Security News > 2021 > May > Gamers beware! Crooks take advantage of MSI download outage…
Well-known computer gaming hardware vendor MSI is warning of fake download sites ripping off its brand.
We verified the outage by visiting the download page: the button is still there, but it doesn't do anything.
MSI is informing the public of a malicious software being disguised as the official MSI Afterburner software.
The other bad news is that MSI hasn't yet put a warning on the download page itself, which is what we would have done: we'd have replaced the dud-and-dysfunctional download button with a warning not to go hunting on third-party websites for alternative sources of the donwload. Impetuous users might go searching elsewhere even in the face of a clear explanation of the situation, but well-informed users almost certainly wouldn't.
Even if you're not a software pirate who's explicitly looking for an "Unofficial" download of software that isn't free, it's tempting to go "Off market" when the vendor's own website isn't working.
While we're here: if you find yourself in MSI's position, with a download site that's offline, please don't leave a broken download button behind on your download page and publish a warning somehere else.