The popular sandbox game 'People Playground' on Steam has been hit by a malicious mod that unauthorizedly deletes user data. In response, the developer has temporarily suspended the Workshop features and is working to resolve the situation by distributing security patches.

The malicious code first appeared on January 30 and spread rapidly by climbing to the top of the Workshop's popularity rankings. The developers of People Playground stated that this mod has the characteristic of replacing all other legitimate mods in the user's library with itself to expand the scope of infection. Consequently, all Workshop features for the game have been fully blocked, and the developer is discussing measures to prevent recurrence with Steam.

Affected users are experiencing the deletion of their contraption folders, which store custom in-game creations, as well as save data and achievement records. The developer warned that while the virus does not physically destroy PC hardware, it is systematically destroying hundreds of hours of user-created content and in-game data. Many users are currently facing the loss of data they worked hard to create.

For security, users should perform a game file integrity check and manually delete the mod folder and specific Workshop content folders within the local directory. In particular, it is necessary to unsubscribe from all mods uploaded or updated after January 30. Although the developer has released a security patch to prevent further infections, they plan to keep the Workshop closed until its safety is fully verified.

Security incidents via the Steam Workshop have occurred in the past with games like Cities: Skylines and Slay the Spire. Since mods that directly modify program code are inherently vulnerable to security risks, there is a growing call for Valve to implement fundamental platform-level security enhancements, such as introducing features that allow for individual control over mod updates.