Tag Archives: Gaming

Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Discord Users Be Careful Of Malware And Information Theft

Do you use the Discord chat service?

If so, be advised that malware developers have been using the service to not only host various types of malware, but also to use it as a command and control server.

In addition, they are abusing the chat client to force it to perform a variety of malicious behavior.

Unfortunately, this is not a new problem.  Anyone familiar with the chat service knows that it has a long history of being abused.  Although designed primarily as a chat service, Discord also allows its members to use a chat channel where other users can download them.

Users can even right click on a hosted file to get a sharable download link. This is, in practice, one of the ways that hackers are abusing the system.  Of significance, these sharable links work even for non-Discord users, which gives malicious actors a convenient place to stash harmful files to be spread far and wide via email campaigns.

Even more interesting is the fact that the uploader can delete the file inside Discord itself, but the URL can still be used to download it.  This means that although the chat service gives the outward appearance of deleting the file, it still exists on the server. That gives malware developers an incredibly convenient, completely anonymous method of hosting their files.

In addition to that, Discord contains a feature called ‘Webhooks’ that allow third-party applications or websites to send messages to a Discord channel.  When a user creases a Webhook, the server owner will be given a special URL that is used with the Discord API to send messages to a specified channel.  In this case though, if a user has been previously infected by a hacker’s malware, this service can be used to exfil collected data directly to the attacker.

All this to say, if you use Discord, beware.  To say that the chat service has problems is an understatement.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Zynga Games Has Data Breach Including Personal Information

Zynga is a wildly successful gaming company with a number of hit titles under their belt including FarmVille, Words with Friends, Zynga Poker, Mafia Wars, and Café World.

Their titles boast more than a billion players, worldwide, which is a number that would make most gaming outfits green with envy.

Naturally, their success has painted a giant target on the company. Recently, a Pakistani hacker going by the alias Gnosticplayers has claimed that he successfully breached Words With Friends and made off with a massive database containing information on more than 218 million users.

It doesn’t appear to be an idle boast.  Recently Zynga acknowledged that they had been breached and that a variety of data was stolen from certain players of Draw Something and Words With Friends.

For his part, Gnosticplayers has been quite forthcoming, even providing The Hacker News with a sample of the stolen data, which includes:

  • Player name
  • Email address
  • Login ID
  • Hashed password
  • Password reset token (if present)
  • Facebook ID (if connected)
  • User Zynga account ID

He also boasted that he made off with data belonging to some 7 million Draw Something users, and in this case, revealed that the data he stole contained plain text passwords.

Zynga issued a statement which reads, in part, as follows:

“An investigation was immediately commenced, leading third-party forensics firms were retained to assist and we have contacted law enforcement. As a precaution, we have taken steps to protect these users’ accounts from invalid logins.  We plan to notify players as the investigation proceeds further.”

If you play either Words With Friends or Draw Something, you should change your password immediately and be on the lookout for phishing scams aimed at you in a bid to try and extract even more information from you.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Google Is Searching For Unauthorized Gambling Apps On Play Store

Google heavily regulates gambling and gaming apps on its Play Store.  It’s not hard to understand why.  The industry has a long history of gouging and otherwise abusing the people who play their games, to say nothing of the flouting of local laws. In response to the company’s heavy-handed regulation of their industry, some app developers have taken to disguising the nature of their apps.

On the surface, these stealth gaming apps appear to have other, more mundane functions, but of course once you actually install them, their true natures become readily apparent. Researchers found one app that was described as a hub for holiday information but once installed, its only function was to redirect users to a lottery system.

Unfortunately, it’s a strategy that pays from the standpoint of the developers.  Some of the apps discovered to be little more than shells were spotted in Top 100 lists. Many had been rated more than a hundred thousand times, which gives a sense of the scope and scale of the problem.

Google has taken note of the trend and has begun ruthlessly removing any apps that employ this kind of strategy, with Apple taking a similar stance.  Unfortunately, about the best the two tech giants can do is clean up the mess after the fact, because many of the app developers making use of this redirect strategy have gotten quite cunning about it. They are deploying an app that appears perfectly normal and then flipping a virtual switch to activate its redirect features once it has been inspected by Google and Apple, respectively.  That, of course, makes it virtually impossible to spot on the front end.

The best thing you can do to prevent downloading such an app is to carefully read and heed the user reviews.  It’s certainly not a perfect solution, but it’s better than nothing.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Nvidia Releases Graphics Drivers With Major Improvements

There’s great news today in the tech realm for gamers around the world.

Nvidia recently announced a major driver update for its graphics cards that offer a variety of improvements.  The 436.02 update promises a framerate improvement of up to 23 percent for World War Z, Strange Brigade, Forza Horizon 4, Battlefield V, and Apex Legends.

The new update also includes a Freestyle sharpening filter, and an ultra-low latency mode. That is the big draw, and it’s designed specifically with highly competitive games in mind.  It can reduce latency by up to 33 percent and will work on DirectX 9 and DirectX 11 titles. Unfortunately, Vulkan and DirectX 12 games won’t see any benefit.

If you’re a fan of pixel art games like TFL or Terarria, you’ll be pleased to know that the most recent update includes GPU integer scaling, which will allow you to scale up retro games like these without blurriness.

In addition to these changes, Nvidia is also expanding its G-Sync compatibility list to include Asus’ VG27A and Acer’s CP3271 / XB273 GP monitors.  The 30-bit color feature previously only found in Nvidia’s Studio drivers is also included in this latest update.

This is great news for gamers, obviously.  In addition, the new capabilities will also be of interest at the Enterprise level, depending on what business you’re in.  If your company publishes games, then naturally it will be easy for you to take advantage of the new capabilities and push your titles into new frontiers.  Animation studios will also find some benefit, but honestly, just about any graphically intense application will see at least a marginal benefit from the driver update. This makes it well worth grabbing at your earliest opportunity.

Kudos to Nvidia for such an expansive update.  Gamers, rejoice!

 

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Microsoft Now Testing Games Playable With Eye Movements

Microsoft is continuing to push quietly into new frontiers on the accessibility front.  Their most recent effort?  The release of four free “Eyes First” games that people who have speech and mobility-related disabilities can play using nothing but eye movements. The new quartet of Windows 10 games, Maze, Double Up, Match Two, and a Tile Slide puzzle were all developed by Microsoft Research.

All four games make heavy use of Windows 10 eye-tracking APIs that were introduced into the OS as a part of Windows 10 version 1803, which in turn, built on the “Eye Control” accessibility feature that was introduced in version 1709.

The company sees it as a perfect win-win scenario.  People with the aforementioned disabilities get four fun games they can play. The company gets the opportunity to study, assess, and improve the technologies to  open the door to new eye tracking technologies in the future. It’s also a good proof of concept that Microsoft hopes will drive developer interest in creating new games that make use of the APIs.  In fact, the company is counting on it and has even created a Gaze Interaction Library on their site.

If you’re interested in testing the technology out for yourself, the first thing you’ll need is a compatible eye tracker.  Once you’ve got one, you’ll need to enable the “Eye Control” feature under the “Ease of Access” section of your system’s settings. From there, it’s a simple matter of downloading and installing the games you want to play and getting to it!  Of course, while all four games were designed with eye tracking in mind, it’s also possible to play them via mouse or touchscreen controls.

It’s an exciting new technology being put to fun, playful use for testing.  Kudos to Microsoft!

 

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