Watch Out Gamers: Hacked Steam Accounts Distributing Malware

STEAM USERS ARE AGAIN UNDER THE RADAR OF CYBER CRIMINALS — THIS TIME, HACKED STEAM ACCOUNTS HAVE BEEN FOUND DISTRIBUTING REMOTE ACCESS TROJAN (RAT).

Previously we informed our readers about the hacking of Steam accounts. Now a Reddit user is claiming that some of these hacked accounts are distributing malware.

The user on Reddit who goes by the alias Hayaddict can be seen alerting about the hackedSteam accounts being used to SPAM malicious URLs. Steam chat is the primary platform used for the distribution of this new malware. The chat messages contain a link to a video available at this address: videomeo.pw. As soon as the recipient of this message visits this page, another message window pops up requesting the visitor to download a Flash Player update to watch the video.

Lawrence Abrams from Bleeping Computers writes that if the unsuspecting user downloads this update and installs it, nothing will happen and the video still won’t be displayed because the installer is actually a malware. This Trojan immediately executes zaga.ps1, which is a PowerShell script that downloads a 7-zip archive, a CMD script and 7-zip extractor from the zahr.pw server.

After downloading these files, the PowerShell script launches the CMD file first. This file extracts the sharchivedmngr to the %AppData%\lappclimtfldr folder. Furthermore, when the user logs in, it configures the Windows to execute the mcrtvclient.exe automatically, which is a copy of the NetSupport Manager Remote Control Software. Upon launching, the NetSupport gateway connects with it at leyv.pw:11678 allowing the attacker to create a direct link with the infected computer remotely. The malware stays disabled until it receives commands from the C&C server.

To check if your computer is infected with the Steam Trojan, you can inspect the %AppData% folder for the presence of folders that we have mentioned above, states Abrams.

But, even if your computer is not infected with this virus, we urge that you never pay any attention to suspicious links and refrain from visiting links that offer videos or any kind of illicit content. Especially, never download any updates from third party websites, but only use the authentic websites of the company for downloading updates. Last but not the least, always keep an updated version of anti-virus installed on your computer to avoid infections.

For more technical details we recommend visiting Bleeping Computer blog post by clicking here.

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The Apple Watch’s unlock feature could turn the smartwatch tides

Pull on your commenting pants because I’m going to offer up some wild speculation coupled with real-world experience to come to a conclusion that some of you might find ludicrous and others will find just weird. Here we go: I think the Apple Watch’s Mac unlock feature is one of the most compelling things about the watch itself and could turn the smartwatch tides if more manufacturers figure out how to get their wearables to talk to more and more devices.

I rarely wore my Apple Watch until WatchOS 3. I’m a mechanical watch guy so usually I’d strap on something I was testing or one of my other pieces. Now, however, I’m facing a dilemma – do I type in my password on my iMac and my MacBook or do I simply wear my Apple Watch. I’m trending towards the latter and my dumb watches are gathering dust.

The Apple Watch doesn’t do much. It has a few great features and the second edition looks pretty interesting on a sports front but I’ve stopped wearing it to exercise and I can’t really take it with me when I travel so there’s not much call to strap it on in the morning. But, as Danny Meyer discovered, the Apple Watch – and any smartwatch, really – is a great way to consume ambient information. It is also a great way to transmit ambient information like your heart rate, smiley stickers, and, in this case, your password.

Not having to type in my password (which is “IamnotanAppleshill,” by the way) is a small but compelling reason to eschew my dumb watches and folks like Samsung would do well to figure out a way to do the same thing for Windows and Linux. I’d love for my phone to unlock automatically as long as it was, say, a few from my watch. I’d love for my TV to react to my watch, setting up my favorite channels and picking up the media I’ve been consuming. In short, I’d like my watch to be my passport to the digital world. And, because of this one afterthought of a feature, it’s clear that it can be.

A month ago I made a dire prediction: the Swiss watch industry is doomed. I still think this is true. You can say that smartwatches are undignified and ugly and that mechanical watches are better but I would argue that the Blackberry was undignified and ugly but that didn’t stop the rich and famous from tapping away on those ugly blue phones for almost a decade. In this pitiless world utility trumps artistry. Mac unlock is just one thorn in the Swiss watch industry’s side but it is one that cuts deepest because, in the end, it will become the most useful in melding humanity with technology.

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Facebook launches Marketplace, a friendlier Craigslist

450 million people already visit “buy and sell” Groups on Facebook each month, and now the company is launching a whole tab in its app dedicated to peer-to-peer shopping.

Facebook Marketplace lets you browse a relevancy-sorted feed of things to buy from people who live nearby, and quickly list your own stuff for sale. Integration with Facebook Messenger lets you haggle or arrange a meet-up, and you know more about who you’re dealing with than on anonymous sites like Craigslist thanks to Facebook’s profiles.

Marketplace is launching today in the US, UK, Australia, and New Zealand on mobile, but could roll out globally and on the web if it’s popular. There’s an unfortunate lack of a two-way rating system which helps discourage scamming and bad behavior. There’s also no native checkout option for transactions beyond ad-hoc payment through Messenger, which is annoying but promotes in-person exchanges instead of fraud-laden shipping.

“I think the prevalence of Craigslist shows there’s a great need for a local commerce product” said Marketplace product manager Bowen Pan.

While there’s no Pages allowed on Marketplace right now, Facebook could one day generate ad revenue if it let businesses or people buy News Feed ads or sponsored placement for what they’re selling. Pan tells TechCrunch, “After we’re confident we’ve built out a great product experience for people, we’ll look into introducing businesses if it makes sense, and after that we’ll look at how we could potentially monetize the surface.”

Facebook is betting big on Marketplace, considering its taking over a main spot in the navigation tab bar, replacing the Messenger shortcut in Facebook for iOS. That prime location could make Marketplace the digital version of impulse buys at the checkout counter.

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Amazon bans incentivized reviews tied to free or discounted products

Amazon is making a significant change to its Community Guidelines, announced today, which will eliminate any incentivized reviews, except for those that emerge from within its own Amazon Vine program. This program allows Amazon – not the seller or vendor – to identify trusted reviewers, and has a number of controls in place in order to keep bias out of the review process.

Amazon has historically prohibited compensation for reviews – even going so far as to sue those businesses who pay for fake reviews, as well as the individuals who write them, in an effort to make its review and rating system fairer and more helpful to online shoppers. However, it has allowed businesses to offer products to customers in exchange for their “honest” review.

The only condition was that those reviewers would have to disclose their affiliation with the business in question in the text of their review. Reviewers were generally offered the product for free or at a discounted price, in exchange for their review.

Although, in theory, these reviewers could write their true opinion on the product – positive or negative – these incentivized reviews have tended to be overwhelmingly biased in favor of the product being rated.

This is due to a combination of factors – the fact that the vendor or seller has likely sought out those reviewers who are less critical, and the fact that reviewers may believe they would no longer have the opportunity to receive these sorts of offers, if they chose to say negative things.

In general, shoppers have begun to distrust these reviews because they believe them to be biased. That’s not just a “feeling,” as it turns out – a recent study of over 7 million reviews indicated that the average rating for products with incentivized reviews was higher than non-incentivized ones. (That is, a 4.74 average rating versus a 4.36 average rating, out of 5 

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