“Games these days are really, really large, often over 100 gigabytes. So you really want the victim to believe they're actually downloading Grand Theft Auto until the moment that they get you.”
CyberWire Daily · Software Engineering & Infra · November 2026
Context
Dave Bittner asked why fake GTA 6 download files were made over 100 gigabytes. Matt Poto, a researcher who analyzed the malware, explains that the huge size is deliberate camouflage, because real modern games are that big.
Transcript
As far as I'm aware, they are all scams or malware.
Gotcha. Now, some of these ISO files were more than 100 gigabytes. Why go to the trouble of making a malicious download look that large?
Well, games these days are really, really large, often over 100 gigabytes. So, you know, you really want the victim to believe they're actually downloading Grand Theft Auto until the moment that they get you.
Well, walk us through what happens when someone mounts one of these volumes and they run the installer.
Yeah, so what I had found when I had found an example was the installer claimed it was GTA 6. It said it had, this one I specifically found had Russian language on it. And it said the GTA 6 installer, it's an unreleased game. And that if you receive an error that says license not found, to email…
Wow. Well, where to begin, right? Let's start with the remote access Trojans. What was installed and what are they capable of doing?
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