14 DAY TRIAL // Hearthstone players looking to have a leg up on their competition might get more than they've bargained for if they buy and install game cheating or game enhancing software, Symantec reports.
For the uninitiated, Hearthstone is a free card game based on the World of Warcraft lore, extremely popular, especially on mobile devices. The game relies on two things: gold and dust.
Players can gain gold by playing games and quests, or by buying gold with real money. On the other hand, they can collect dust by playing games and destroying their opponent's cards. If you want to be a pro at Hearthstone, you'll have to find a way to get more gold and dust.
Hearthstone cheats deliver Bitcoin malware
This notion is exactly what some clever developers leveraged when they created the Hearthstone Hack Tool, an app that promises to provide unlimited gold and dust.
But besides not delivering on its promise and only defrauding users of the few dollars it takes to buy the tool, the developers of this cheating application are also making an extra buck by bundling their app with malware.
According to Symantec, the Hearthstone Hack Tool has often infected its buyers with Trojan.Coinbitclip, a trojan that helps cyber-crooks commit Bitcoin fraud.
This sneaky malware does two simple things. It watches the user's clipboard, and whenever a Bitcoin address is detected, it searches its own database of 10,000 addresses and replaces the original with one that looks alike. This way, the trojan hijacks transactions and sends Bitcoin to the crook's wallet addresses instead.
Deck trackers deliver spyware
But this is not the only threat. Symantec also reports on malware infecting unofficial Hearthstone add-ons used for deck tracking. One such example is an add-on called Hearthstone Deck Tracker(.exe), which comes bundled with Backdoor.Breut.
If the name sounds familiar, it is because Backdoor.Breut is a powerful piece of spyware that was used in the past to steal financial information and corporate secrets from companies in India, the US, and the UK.
Backdoor.Breut installs a backdoor on all infected devices and logs keystrokes, steals login passwords, and records webcam feeds.
Even though Blizzard, Hearthstone's maker, doesn't consider deck trackers to be cheating tools, users should avoid them altogether.
And there's also the problem with Hearthstone bots, which help users automate the game while away or sleeping. Even if Symantec didn't detect any malware in any Hearthstone bots, the company says that users should stay away from these game cheating applications as well, since they provide a perfect medium for inserting malware on their PCs and smartphones.
