Valve: Steam user accounts hacked

[nsane.forums]

Valve CEO Gabe Newell has admitted in an email to Steam's customers that the PC game download site was breached by a cyber attack, including a database that contained encrypted credit card info.

Valve has now admitted that a cyber attack on the Steam message board forums, which first happened late on Sunday but which was first reported on Monday, extended beyond the forums to Steam's user account database. In an IM sent to Steam's users, Valve CEO Gabe Newell stated, "This database contained information including user names, hashed and salted passwords, game purchases, email addresses, billing addresses and encrypted credit card information."

Newell said that at the moment there is no evidence that the credit card numbers were actually taken by the unknown cyber attackers, nor is there any indication that Steam user passwords or their credit card numbers have been cracked by whomever is responsible. He added, "Nonetheless you should watch your credit card activity and statements closely."

Newell said that a few Steam forum accounts have been compromised and that the forums, when they come back online, will require users to put in a new password before accessing them again. There's no word on when the forums will be back up. Newell said that even though there's no suspicious activity that has been discovered with Steam user accounts (which has a separate password system from the Steam forums) he added," .... it wouldn't be a bad idea to change that as well, especially if it is the same as your Steam forum account password."

Newell added at the end of the IM, "I am truly sorry this happened, and I apologize for the inconvenience."

Obviously this is a huge blow to both Valve specifically and to the PC digital game industry in general. Since launching in 2004, Steam has become the number one destination for downloads of PC games and has been credited with saving the industry as a whole. Hopefully this is just a blip for Valve rather that a huge setback for the company.

View: Original Article

[avmad]

Thanks for posting :o

[DKT27]

Valve confirms Steam hack: credit cards, personal info may be stolen

The recent Steam hack may have compromised users' credit card numbers and other personal information, according to a message sent to Steam users from Gabe Newell, head of Valve. The company is certain the hackers gained access to a database with this encrypted information, but don't know if they took it or will be able to crack its encryption.

Earlier this week, the Steam forums were taken offline due to some vandalization by the video game hacks website fkn0wned. A message on the forums noted they were down for maintenance, but it turns they had received uninvited guests ealier after all.

The compromised database held information such as user names, hashed and salted passwords, game purchases, e-mail addresses, billing addresses and encrypted credit card information, according to Newell.

Newell writes that the company does not have evidence that the encrypted credit card numbers or personal info were taken by the intruders, and the company is "still investigating." He goes on to say that there is also no evidence of credit card misuse, but implores Steam users to "watch your credit card activity and statements closely."

The full text of his message:

Dear Steam Users and Steam Forum Users,

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. This database contained information including user names, hashed and salted passwords, game purchases, email addresses, billing addresses and encrypted credit card information. We do not have evidence that encrypted credit card numbers or personally identifying information were taken by the intruders, or that the protection on credit card numbers or passwords was 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.

While we only know of a few forum accounts that have been compromised, all forum users will be required to change their passwords the next time they login. If you have used your Steam forum password on other accounts you should change those passwords as well.

We do not know of any compromised Steam accounts, so we are not planning to force a change of Steam account passwords (which are separate from forum passwords). 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.

We will reopen the forums as soon as we can.

I am truly sorry this happened, and I apologize for the inconvenience.

Gabe.

:view: View: Original Article

[Blud]

And not a single email from them telling their user base about this. Many of us don't use forums nor have accounts there at all. Wrong decision from my (user) point of view :(

[DKT27]

And not a single email from them telling their user base about this. Many of us don't use forums nor have accounts there at all. Wrong decision from my (user) point of view :(

Same here. Have an Steam account but not a forums one. Didn't get any message.

[Shadowx]

holy s**t.. damn hacker.. :angry:

[Hottwire]

No email, however after playing a game yesterday, when I quit and you get the news for games and what not on offer the message appeared there for me.