Valve have just informed us that Steam’s database has been compromised.
An IM is being sent out to all Steam users. Here are the details straight from Gabe:
“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.â€
Valve are “still investigating†the situation. They mention that there’s been no evidence of illegal credit card activity as yet, and that it’s probably a good idea to change both your Steam passwords. To do that, access Settings from the Steam menu within the client.
Newell signs off his IM with sincerity: “I am truly sorry this happened, and I apologize for the inconvenience.â€
Steam joins a long list of high profile targets who have recently been targeted by Hackers. Sony, Codemasters and Bioware have all taken the hit. Valve recently announced Steam Guard, designed to increase account security; Gabe even gave out his password to show off its true power. That makes us extra sad.
Click through for the IM in full.
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.
