Ok, so if you have any previous knowledge of Minecraft, you may know that a few years back, it was rife with issues. If you have zero clue what Minecraft is, I will try to explain it simply.
Minecraft is pretty much a digital version of Lego that took all graphical advances from the last twenty years and laughed in their face. Despite it looking a little mental, this game has always had a huge following and in the last few years, there has been an abundance of mods and third party skins become available.
Now, while Minecraft may be an incredibly popular game with the younger folk, there are a few that have realised that the young ones downloading this game may not be computer savvy, and they have found a horrid way to exploit that.
In this post, we are going to take a look at the return of the Minecraft virus, and what you should do to keep your computer safe.
What is the Minecraft Virus?
According to sources, over the last two years, there have been nearly 127,000 Minecraft accounts infected with malware that could potentially reformat hard-drives and delete both backup data and system programs.
The Powershell script originally identified by Avast experts is apparently smuggled onto unsuspecting gamers’ computers via Minecraft skins. The script is created in the same PNG file format used for Minecraft skins, making it hard to identify potentially malicious Minecraft skins on the surface.
Avast had admitted that the malicious code is quite unimpressive, and can be found on sites that provide instructions on creating viruses with Windows Notepad. The simplicity suggests that it’s not backed by professional cybercriminals, though the skins are hosted on the official Minecraft domain.
A Microsoft spokesperson has since said that the company “has addressed this issue and put additional measures in place to protect our community” and that players should “report any suspicious activity to
The simple truth is that the virus is simply there to target the young and unsuspecting.
Didn’t This Virus Go Away Once?
If you try to keep up to date with all things tech, you will probably remember this also being an issue a few years ago. Well, while you may have thought this had gone away, it hasn’t and while most forms of the Malware are quite unsophisticated, there are a few really nasty versions that will really cause some issues.
So, let’s take a look at these more sophisticated versions of the malware. While rare, it seems a few thousand households over the last few months have fallen victim to a far more sophisticated version of this malware that is a firmware variant, or in some cases has hit an “in the wild” boot sector.
What does this mean? Well, when you try to reinstall Windows, you won’t get very far at all. In all honesty, there are many that will tell you that all hope is lost. The truth is, while the malware will have wiped your hard drive, removed all of your data, and infected your boot sectors and possibly firmware too, it’s nothing that a good IT company won’t be able to deal with.
If you have found yourself in a situation like this, please get in touch before you head out and start buying expensive replacements.
How Can You Avoid This Issue To Start With?
The only thing I would suggest is this, if you have a young one that plays anything like Minecraft or even Roblox, you need a reliable antivirus. While there are many to choose from, here at PC Support Midlands, we recommend Malwarebytes. Having something like this installed can really help give you peace of mind.
To conclude this post, I want to answer a question that we get asked quite a lot, and that is “Do I need antivirus software?”
To answer this, I simply say this, if you own a car, you insure it right? You may not have an accident, but statistically, 77% of all UK drivers have had some form of accident. How about if we told you that without some form of protection, it’s not a matter of “if” you get a virus, it’s simply a matter of when and what you will lose when it happens.
So ask yourself? is it really worth not having protection?