Steam Now Mandates Two Factor Authentication If You Want To Trade Items

No matter how secure you are told it is, two factor authentication can always be a bit of a pain. It’s probably the reason you don’t have it on Steam, in spite of it having been made available a while back. However, from now on, you don’t get a choice, at least not if you want to trade items and cards- you either need to have two factor authentication on your account, or you can’t trade. Period.

“Enough money now moves around the system that stealing virtual Steam goods has become a real business for skilled hackers,” Valve wrote, explaining the change. “Practically every active Steam account is now involved in the economy, via items or trading cards, with enough value to be worth a hacker’s time. Essentially all Steam accounts are now targets.”

“What used to be a handful of hackers is now a highly effective, organized network, in the business of stealing and selling items. It would be easier for them to go after the users who don’t understand how to stay secure online, but the prevalence of items make it worthwhile to target everyone,” Valve said, explaining the decision.

“We see around 77,000 accounts hijacked and pillaged each month. Hackers can wait months for a payoff, all the while relentlessly attempting to gain access. It’s a losing battle to protect your items against someone who steals them for a living.

“We can help users who’ve been hacked by restoring their accounts and items, but that doesn’t deter the business of hacking accounts. It’s only getting worse.”

So, basically, from now on, if you want to take part in the Steam economy, you need the Two Factor Authentication app installed on some second device, or you’re barred from making trades.

Also, 77,000 accounts a month, yikes.