” in PNG format. The skins are used by game users to change the appearance of the character. They are usually downloaded from third-party resources. It is this way that malware gets to the victims’ computers.
The virus code is fairly simple, but the problem is a large area of PC damage. Since infected skins without obstacles are downloaded to the game site, users ignore the security alerts, considering them to be erroneous. Most of the attacks fell on Russia (12,849), Ukraine (4,728) and the United States (2,306).
The choice of a game for spreading a malicious program is explained by the popularity of Minecraft. Now the game has registered about 70 million active players. Within 10 days, Avast blocked 14,500 attempts at infection. According to the company, Avast specialists contacted Mojang, the developer of Minecraft. According to their information, the authors of the game have already eliminated the vulnerability.
To avoid infection, experts advise not to download skins from third-party sites. Despite the fact that the official site picked up the virus, it is better to still prefer it, or a site in which you can definitely be sure of its safety. For example, skins4minecraft, where developers took care of the security of users and the latter are not threaten with the virus when downloading files.
If you have already downloaded one of the skins shown in the picture above, it is recommended to immediately check the PC for viruses. Also, an indication of infection can be unusual messages, for example: «You are nailed», «Buy a new computer, this is a piece of sh*t»; «Your *** got glued»; «You have maxed out your internet usage for a lifetime», etc. If the computer is already infected and the system files are deleted, it is recommended to start the data recovery.
