Steam database hacked, no evidence credit card or personal info taken
Steam's database, which contains users' personal and encrypted credit card information, has been hacked.
Steam's database, which contains users' personal and encrypted credit card information, has been hacked.
Steam is an online gaming platform run by software company Valve that allows users to play games online and buy and download old and new games on various platforms, meaning credit card details are kept on file.
In November 2011, it had a peak of nearly 3.97 million users logged in worldwide.
Founder Gabe Newell sent an email to users and posted on the Steam Forum, reporting that Steam's forums were defaced on November 6. Upon investigation, he said, Valve found Steam's database had been hacked as well.
"This database contained information including user names, hashed and salted passwords, game purchases, email addresses, billing addresses and encrypted credit card information.
Mr Newell said Valve did not have evidence that encrypted credit card numbers or personally identifying information were taken, or that protection on credit card numbers or passwords had been cracked.
"We are still investigating. We don’t have evidence of credit card misuse at this time. Nonetheless you should watch your credit card activity and statements closely."
Mr Newell said while Valve knew of only a few compromised forum accounts, all users would be required to change passwords at next login.
He said he was not aware of any compromised Steam accounts, so Valve would not require passwords for these to be changed.
"However, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to change that as well, especially if it is the same as your Steam forum account password."
He said Valve would reopen forums as soon as it could, and apologised for the hack.
PC World warned users attempting to change login details.that it appeared Steam's servers were overloaded in a tweet.
Alex Walls
Fri, 11 Nov 2011
Fri, 11 Nov 2011
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Steam database hacked, no evidence credit card or personal info taken
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