Summary
While scammers and other ne’er-do-wells leaning into the allure of playing GTA 6 as part of their efforts to spread malware isn’t anything new - cybersecurity companies have been issuing warnings about it for months - there appears to have been an uptick in such behaviour following the latest GTA 6 leak. With speculation rampant as to what exactly the hackers known as Cyberleek may have access to, now is not the time to be downloading any files claiming to be GTA 6. Users on ResetEra and VPN service NordVPN, the latter of whom obviously have a vested interest in convincing people to think about taking more action to secure their PCs and browsing, claim to have observed an uptick in download links to alleged GTA 6 builds on piracy and torrenting sites. These new links are alleged to be trying to pass themselves off as being from Cyberleek, as a means to try and trick people into downloading malware that’s slightly less obvious than just declaring ‘omg, here’s random early access to GTA 6’ as many seemed to have been doing to this point. Because misinformation just piles atop misinformation nowadays, it also appears one of the alleged dodgy GTA 6 leaked build listings being circulated on social media could just be a faked screenshot. You probably don’t need to be told this, but it’d be very stupid to try and download an alleged version of GTA 6 from some rando on the internet. I’m writing that anyway because, as the game’s console launch on November 19th looms with no news yet of a PC launch, this sort of thing is likely only going to become more widespread in the coming months. Not necessarily a problem for the fairly tech-savvy, as I’d assume the typical reader of a gaming site to be, but possibly more of a risk to kids and older folks who might be asked by such kids for a copy of GTA 6. So, it’s maybe worth bearing in mind and warning any relatives or friends you reckon might be at risk of dodgy GTA 6 downloads next time you see them. After all, once the game’s out on consoles, it could get a bit tougher to tell the legit from the bogus for those not keeping up with news of which platforms the game’s available on. The next official look at GTA 6 is set to premiere on Netflix on August 27th, hitting YouTube a few hours later. Meanwhile, next month will see 34 former Rockstar devs’ legal battle against the studio over their firings last year reach its final trial. Read this next
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