DayZ, the mod about the undead that has given new life to Arma II, is a testament to the potential gains one can make by opening up their games to modders. For many, it is quite simply the zombie survival game that they have always wanted to play, and it has quickly become one of the most successful mods of all time.
Unfortunately, such positive attention inevitably leads to unwanted attention, and now a malicious security breach has turned the servers into a potential botnet.
An official announcement states:
“A person has gained access to our main email account which have details listed for our FTP’s, etc. He then uploaded a malicious application to the US file host which has since been taken offline. The file was called dayz_auto_updater.exe. This malicious software is lead to be a backdoor / bot.”
The person responsible for the breach has been identified, banned from the game and legal action is being pursued against him. However, users who downloaded this file from the US Mirror are advised to scan their computer for viruses and change their forum account passwords.
Whilst you can be a bandit within the game, the game itself was unfortunately ill-prepared for one in real life.
We will keep you updated on DayZ as and when more information arises.
Source: Kotaku