FBI unexpectedly investigates malware hidden inside several Steam games.

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is investigating a hacker suspected of distributing several video games containing malware onto Steam.

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is investigating a hacker suspected of distributing several video games containing malware onto Steam – a hugely popular game retailer among gamers, the agency said Friday.

In its notice seeking potential victims of the virus, the FBI listed the following games suspected of being developed by the same cybercrime gang over the past two years, hosted on the Steam store but embedded with some accompanying malware: BlockBlasters, Chemia, Dashverse/DashFPS, Lampy, Lunara, PirateFi, and Tokenova.

This isn't the first time hackers have been able to spread malware on Valve's platform. Last year, hackers released several games on Steam containing malware – these games were still functional, albeit crudely. In fact, their goal was to act as a Trojan virus, tricking players into installing malware on their computers.

According to a report from BleepingComputer, at least 261 Steam accounts were hacked, resulting in the theft of approximately $150,000 worth of cryptocurrency. Among them, streamer Raivo Plavnieks (RastalandTV) lost over $32,000 while live-streaming a fundraising event.

Steam immediately removed these games, but many gamers were infected with viruses and spyware during that time. Although games containing malware are rare on Steam, this incident shows that the risk still exists and users need to carefully check the source of software before installing it.