Malware wears its poker face
Online poker games have become big money earners, and where there's money there's rich pickings for malware writers.
Online poker games have become global success stories. People with a passion for the game can sign up with Poker Stars or with Full Tilt Poker and play online games, from the comfort of your armchair, betting real money, against people from all parts of the world. The stakes in these games vary from the pennies per bet on tables for beginners, up to high stakes against people for whom playing poker is their living, their job for eight hours a day. You use your credit card to top up your account with the gaming company, and you can't bet more, or lose more, than you have put into your account. The computers do the shuffling and dealing meaning there is no possibility of playing with a fixed deck. So what could possibly go wrong?
Unfortunately, malware writers have realised this could be another revenue stream. A nasty piece of code called Odlanor has been discovered which uses all the usual channels to get itself installed on as many machines as possible. However, once installed, it then does nothing at all unless it detects that the victim is using one of the major gaming portals. At that point it starts taking screen shots of the player's screen which shows his cards, and sends this info to the hacker. The hacker can then quickly search out that player's table in the gaming room, join the game, and rob the victim of real money in a one-sided game.
Security firm ESET believes there are several hundred machines infected with Odlanor. Some poker players say this threat has been blown out of proportion given that there are around 2.3 million online players, whilst others are saying it is just the tip of the iceberg, and that any number of data loggers and back door hacks are used to gain an advantage in the online poker stakes. And one tech-savvy player suggested that you could use a modified version of Odlanor to hack the hackers. By feeding back a fake screen shot when you had a massively strong hand, you could mislead them into thinking you were trying an outrageous bluff and trick them into calling a huge bet.
Whether or not Odlanor is a serious threat or just press hype, the underlying message is the same. Keep your machines secure, use a firewall and an antivirus package, don't open attachments in spam, and if you are playing poker, don't put in more money than you can afford to lose.
30th September 2015
This article comes from the SKILLZONE email newsletter, published monthly since January 2008, and covering topics related to technology and the internet. All articles and artwork in the SKILLZONE newsletter are orignal content.