Many players have had their GTA Online account hacked on PC. Hackers could attempt to directly infect the computer through an in-game flaw.
A hacking campaign is underway on Grand Theft Auto Online. Several specialized Twitter accounts as well as players alerted the community to account hacks on January 20. Many users have had their stats removed and permanently banned from their profile. Worse, hackers can directly access other files on the victim’s computer.
The alert was issued by Tez2, an account dedicated to game publisher Rockstar, posting screenshots of a corrupted account on Twitter. In the aftermath, Developer Speyedr, behind the specialized Guardian firewall to GTA 5, warned that hackers could execute code remotely via GTA Online. Specifically, they can install malware on the PC from the game. Another user, Bulkiboydemonstrated that he was immediately kicked out of his own session after unlocking his firewall protection.
A computer security risk
This means that anyone can be targeted, as long as he or she is playing on the servers of GTA Online. Hackers hunt public lobbies by harvesting credentials in an attempt to compromise them. So it would seem at this point that playing GTA Online on PC poses a cybersecurity risk. It is recommended, at a minimum, to install a specialized firewall, or even not to open the game until Rockstar has not definitively resolved this flaw. The game has nearly 2.5 million monthly players on Steam.
In its latest update on the subject, Tez2 explains that the company is aware of the problem and that it is “registering” the accounts affected by these attacks. There are no details to concretely understand the technical origin of the fault. A similar issue had affected the version online of Dark Soulsthe servers had been shut down for seven months.
