Terrible news everyone: Valve head honcho Gabe Newell has confirmed that the Steam database and forums have been hacked into. The intruders gained data to personal info, including credit card data. It’s not quite clear yet whether or not they stole any such data, but it is entirely possible that they have.
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.
Newell and company are looking further into the matter as I type this, but they are not yet ready to rule out anything. “We don’t have evidence of credit card misuse at this time,” he continued. “Nonetheless you should watch your credit card activity and statements closely.”
In addition to the (possibly) compromised credit card information, forum-goer information is also at risk. The forums have been closed for now, and a forced password reset will be taking place. As is always the case when this stuff happens, it is being advised that users keep an eye on their bank statements and swap out any site passwords that are the same as on Steam.
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.
[Source: IGN]
[Image via Wirebot.]
