Fortnite
is such a massive phenomenon that hackers have started targeting players with malware that’s able to steal personal data including Bitcoin wallet information that you may hold on your Windows machine. The malware is disguised as Fortnite cheats, which is quite ironic. Just as you try to cheat in a game, you may end up being cheated in real life by hackers.
Fortnite is available on a bunch of platforms, but Windows is your best bet if you’re looking for cheating apps supposed to give you unfair advantages inside the game.
Malwarebytes found such a malware app after sifting through plenty of Fortnite-related online spam. Getting the malicious Windows program actually required the user to go through several steps, which include subscribing to a YouTube channel, proceeding to a different site, and going through a survey page before actually downloading the file.
Once the malware is installed, it’ll try to communicate to a server in the Russian Federation. The malware looks for various types of data, including browser server information, cookies, Bitcoin wallets, and Steam sessions. Even the readme file tries to make money off the user, advertising the sale of additional Fortnite cheats for $80 Bitcoin.
So far, some 1,207 downloads had taken place, which means plenty of people may have fallen for this Fornite cheating guise — the full Malwarebytes report is available at this link.
As always, make sure you have an anti-virus installed on your computer if you’re willing to engage in behavior that might lead to the inadvertent installation of malware apps. In fact, if you feel like you absolutely need an unfair advantage in Fortnite, and are willing to scour the web for anything that might give you an edge over others, then you probably need to get yourself a gaming PC that you won’t use for anything else other than losing Fortnite matches.
