Online Poker Sites Hit With Malware

There are few things for certain in life, as the saying goes. But nearly guaranteed is that if you play online poker, you will run across some cheaters and there is likely malware lurking somewhere on many advertisements. A new type of malware was found being used targeting the sites PokerStars and Full Tilt poker and the same malicious adware that hit Yahoo! earlier this year.

The best advice is to be certain that a link or ad you want to click is safe, no matter what sites you are visiting. While it is not always possible to know definitively, there are a few precautionary measures to keep in mind.

• Ensure anti-malware is installed on all computers and devices that are connected to the Internet and that it is kept updated.

• When installing new software, make sure you are not also installing unwanted extras such as new toolbars. Instead of choosing the default options, choose the custom option and uncheck those extras (often referred to as PUAs or potentially unwanted applications). Often, they are the malware delivery mechanism and this was likely how it landed on the poker players’ systems, according to ESET.

• When downloading apps of any type, get them from the official app stores for the particular device being used. Extra checks occur for malware before they are allowed to be placed into those stores that do not occur when they are placed in unofficial locations.

• Hover over ads and links with the mouse pointer to make sure they are going where you expect them to go. For example, if you get a link that claims to be going to your bank, yet when you hover over it, it comes up as something that is complete nonsense like “djiovls.kl.cn,” then it likely is not a good link.

• Use caution when clicking on ads on any site. Sometimes malware is hidden in ads (malvertising), such as is the case with Yahoo!. In this case, the malware directed users to a fraudulent page. This occurred after it determined the browser being used was Microsoft Internet Explorer and identified that the security settings would allow it to execute.

• Because malware often installs ransomware, it’s a best practice to do regular backups of your important files to a location separate from your computer. Then they can be restored without much fuss, should it be necessary.

The online poker malware allows the perpetrator to join the same table as the victim.  He or she then takes screenshots of an infected players cards. This virus is identified as Win32/spy.odlanor. It is downloaded often when a user is attempting to retrieve something legitimate and useful from a website that is not an official location for the product.  In this case, it was included in poker-related tools such as databases and calculators.

The ads on Yahoo! have been removed, however consider installing an ad-blocking program as well. This prevents ads from showing up on any site and therefore may prevent accidental clicks on potentially unsafe ones. So, go ahead and cash in those virtual poker chips. Just be sure to “play your belly.”