Gamers targeted by ransomware virus

On infected machines, the malicious program seeks out saved games and other files and encrypts them.

A key to unlock encrypted files is only supplied if victims pay at least $500 (£340) in Bitcoins.

The malware targets 40 separate games including Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Minecraft and World of Tanks.
Click to expand...
it encrypts wot and wow saves? lol
 
I always laugh when I see these headlines, clicking every link on the internet is like walking down ever small alley you can find in London, you're gonna have a bad time.

:cool:
 
oh no! i will lose my wow game save... because it saves to my pc..... oh wait....


another badly researched BBC "article"..... :rolleyes:
 
Theres been some dodgy links posted on steam profiles that looks to be a link to a screenshot at first glance. Might be something similar to this. Just deleted it and set my steam profile comments to friends only, but I bet a lot will fall for it and click without thinking.
 
It seems most games save to the cloud now and if not you could probably download a simular save file if you did lose them.
 
If you read it, it isn't all about game saves.
"Files holding gamers' profiles, maps, saves and modified versions of games are all sought by Teslacrypt, he said.

He said anyone who tries to outwit the malware by uninstalling a game they obtained via an online service may end up disappointed.

"Often it's not possible to restore this kind of data even after re-installing a game via Steam," he wrote."
Click to expand...

I don't understand why it wouldn't be possible but apparently that's a real concern for some reason.
 
maybe I am getting this wrong but unless they hack blizzard servers how the hell can they stop you playing wow ? I mean nothing is really saved locally except the wow exe files, data packs etc. All your character data is server side...
 
Has anyone saying "WoW saves to the server, what a load of bull" considered that it might go after the .lua files for the interface addons, or the character interface settings data files? The article does say it goes after save files and other files. I know that when I used to play WoW, if my interface file got messed up, it could take hours to get it back the way it should be. These files are just as important to some as save files.
 
If people care about these things that much they'd have backups, I have two backups of everything I'd rather keep than lose. Local backup and crashplan backup + the in-use set on my PC.

People shouldn't, but do whinge about losing stuff they never bothered to back up in the first place and these days there are so many free tools to do it for you there's no excuse.
 
Halfmad said:
If people care about these things that much they'd have backups, I have two backups of everything I'd rather keep than lose. Local backup and crashplan backup + the in-use set on my PC.

People shouldn't, but do whinge about losing stuff they never bothered to back up in the first place and these days there are so many free tools to do it for you there's no excuse.
Click to expand...

You can say that of any data that viruses threaten to damage. You'd be surprised at just how many people take backing up for granted...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom