Valve Confirms Steam Forums Security Breach: Encrypted Credit Card Details And All User Information Stolen

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Last Sunday the Steam forums were hacked by attackers and Valve has quickly shut them down in order to prevent further damage. After a closer look at what happened to its servers, Valve has noticed that the hackers are now in possession of all the encrypted information of Steam Forums users as well as an extra database which contained the credit card information of the users. The good thing is that all details were encrypted, but it wouldn’t hurt to change your Steam Forums password and to monitor your credit card activity.

Gabe Newell has posted a statement on the Steam Forums which are currently down. At the moment it’s unknown when the website is going to be back live as the company still needs to fix the issues that allowed the hackers to access the servers.

The database that the hackers hacked into consisted of usernames, email addresses, billing addresses, encrypted credit card details, encrypted passwords, and your Steam purchases history. Basically, the attackers now have all your personal information, but the good thing is that the details were encrypted. Or at least this is what Gabe Newell says.

Valve will not force you to change your Steam or Steam Forums passwords. They are different, but if you used the same password for both accounts, then you should change your Steam password right away. We expect Valve to force all Steam Forums users to change their passwords when the aforementioned forums will go back live.

Mr. Newell really wants you to check your credit card activity and if you notice something unusual like money being spent on something you didn’t buy, then report it to the authorities as soon as possible. He said that at the moment there are no indications that the hackers have manage to break into the encrypted details but this could happen so be alert.

The Valve co-founder said that he is very sorry that this happened and for the inconveniences this breach has created to you.

I guess we can expect the Steam Forums to come back online in the following days. The good thing is that Steam itself hasn’t been affected and you can play games, buy other games, check for future releases, pre-order games, and do whatever you normally do on the digital distribution platform.

Many servers and databases of gaming-related companies have been hacked this year as it seems like these guys have declared war on these firms. Even though everybody blamed other companies, we don’t expect the public outcry reach the same levels in Steam’s case like it did in Sony’s case because it’s cool to love Steam and cool to have Sony. The bad thing is that some of the breached gaming companies kept the details unencrypted so Valve might get away with this.