Digital Distributor STEAM Hacked

By Matt Mann / November 11, 2011

Gabe Newellannounced today that earlier in the week STEAM forums were disrupted. Further investigation lead to the discovery that the STEAM database had become the victim of hackers. Here is Newell's statement:

"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."

It isn't known at this time how much data was taken or if that data has been accessed by the hackers. So at this time it is unknown if credit card data is at risk but it is better to lean on the side of caution. That is why forum users will be forced to change their password the next time they log in, it is also recommend you change any other accounts that use that same password. One last quote from Newell:

"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."

If you do have an account with STEAM like I do, you may want to keep an eye on your credit card statements to be on the safe side. If there is new information on the hack we will try to update you as soon as possible.