Valve confirms 77,000 Steam accounts are hijacked every month

Valve confirms 77,000 Steam accounts are hijacked every month
According to Valve, 77,000 Steam accounts are hijacked every month, and the company is trying to fight back.

The company says when they launched Steam Trading, the accounts began getting stolen at 20 times the rate they previously were, and while Valve protected the victims there were plenty of pitfalls for the full trading economy, especially as it diluted the value of rare items.

"What used to be a handful of hackers is now a highly effective, organized network, in the business of stealing and selling items. It would be easier for them to go after the users who don't understand how to stay secure online, but the prevalence of items make it worthwhile to target everyone. We see around 77,000 accounts hijacked and pillaged each month. These are not new or naïve users; these are professional CS:GO players, reddit contributors, item traders, etc. Users can be targeted randomly as part of a larger group or even individually. Hackers can wait months for a payoff, all the while relentlessly attempting to gain access. It's a losing battle to protect your items against someone who steals them for a living,"
says Valve in an open letter to users.



To counteract the hackers, Valve says it has "worked to improve account security features, closed loopholes, improved how and when we message users that their account is at risk, added self-locking, and created the Steam Guard Mobile Authenticator (two-factor authentication)," and it is imploring users to sign up for the Steam Guard Mobile Authenticator as soon as possible to protect their accounts.

Source:
Steam


Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 11 Dec 2015 20:29
Tags
security Valve Valve Steam
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  • 1 comment
  • hearme0

    I'm an avid Steam user but these "items" are lame and meant for the young chillen as yet another means to preoccupy their time via Steam, even when not playing any games.

    It's totally bunk! There is no true initial value to these items. I don't see the hacking likely bec I don't deal in said "items" at all.

    My wife's brother made a 100 bucks somehow by selling some knife skin to someone else that really wanted it for some alien reason. I still don't get the fascination.

    Now, I'm 42 but shit......really......?? Value in nothing is the theme to THIS young generation. Like Bitcoin too.......value in nothing! I guess that's capitalism at it's finest.

    13.12.2015 13:54 #1

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