I’m sure they all had good excuses (they didn’t think they were targets, they felt they were too smart to have their computers compromised, they didn’t have access to a mobile device), but the truth was that they were putting their account at greater risk by not using it.įor this reason, Valve has announced that it is making some changes in an attempt to make it less attractive for hackers to break into Steam accounts: Unfortunately, most Steam users have apparently not taken advantage of this increased level of security. The idea is that even if a hacker knows your password, they won’t know the random regularly-changing code.
At login you have to enter the code alongside your password. Steam Guard Mobile Authenticator is a feature of the Steam mobile app that generates a new random code every 30 seconds. The most obvious step that users should take is to enable two factor authentication on Steam (known, in their case, as Steam Guard Mobile Authenticator). Essentially all Steam accounts are now targets.”Ĭlearly steps need to be taken if anything is to be done to reduce the fraud occurring on Steam. Indeed, according to the firm, practically every active Steam account has “enough value to be worth a hacker’s time. Valve says that “enough money now moves around the system that stealing virtual Steam goods has become a real business for skilled hackers”.
Often this is done by stealing passwords with keylogging malware, or through phishing for login credentials on fake sites.Īnd once a Steam account has been hijacked, it is typically raided for items and games, as well as potentially used to compromise and raid yet more Steam accounts.Īccording to a statement issued by Valve, stolen virtual goods are often sold through a series of compromised accounts before ultimately being sold on to an innocent user. Steam accounts are hijacked when a hacker manages to break into an account without the owner’s permission. Valve, the developers of the Steam online gaming platform, says that its members are facing a serious problem.Īccounts have always been hijacked on the gaming site, by hackers who have stolen passwords, but now the problem is said to have risen twenty-fold, with some 77,000 Steam accounts hacked every month.
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