A huge hack has led to over $1.6 million worth of skins in Counter Strike: Global Offensive to be stolen from players' accounts.
While it might sound strange to some ears, the virtual weapon wraps for guns and knives in Counter Strike: Global Offensive are auctioned off for astonishing amounts. Something that used to be a simple form of character customisation has since ballooned into a lucrative economy and skins market independent of the game that it sprang from. In actuality, there's nothing that different between a snazzy skin and a brightly coloured sail on a windsurfing board - it's an expression of personality, albeit a very expensive one.
Yet, unfortunately, an unpalatable $1.6 million worth of skins was stolen from the popular skin trading site CSMoney in a historic hack from an unknown group, as per the report from Dexerto. "The CSMONEY website is temporarily down after being targeted by a hacking attack this night," announced the website on 13 August. "We will fix the issue and will do our best to restore the normal functioning of the website. Our support service is ready to answer your questions."
At the time of writing, more than 30 accounts had been identified to be connected to the hack, and the fact that high-profile traders had received these stolen skins was likely to be a distraction. It's also unclear whether or not Valve will assist in uncovering what went wrong as Valve's opinion on third-party skin-trading websites isn't overly favourable. Nevertheless, hopefully the stolen skins will be traced and returned to CSMoney.