Were you to have downloaded a specific torrent file of the new game, Watch Dogs, you might find you were getting more than you bargained for, as it contains a Bitcoin miner to use your system resources for the gain of others.
The app installs itself, then uses the name winlogin.exe to run, which is similar to a standard Windows process called winlogon.exe. The malware uses around 25 per cent of your system resources and is mining Bitcoins for the industrious person who decided to plonk it in a torrent for one of the year’s most anticipated games.
Users who downloaded and installed the release claiming to be from well-known group “skidrow” have reported various problems. Some are seeing bluescreens, some are just seeing the slowdown you’d expect from a process using 25 per cent of available systems resources. No one has reported that this release actually works though.
There’s really not much of a surprise here, if you download torrents you have to expect that there’s a chance a malicious user might have done something naughty to it. If you think you might be infected with this Bitcoin miner, then a virus scanner should help you find out for sure. One user of the imageboard 4Chan reports that the malicious file is stored in c:usersusernameAppDataRoamingOaPja. You’ll see two files, winlogin.exe and the miner itself, called ltc.exe.
Watch Dogs is out tomorrow for download and costs about £40.
Read more: Watch Dogs hands-on review
Via: SlashGear
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
