Those who have obtained cheats in Apex Legends, Fortnite: Battle Royale or CS:GO might have unwittingly received a nasty piece of malware called “Baldr” for free. It steals data on a large scale, which is then sold on the dark web.
What’s the deal with the software and the cheaters? According to the antivirus company Sophos, a massive number of computers have been infected with malware called “Baldr”. This malware was primarily spread earlier this year through cheat offers on YouTube for the games CS:GO, Fortnite, and Apex Legends.
Videos on YouTube touted foolproof cheats. One just had to click the respective links and grab the cheats. According to Sophos, particularly young players were the victims:
“Teenagers are most easily convinced to cheat a little with their buddies. Unlike adults, they often do not understand that such programs can be malicious and cause problems with their computers. They just click on everything.”
Malware steals data on a large scale
What does the software do? The damage caused by Baldr is significant. The software is a so-called “hit-and-run” keylogger. Baldr reads all stored data and sends it as a bundled package to the perpetrators behind the software.
Especially passwords and usernames for game accounts seem to be in high demand and fetch good prices on the dark web. Customers are particularly eager for accounts with many rare skins or a good win rate in Fortnite or Apex Legends.
How is Baldr evolving? Baldr initially appeared primarily in Southeast Asia, but has since spread further. Additionally, it seems to no longer only attack gamers and be distributed via cheats. There are cases where Baldr has allegedly been introduced through security vulnerabilities in MS Office or the software WINRAR.
In addition to gaming accounts, Netflix passwords, social media accounts, and even bonus miles with airlines are said to have been stolen.
