Hackers Use Infected “Sims 3” on Torrents

It’s been known for a while now that many hackers started abusing remote administration tools (RAT) to obtain access to the computers of ordinary Internet users. In this case, the aim of using a RAT is to get control over the computers with webcams, which allow the intruders to spy on their targets. Those are usually referred to as “slaves”.

It’s up to the hacker what to do when they gain control of someone else’s computer. Some of them enjoy merely watching, while others search through files in hope to find compromising footage or images. Some of the hackers can steal personal data, including Steam accounts, while others like to mess with the target “slaves”. This can be done in many ways – they can show porn to the users, hide their start menu, or control their hardware. In the meantime, targets of interest are usually women, since most of the hackers are male.

One of the hackers wrote on a forum that he seemed to get a lot of female slaves by spreading The Sims 3 with a [RAT] server on torrent websites. As you know, The Sims is a franchise which features a high female userbase. As such, it is no surprise that hackers use a torrent of the latest Sims game to get more women “slaves”, but this is just one of the ways he mentioned to acquire more targets.

Although it might seem crazy to think that there might be someone out there watching you through your webcam, you can find lots of videos of such incidents on YouTube, alongside with thousands of other videos demonstrating RAT controllers (or “ratters”, as they are usually referred to) taunting, pranking, or toying with their victims. However, the kinds of people who watch others through their webcams usually won’t limit themselves to mere hijinks – as computers now store and webcams record more intimate content...

Today, RAT tools are not new at all: for instance, the hacker collective named Cult of the Dead Cow has released an early one called BackOrifice at the Defcon hacker convention 15 years ago. The lead developer, who went by the alias Sir Dystic, called BackOrifice an instrument meant for “remote tech support aid and employee monitoring and administering”. However, the Cult of the Dead Cow press release revealed that BackOrifice was actually meant to expose “Microsoft’s Swiss cheese approach to security”. If you compare BackOrifice to the modern tools, it appears primitive, but still able to handle the basics. It could log keystrokes, restart the target computer, transfer files between the machines, and snap screenshots of the target PC.

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