Steam Hacked? Don’t Panic, Here’s What You Should Do Immediately To Protect Your Account

Posted By | On 11th, Nov. 2011

So, unfortunately Steam forums got hacked. When you log in to Steam you receive a message from Gabe Newell that explains just what happened. He said, “Our Steam forums were defaced on the evening of Sunday, November 6. We began investigating and found that the intrusion goes beyond the Steam forums.

We learned that intruders obtained access to a Steam database in addition to the forums.”

Now, since the database is compromised, this can potentially mean bad things for you, your account and your financial position, i .e. if you had a Credit Card tied to your account, which no doubt many of you must have done.  But don’t panic!

Here’s what Valve did to secure your accounts.

1) All of your information was encrypted.

2) The passwords were hashed and saled, which means… nothing actually. They can be figured out easily.

3) Valve doesn’t know what exactly was compromised.

4) Credit Card Misuse may be possible.

5) They have your game history, email addresses and your billing addresses! (Although it’s encrypted).

So, what should you do now?

  • Have you disabled Steam Guard? Yes, I know those e-mails from Steam Guard is annoying, but if you have disabled it, go back and enable it immediately. Like NOW!
  • Change your password – The most obvious one. Put in some strong password in this format  – numbers, letters, special characters, numbers. Yes, and write it down; no time to be lazy now.
  • Go to Settings – Steam Guard – Click on deauthorize all computers now.
  • Delete your billing details. Some thing tells me most of you have done this already.
  • Check your Credit Card Statement online for any unauthorized transaction and tell your bank to approve every transaction only after your approval.
  • If you aren’t satisfied with that, tell them to issue another Credit Card. This process might be slightly expensive but worth it!
  • Remember social engineering is the worst thing that can happen to you, so take care of those Facebook or whatever profiles you own or change the password for them as well.

I feel sorry for Valve, and all the Steam users. Having 200 + games and my Credit Card details on Steam, this is like a terrible news for me as well.

But I’m not panicking and you shouldn’t as well. Nowadays, banks are quite fast in protecting your money, so don’t worry.

PS: It’s time to reveal Half Life 3, Gabe.


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