Odlanor Spyware Allows Hackers to See Other Players Hands

The poker community is alarmed by the recent discovery of a new spyware called Odianor.

The Daily Mail was among the first to report on it a few days ago.

Their description:

The spyware is called Win32/Spy.Odlanor and like other computer trojans, it can be unwittingly installed on a computer if the user downloads infected apps or software online. Once installed, the Odlanor malware is used to create screenshots of the windows on popular poker sites being used by the victim

According to Eset LiveGrid telemetry, the largest number of detections comes from Eastern European countries and several of the victims were located in the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary (pictured). However, the researchers said the trojan poses a potential threat to any player of online poker.

For its part, the poker sector is playing down Odianor.

FlushDraw, which covers the world of Internet poker, suggests we should all calm down over Odianor.

No, the poker sites don’t have to do anything about Odlanor beyond doing their best to ferret out the cheaters, which they do already (I’m not saying they always catch them, as that is difficult, but the poker sites do try). A pop-up message or an alert in the lobby to educate players? That might not be a bad idea. But they don’t have to make radical changes to their software or policies. Dr. Rubin’s idea is novel and interesting and is certainly worth a look, but I don’t think it’s something that we all desperately need.

Malware, Odlanor or otherwise, once again, is bad. No doubt about that. But it hasn’t swept through the poker world yet and if we all just download software responsibly, everything will be just fine. We’re not about to witness global thermonuclear war. But if you’re still scared and feel like the only winning move is not to play, how about a nice game of chess?

- Ace King, Gambling911.com