Steam Hack More Severe Than Thought: Change Your Password NOW

[qubit]

uh oh, i just seen all this about steam and realised that i cant even log into my steam account. If I try to execute steam it comes up with

"Unable to connect to the steam network. 'Offline Mode' is unavailable because there is no Steam login information stored on this computer. You will not be able to use steam until you are able to connect to the Steam network again"

what should I do?

Try it again. I just had a go and it worked fine. Now, I'm in the UK and I know that you can change the servers it contacts within the client settings. Can you do that without it authenticating?

If not, I reckon just trying every so often will eventually let you in.

 

[Enmity]

thanks man, tried again and still the same message. Will keep trying. Cheers

 

[Rammkopf]

Just the reason why I'm no fan of the cloud. Still trusting all those fat@$$ services that claim they're widely public and insanely safe in the same time?

I've always been asking myself, who needs that friggin' Steam and all other on-line services of the likes, anyway? :shadedshu

Just take our money for the game, give us a decent server for on-line play (should we feel like it) that only requires a user ID and a password to log into and quit squeezing credit card info and such from your customers, ffs. Geez!

 

[Shihab]

Funny, I didn't get the message when I ran Steam.
BTW, Wouldn't Steam Guard be more than enough for protection ? Unless you're E-mail is also compromised.

 

[qubit]

Funny, I didn't get the message when I ran Steam.
BTW, Wouldn't Steam Guard be more than enough for protection ? Unless you're E-mail is also compromised.

No man, they got the root database. :shadedshu

 

[Millennium]

changed my password just in case. If lots of steam accounts start getting hacked that would be pretty bad news for steam, they've been great so far. Except maybe the client is bloatware now but thats another story (and my PC can cope )

 

[shb-]

Funny, I didn't get the message when I ran Steam.
BTW, Wouldn't Steam Guard be more than enough for protection ? Unless you're E-mail is also compromised.

I think it is enough to keep those hackers out of your steam account, unless u use same pwd for email too. So there is no real reason to change password (again - if u dont use it elsewhere). Other reason not to change pwd is that they were hashed and salted. I guess if your password is complex enough, no one will unsalt/unhash it.

Real problem is that they got some credit card data, IMO.

updated:
looks like credit card data was encrypted with aes256 (according to some comments @ toms), so no worries i guess.

 

[n-ster]

I used the same password for my TPU forum and some other forums lol. But I don't feel like changing so many passwords

 

[Ahhzz]

Thx Q, I don't use the steam forums, but changed my main one just in case.

 

[John Doe]

I doubt they got anything at all... Steam forums are hacked by fkn0wned, who used to make CS:S hacks. This hack, IMO, isn't what it's hyped up to be. They probably only hacked the VBulletin and not much else. Steam is way more complicated than hacking a forum. It's not something a kid can break, even the debugger of Steam requires specific knowledge. There's virtually not a single program that can mess with Steam; say, brute force it. And there never have been one. It's like trying to hack Winamp. These guys simply aren't capable of doing such act.

That said, Gabe also mentions to change your Steam pass "just in case". So yeah.

 

[qubit]

I doubt they got anything at all... Steam forums are hacked by fkn0wned, who used to make CS:S hacks. This hack, IMO, isn't what it's hyped up to be. They probably only hacked the VBulletin and not much else. Steam is way more complicated than hacking a forum. It's not something a kid can break, even the debugger of Steam requires specific knowledge. There's virtually not a single program that can mess with Steam; say, brute force it. And there never have been one. It's like trying to hack Winamp. These guys simply aren't capable of doing such act.

That said, Gabe also mentions to change your Steam pass "just in case". So yeah.

I'm sure you're right about the overall complexity/security of Steam. I'll bet Valve end up ditching vB and creating their own forum software that's more secure.

It might be a bit expensive and time consuming, but a company that operates 100% online could go out of business if they were seen as having poor security, so I reckon this is a possibility.

 

[ShiBDiB]

Why is it that TPU, just like all the gaming wannabe news websites, are turning a hacking of the steam forum (not linked to ur steam account) into a hacking of steams secure servers..

All steam said to do is what you as a non retarded consumer should be doing anyway, watching your statements to make sure your not getting double charged, over charged, etc....

Sorry if I sound like an ass, but all this uppity make news out of nothing more then a Game Hack Website putting their ad into suddenly this being a full blown end of your credit score attack is retarded.


