Fortnite Users Infected With Virus

Cutting corners sometimes costs you greatly especially in the gaming world. While normally players simply suffer a suspension or disabled account, Fortnite players suffered a lot after downloading a virus-riddled v-bucks app as they sought a looked for a leg up.

According to recent reports, tens of thousands of Fortnite users suffered from a virus infestation after downloading a v-bucks app that promised to generate the fortnite currency as well as aimbots “that would give players “an unfair advantage in firefights” (IGN.com). However, players were sorely disappointed when they underwent an attack that invaded their computers and altered webpage requests to add in tags for an ad service called Adtelligent.

The Game streaming service Rainway was the first to detail the reports in a blog post on July 3. They filed an abuse report with the file hosting service for the app; the service waisted no time removing the file, preventing the app from more Fortnite players to suffer. The app recorded 78,000 downloads, according Rainway. However, Rainway quickly sent out an alert to all infected cliental about the breach and has since increased security to prevent future attacks.

The game streaming service began its investigations after receiving hundreds of thousands of error reports on June 26. The platform normally runs on as ad-free service and knew it suffered a breach when it received 381,000 attempted calls to ad platforms. Rainway later connected the platform to Fortnite players.

Rainway CEO Andrew Sampson discouraged users in the blog post from downloading unrecognized apps and to be cautious of things that seem “too good to be true.” He went onto call Epic Games to action and help prevent future attacks.

"Epic could do a better job at educating their users on these malicious programs,” Sampson explained, “and helping them understand how airtight Fortnites systems are at preventing cheating. I’d also recommend they spend more time moderating YouTube to help take down these videos to avert a countless number of people from pwning themselves. Sometimes the allure of cheating is powerful, and a strong presence is needed to help push people in the right direction."