Steam forum and database hacked

Valve co-founder Gabe Newell has confirmed that not only were the Steam forums ‘defaced’ but that ‘the intrusion goes beyond the Steam forums.’ Newell released an IM to the Steam forum users to alert them to the risks, and Valve is responsibly requiring people to re-set their Steam forum account password.

‘We learned that intruders obtained access to a Steam database in addition to the forums,’ added Newell, ‘This database contained information including user names, hashed and salted passwords, game purchases, email addresses, billing addresses and encrypted credit card information.’

However, ‘we don't have evidence of credit card misuse at this time. Nonetheless you should watch your credit card activity and statements closely.’

As well as requiring Steam forum users to re-set their passwords, Valve is also advising that if you use the same password for other sites, you should change those too.

While there’s no knowledge of Steam accounts (which are separate from Steam forum accounts) being compromised, ‘it wouldn't be a bad idea to change that as well, especially if it is the same as your Steam forum account password.’

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