Even Steam Now Has Malware
Fraudsters are becoming more sophisticated in introducing malware into applications. Of course, it’s nothing new that malicious apps are scattered all over the Internet, but lately they’ve been popping up with alarming frequency, even in theoretically safe places like the Google Play Store and even the Apple App Store . Malware is even popping up on Steam, serving as a reminder that we all need to be careful with every app (or game) we decide to download onto our devices.
According to GameRant , Valve recently removed a game called PirateFi from Steam. The game, created by developer Seaworth Interactive, was free to play and was promoted as a survival adventure, allowing players to fish and swim in both single-player and co-op modes. The game was only released on February 6th of this year, which means it was active on Steam for less than one week.
Why removal? Steam claims that the developer uploaded versions of the game to Steam that contained suspicious malware. Steam has since removed those builds, as well as the game itself, but if you played the game while those builds were active, Steam says it’s likely your PC was infected with malicious code.
Luckily, the scale of the situation was, relatively speaking, small: it appears that only about 1,500 people actually downloaded the game , which is less than many of the malware concerns of late. Moreover, Valve reached out to affected players directly, warning them of a potential malware issue.
SteamDB shared Valve’s message to PirateFi players in a post on X. As part of the post, Steam warns players that they should completely reformat their computer’s OS in order to completely clear their computer of malware.
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It appears that some of the affected players were well aware of how malicious the game was. One negative review claimed that the game drained their Steam wallet to buy Dota 2 skins, while another claimed that most of their accounts were hacked after installing the game.
An alarming trend
However, that this happened at all is troubling. It is usually safe to download apps and games from official sources such as app stores, especially Steam. It’s almost unheard of for a game on the Valve store to be malicious. This is even rarer than malicious apps in Apple stores, which, while rare, do escape the company’s defenses from time to time.
Do I expect more malicious games to appear on Steam? Not necessarily. In fact, after this event, Steam may strengthen its security even further. However, situations like these are a good reminder that you can never be too careful online.
What to do if you played PirateFi
If you have installed PirateFi on your computer, you should remove it as soon as possible. Steam recommends running an antivirus scan on your computer to root out any potential malware, as well as looking for any new software you don’t recognize: malware tends to install new programs and files to run in the background, so be sure to remove anything you know you didn’t install yourself.
You may also want to change the passwords on your accounts. While there is no need to change passwords regularly , this malware may have obtained your account passwords, putting your accounts at risk. For greater security , you can completely reformat your computer , although this is obviously the most time-consuming solution.
Again, it’s quite rare to encounter malware on Steam, but it’s still worth exercising caution when downloading new games from the store. Be sure to check pages for new games before installing them: look at the images and description to see if the game is what is advertised. Important: Check the reviews: if there are too many negative ratings or too few negative ratings, it may be better to skip the title altogether.