It's going to be a bad day for PC gamers today, as we just received word from Valve that Steam's database has been compromised.
On November 6th, Valve discovered an intrusion into their Steam forums, but a further investigation revealed that the Steam user database too was compromised.
Information ranging from user names, passwords, e-mails, billing addresses and even encrypted credit card information has possibly been obtained by the hackers or thieves in the apparent attack.
The e-mail from Valve boss Gabe Newell reads as follows:
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.
There's no evidence that the hackers have managed to crack the secure passwords and credit card information, all of which was encrypted by Valve. However, it's not being ruled out given the proficiency and deftness of the attack.
Readers, please remember to change your passwords to your e-mail address, PayPal and bank accounts, and keep a close eye on your credit card statements. If possible, you should call up your bank and confirm your recent charges.
