Steam user database hacked, no evidence of personal info taken

[Suhel]

In a message sent to all Steam users by Valve's Gabe Newell, it was revealed that the vandalizing of the Steam forums, which occurred on November 6, was followed by an intrusion on "a Steam database." The hacked database included usernames, "hashed and salted" passwords, transcripts of game purchases, email and billing addresses, and encrypted credit card info. The message specified that Valve doesn't have any evidence of the intruders taking the credit card numbers or any other "personally identifying information," or that the encryption on said numbers or passwords had been cracked.

The company is investigating the incident, but because a few forum users have been compromised all users must change their passwords during their next forum visit. Steam users aren't forced to change their passwords, but are encouraged to do so, especially if they match their forum passwords. Also, if your bank account, Paypal account, PSN, Xbox Live, email, AIM or, you know, anything, shares your forum password, you should probably change that too -- and then you should probably just move into a log cabin in the woods for a while.

You can read Newell's full message after the break.

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.

http://www.joystiq.com/2011/11/10/va...+%28Joystiq%29

Suhel Reviewed by Suhel on 12th Nov 2011. Steam user database hacked, no evidence of personal info taken http://www.blogcdn.com/www.joystiq.com/media/2011/11/steam117.jpg In a message sent to all Steam users by Valve's Gabe Newell, it was revealed that the vandalizing of the Steam forums, which occurred on November 6, was followed by an intrusion on "a Steam database." The hacked database included usernames, "hashed and salted" passwords, transcripts of game purchases, email and billing addresses, and encrypted credit card info. The message specified that Valve doesn't have any evidence of the Rating: 5

[Loget]

Well, I hope the Fkn0wned team don't post the database publicly or anything, it's pretty much useless and I'd rather people didn't see my emails, game purchases, passwords and god knows what else.

What's with all these big hackings and the stealing of databases, why can't these retards secure their shit! What next? Somebody hacks Facebook and publicly posts the entire database for all to see?

[Hx]

Seems like the owner of that site has no idea about who hacked steam

[aishamontreal]

[...] What's with all these big hackings and the stealing of databases, why can't these retards secure their shit! What next? [...]

lol. Everything can be hacked man, doesn't matter if it is Steam, FBI, NASA or your local Blockbuster Store. Everything can be hacked.

You really think that this vBulletin forum is secure? I bet that there are CIA agents here 24/7 as members and with access to admincp. CIA already confirmed that they invested money in monitoring activities through Facebook, Twitter, Forums and Blogs.

They just don't take down KWWHunction because they don't want to lose potential evidence from illegal activities. This forum is a goldmine and i am 100% sure there are infiltrated agents here.

Sorry Loget, but if you think this site is really secured you have no idea of which planet you live.

[Loget]

lol. Everything can be hacked man, doesn't matter if it is Steam, FBI, NASA or your local Blockbuster Store. Everything can be hacked.

You really think that this vBulletin forum is secure? I bet that there are CIA agents here 24/7 as members and with access to admincp. CIA already confirmed that they invested money in monitoring activities through Facebook, Twitter, Forums and Blogs.

They just don't take down KWWHunction because they don't want to lose potential evidence from illegal activities. This forum is a goldmine and i am 100% sure there are infiltrated agents here.

Sorry Loget, but if you think this site is really secured you have no idea of which planet you live.

We may not be 100% secure, but then again we're not a multi-million dollar company. One would expect businesses like Sony and Valve to invest in security, or at least not get pwned by simple methods like SQL Injection and what not.

You have to understand that most hackers on the internet use very simple techniques, things which could easily be prevented by any competent programmer. LOL at CIA agents on KWWHunction.

[Mindy]

lol. Everything can be hacked man, doesn't matter if it is Steam, FBI, NASA or your local Blockbuster Store. Everything can be hacked.

You really think that this vBulletin forum is secure? I bet that there are CIA agents here 24/7 as members and with access to admincp. CIA already confirmed that they invested money in monitoring activities through Facebook, Twitter, Forums and Blogs.

They just don't take down KWWHunction because they don't want to lose potential evidence from illegal activities. This forum is a goldmine and i am 100% sure there are infiltrated agents here.

Sorry Loget, but if you think this site is really secured you have no idea of which planet you live.

LOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLl

infiltrated?? lol - thats hysterical. Just typing something on this forum doesn't make it truth. IF the FBI (not CIA) wanted to take action, they wouldn't use data from here. They'd get it directly from the sites, ad companies, ISP, etc...

[infernohuman]

You got me, I'm CIA agent incognito

[aishamontreal]

Well, I had friends that experienced it in real -- members of here. Keep laughing how much you wish, that's all.

@http://threatpost.com/en_us/blogs/cia-open-source-center-monitors-analyzes-social-web-110411