Video Game Retailer Steam Hacked
Credit Card Information May Have Been Stolen
One of the world's biggest online video game platforms and retailers has been hacked. It's possible, though not yet confirmed, that gamer personal information -- including credit card data -- may have been lost in the attack.
According to reports, Valve Corporation's gaming platform Steam was hacked on Sunday. Steam is used by roughly 35 million users from 237 different countries, where they're able to purchase and download games as well as interact with one another through instant messaging. Users can create a distinct profile for themselves and snoop on the activity of their friends in a style very similar to Facebook. For example, I can check to see just how many hours my friend Joe has put into Battlefield 3 this week.
Given Steam's massive appeal and user base, it's no surprise the hack has aroused consternation worldwide. In an effort to calm nerves, Valve founder Gabe Newell emailed users on Thursday to inform them of the attack and what his company is doing to make sure it doesn't happen again.
"This database contained information including user names, hashed and salted passwords, game purchases, email addresses, billing addresses and encrypted credit card information," Newell said.
The good news: there's not yet any evidence that credit card information was actually stolen -- only that the database where that kind of data is stored had been infiltrated. Still, Newell couldn't guarantee anything, and did go so far as to warn Steam users that they will want to watch their credit card account activity in the next little while.
Users were alerted to the attack when strange promotions for a site called Fkn0wned.com began appearing on Steam forums. "Ever wanted to dominate the servers you play on with guaranteed results, but you were too afraid to cheat because of ban risks? Visit Fkn0wned.com," the ads read.
"It's safe, secure and undetected. Along with hacks, we've also got some general discussion sections, hacking tutorials and tools, porn, free giveaways and much more."
While it investigates the hack, Valve has shut down Steam forums and is asking all users to change their account passwords.
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