Your god damn topic title breaks forum rules as FUD.. Nowhere have I seen them doing anything besides covering their ass and doing what anyone whos had a forum hack done and resetting forum passwords. If they honestly had any hint that your accounts on a completely different presumably much better defended server had been compromised they would have also reset your steam account passwords.

 

[qubit]

You god damn topic title breaks forum rules as FUD..

It's more than that, it's a news title. Does that make it better?

 

[ShiBDiB]

I apologize I just worked all night so I'm grouchier then usual, but this entire thing is being blown completely out of proportion... And theirs no reason to get the less common sense empowered users all worried that their CC's are gonna have charges for random flat screen tv's and horse porn on them if they dont change their passwords.

 

[John Doe]

I'm sure you're right about the overall complexity/security of Steam. I'll bet Valve end up ditching vB and creating their own forum software that's more secure.

It might be a bit expensive and time consuming, but a company that operates 100% online could go out of business if they were seen as having poor security, so I reckon this is a possibility.

They don't have "poor security" at all. The system (Steam) has yet to be hacked in years. It's like a Media player, it doesn't get affected by traditional hacking methods. The only thing that's hacked here is SPUF, which is a pathetic forum. I stopped reading there a few years ago. Trolling/insults are galore, mods (volunteer) are chosen from users who praised VALVe the most against their update screw ups, people get banned left and right. People from VALVe don't care or even read it at all.

So basically, the forum is a representive of itself. It's not related to Steam at all. They're probably making fuss with the hopes of some guy that can't login to open a new account then buy the games again. lol.

 

[qubit]

I apologize I just worked all night so I'm grouchier then usual, but this entire thing is being blown completely out of proportion... And theirs no reason to get the less common sense empowered users all worried that their CC's are gonna have charges for random flat screen tv's and horse porn on them if they dont change their passwords.

Ya, no problem, I know all about feeling ratty!

Thing is, I wouldn't feel too cozy that everything is all right. Think of the security breaches one sees with companies (not just gaming companies) who offer bland assurances that their customer's details are ok and then it turns out that the sh*t has hit the fan. Fact is, we just don't know yet and may never know, so it's a reasonable precaution to change our passwords.

 

[n-ster]

We learned that intruders obtained access to a Steam database in addition to the forums

So is it only the Steam forums or more? I'm confused

 

[qubit]

So is it only the Steam forums or more? I'm confused

They got to the databases, we don't know what they got out of them, which is crucial. If it's meaningless highly encrypted data, then we're probably safe. Or if no data was extracted at all.

 

[n-ster]

They got to the databases, we don't know what they got out of them, which is crucial. If it's meaningless highly encrypted data, then we're probably safe. Or if no data was extracted at all.

K so it isn't blown out of proportion IMO... There IS a REAL chance that we could have had our passwords hacked etc etc

 

[ShiBDiB]

K so it isn't blown out of proportion IMO... There IS a REAL chance that we could have had our passwords hacked etc etc

They would have reset your steam account passwords and issued more of a warning, the game industry learned from sony what to do in such a situation and steam isnt doing anything.. So I'm not worried.

 

[n-ster]

The chances are low that they got anything... but I ain't leaving my steam account, passwords and if I had one on the account CC info in the hands of chance. It takes a few minutes to make sure everything is safe

 

[John Doe]

The chances are low that they got anything... but I ain't leaving my steam account, passwords and if I had one on the account CC info in the hands of chance. It takes a few minutes to make sure everything is safe

Trust me, they didn't get anything. It's fkn0wned, a bunch of kids who write off CS:S hooks. I highly doubt some lamer kid can hack Steam DB.

Even if they did hack, your account is one out of millions. What's the chance of a few kids messing with yours out of millions? I personally am not concerned about this. And not going to change mine. They're hyping this for people to make new accounts.

 

[digibucc]

i'm sure you're absolutely right john - but honestly it's a good idea to change passwords once every few years anyway, and i've had the same one forever.

also, while the chances may be small - my account is worth over $4k USD, i am not risking that to a friggin password, i'll change it thanks

 

[Ahhzz]

.... They're hyping this for people to make new accounts.

I'm curious... for what reason would they want people to make new accounts?

 

[n-ster]

I'm curious... for what reason would they want people to make new accounts?

He'll respond with something like stats or publicity

But WHO would make new accounts? noone... Who in the world would abandon their Steam account for this and not just change their password etc?