When it comes to breaking through as an indie developer or studio, the Steam platform and its ecosystem seem to be the safest bet. With Early Access being one of its biggest draws and a growing audience that has an appetite for seemingly everything, there is room for all sorts of games to shine. Unfortunately, not everyone is using it for the right thing, as demonstrated by the highly dangerous indie title, PirateFi.
Positioned as a free-to-play game, PirateFi was anything but an entertaining time. The game description called it “a thrilling survival game set in a vibrant, low-poly world where you can choose to play solo or with others in multiplayer mode.” However, instead of offering an enjoyable experience, the game immediately deployed a malware called Trojan.Win32.Lazzzy.gen. once interested users launched the game for the first time.
This malware quickly scans and steals cookie data stored in your browsers, including usernames and passwords for various online services. Before Valve managed to remove and warn users about it, the game had already claimed some victims. Several users reported that their Microsoft and Roblox accounts were stolen, including any money stored in them, due to the functions of PirateFi.
As reported by SteamDB, Steam promptly sent out emails advising them on how to mitigate further damage. The recommendations included running a full antivirus scan and, in severe cases, reinstalling Windows entirely.
“We strongly encourage you to run a full-system scan using an antivirus product that you trust or use regularly, and inspect your system for unexpected or newly installed software,” Steam said.
After receiving numerous reports, Steam has permanently removed PirateFi from its store. It is still unclear as to how the supposed game got onto Steam in the first place, as the platform usually has screening processes that should prevent such things from happening. Hopefully, the prompt action would have stopped even more people from becoming unwilling victims.
