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Poker players, who often move large amounts of cash between their bank, e-wallet, and iGaming accounts, are especially at risk and can be ripe targets for scammers looking to make an easy score. Now, a security firm has discovered a new malware threat, one that has the potential to put its victims’ at an insurmountable disadvantage at the tables.

Researchers at the antivirus firm ESET Ireland discovered the malware and dubbed it Odlanor, due to a file of the same name found inside its code. The threat is what is known as a Trojan and targets machines that havethe PokerStarsor Full Tilt software.

Once either of those poker sites are found, Odlanor springs into action, taking regular screenshots of its victim’s computer. The malware’s controllers can then see the screen name of the player they have infected, search the name inside PokerStars or Full Tilt, and join any tables where he may be playing. With their target identified, the malware dutifully snaps pictures of its victims’ hole cards, giving attackers all the info they need.

ESET believe that it’s within the realm of possibility that the whole operation could be carried out with the aid of a bot, with no human interaction needed. Poker bots have become increasingly sophisticated over the years, with some being suspected of eking out a decent win-rate for their owners.

To make sure Odlanor infects specifically poker players, its makers embedded it in legitimate poker software like Poker Office, Poker Calculator Pro, and Tournament Shark. Players who download such software from somewhere other than the official channels have a much higher risk of having their computers infected.

Researchers have found Odlanor on machines in several Eastern European countries. Of all the PCs infected with the Trojan, Russiahad the most with 36%. Next up was Ukrainewith 35%, with Kazakhstan, Belarus, and others making up the final 29% of affected PCs.

The targeting of poker players by hackers is an unfortunate trend in the iGaming world. In 2013, security officials found another such threat dubbed i2Ninja. To empty its victims’ accounts, attackers used methods like phishing to trick their prey into opening emails infected with the malware. Once installed, the Trojan deployed a module called PokerGrabber, which was capable of stealing locally stored user names and passwords for an array of popular poker sites.

With so much money at stake, attackers have gone to extreme measures to infect the PCs of high-stakes poker players. In a bizarre incident at the 2013 EPT Barcelona stop, poker pro Jens “Jeans89” Kyllonen found that his hotel room had been broken into and his laptop stolen. He later found the laptop in the lobby of the hotel, but noticed that it wasn’t working properly. After having the computer checked out by an antivirus firm, he found out that malware had indeed been implanted on his system.

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