Cryptocurrency Mining Scam Disguised as Indie Game Pulled from Steam

Valve, the parent company of popular gaming marketplace Steam, redacted a nefarious indie game that allegedly deployed cryptocurrency mining malware on user computers under the guise of an interactive application.

Abstractism was released on March 15, 2018, by game developer Okalo Union and publisher "Dead.team." Despite the scientific name, the game itself is a simple interface in which players move blocks around a 2D space with ambient music in the background.

The company described their game as a "Trivial platformer," considering only the "Game Over" prompt to be a unique feature for players.

The release itself contained several red flags to dissuade users before getting "Crypto jacked." For one, developers asked gamers to leave the software running even while not playing the game, promising digital collectibles in return.

While the game operated for over four months, YouTuber SidAlpha released a video on July 29, 2018, explaining the Abstractism scam.

As stated, SidAlpha learned about the game after a fan revealed his ordeal.

SidAlpha quickly discovered other gamers calling out suspicious operational aspects of the game, such as triggered Windows Defender software, circumvented antivirus software, and most importantly, extremely high RAM usage for a game with simple functionality.

On further investigation, the gamers found out the source of all red flags was an embedded mining malware operation.

The gaming behemoth did not comment on the game's alleged mining code or reveal any cryptocurrency-related content.

Since the rise of illicit cryptocurrency mining, hackers are increasingly finding new tactics to avoid getting caught, with games seemingly becoming a new veil for attackers.