Kaspersky Warns Of BloodyStealer Trojan That Swipes Data From Gamers’ Accounts

Kaspersky has put out a warning for a trojan tool known as BloodyStealer. The malware was given its name by its creators as it does exactly what its namesake suggests but more importantly, the antivirus software has said that the tool has mostly been used against gamers and several gaming platforms.

As per its official blog post, BloodyStealer was discovered to have mainly affected PCs belonging to gamers and were lodged within the major gaming platforms, including Steam, Epic Games, Origin, GOG, and Bethesda. The antivirus company says that while the malware is still relatively new, it has already found victims within Europe, Latin America, and the Asia Pacific region. Worst still, the trojan is allegedly being sold on the underground market to threat actors as part of a malware-as-a-service (MaaS) distribution model, at a price of US$40 (~RM167) for a “lifetime license”.

As for what it steals, the “official” advertisement for BloodyStealer states that it steals, passwords, cookies, bank card details, gaming account details, device data, screenshots, and even logs, the last item being of particularly popular demand. Games as well are not safe from the malware, with many games stolen with the trojan can be seen being sold on the dark web, and at less than US$1 (~RM4.18) in most situations.

To avoid becoming a victim of BloodyStealer, Kaspersky is preaching that people deploy what it calls “common sense” measures: strong passwords, 2-factor authentication (2FA), downloading apps from trusted sources, and simply not clicking on links provided by strangers in emails, or even those sordid links that are usually passed on by unknown numbers via messaging apps. For gamers, it also has a guide on how to maximise the security settings for all gaming platforms.

Windows 10 KB5001330 Update Reportedly Causing Framerate Issues And BSODs For Gamers

Microsoft’s latest Windows 10 Patch Tuesday update has reportedly been the bane of gamers. According to a post on Reddit, a gamer by the username of u/m4ddan says that they have been facing numerous issues while gaming, after he had installed the update.

The problems that they encountered after the patch supposedly includes stuttering, framerates wildly fluctuating, a non-functioning V-Sync, and sudden FPS drops whenever they shared their gameplay on Discord. At this point, the issue clearly isn’t an isolated incident and at the time of writing, the subreddit has more than 80 comments from users, all expressing discontent and anger over the same issues.

The good news is that uninstalling the update and reverting back to the previous version of Windows 10 eliminates the issue. That said, this isn’t the first time a Windows 10 update has caused grief for users, and there is a laundry list. As far back as 2018, updates to the OS have been known to cause its own digital assistant, Cortana, to freeze; Bluetooth connections to fail; unnecessary defragging of SSDs and an update last year that could damage the storage medium if users performed a Check Disk scan.

Then, if that wasn’t bad enough, the March update last month also contained a bug that causes systems to BSOD whenever a system tried to use a printer.

At the time of writing, Microsoft did not comment, neither did it specify when a fix to the update would be available.