ModGuard: Mod Malware Protection – A New Creation by TwistedMexi

With the recent malware attacks on The Sims 4‘s modding community, a tool like ModGuard: Mod Malware Protection might keep your computer safe!

If you’ve been following along in the world of The Sims 4 custom content recently, you may have learned about several attacks made on the community by way of mods. Someone has been posing as—and hacking into the accounts of—other well-known CC creators and uploading their mods with malware files. A variety of veteran modding sites including CurseForge (the official mod hub of the game), The Sims Resource, ModTheSims, and LoversLab have been affected and a range of mods have been used as the carrier, so at this moment it’s hard to be fully confident in downloading CC from pretty much anywhere.

While there are several things you can do to help protect yourself, such as not downloading brand-new CC that has come out recently and only following mod links on established and trusted channels, when it comes to bad-faith behavior by internet villains the more protections you have the better.

TwistedMexi Saves The Day

I have praised modder TwistedMexi many a time here on SnootySims as they have created some of the best mods for The Sims 4, including T.O.O.L. TwistedMexi has taken it upon themselves to build a new mod that will help protect players and make it easier to keep on top of new malware attack attempts as they happen. It’s called ModGuard: Mod Malware Protection.

Downloading, Installing, & Using ModGuard

You can safely download this mod from Patreon or follow the links on X or TwistedMexi.com. It’s also available on CurseForge (worth noting, that CurseForge has beefed up its moderation policies in the wake of the malware attacks) if that’s your preferred platform.

Installing the mod is as easy as opening the .zip file and placing the contents into your Mods folder. Per TwistedMexi, do not use any .zip extracting programs to do this, just open it directly. Modguard works by blocking common virus paths and if it detects a dangerous mod, it will not only alert the player but also send a report back to the Modguard team so it can be reported and removed as quickly as possible.

I downloaded & tested this mod personally but didn’t receive any notifications, so it seems that the mod runs completely in the background and only gives you an alert if something is found. So other than updating it as needed, it’s an unobtrusive mod and there’s no reason not to use it if you download custom content.

Staying Safe

While we can trust that TwistedMexi will keep Modguard updated as frequently as needed, you must understand that this is still early and the attack attempts are still happening. Modguard should not be considered 100% malware-proof and it’s ultimately the responsibility of each player to protect their game and their computer. If you must download & use mods at this time your safest bet is to combine multiple forms of protection, such as using Modguard (and keeping it updated), following general safe downloading practices, and using the malware remover tool made by Curseforge that we mentioned here.

In Conclusion

Most of The Sims 4 community is great and full of awesome, welcoming, and caring people. Someone has taken issue with that and targeted us for devious intent, but the community won’t take it lying down! With smart downloading habits and protective programs like ModGuard, using custom content can still be a mostly safe activity to further enhance your gaming experience. Please stay vigilant out there!

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