Steam Service gets hacked, but no one is at risk – Gabe Newell

Steam had it’s own hacker problem that was announced to it’s users yesterday. We had heard from Steam that their forums were hacked last week, but until yesterday we had no word from them that any other information compromised. Gabe Newell sent a message to all Steam users saying that he’s sorry for the hack, and that even though some information had been taken, there is no information or notification that anyone’s accounts are at risk, but it’s probably a good idea to change your passwords anyway. Forum accounts, a separate system had all their information taken though, so there is a mandatory password reset there, it’s all outlined in his message to the users.

Everyone applauds Steam for being upfront about this.

What are people saying about this?

A lot of people thought that it would be impossible for Steam to get hacked, and many people were surprised, especially because the service is so loved. The really interesting thing is the difference between this and the Sony hack. The outrage for the Sony attack was enormous, and there were many people predicting doom for Sony’s service from as soon as the problems began. But if you look at the severity of the attacks, the Steam ones are even more damaging, with an estimated 30 million credit cards on the service (though I stress that there is NO information that information was de-crypted and or usable by the hackers), but that’s an extra 20 million more credit cards than are on PSN, and even the wait between the attack and the notification to the public is the same time at six days. The only real difference is that Sony’s service was taken down to protect users, and Steam’s hasn’t been, but for some reason I don’t think we’ll see Gabe Newell have to visit Washington to explain himself like the CEO’s of Sony Computer Entertainment had to when Sony’s system was hacked.

How can we stay mad at you?

Should we be upset with Steam?

Really, it’s hard to hold a grudge for this problem, especially considering it’s happened to everyone lately. The hackers are the people who should be blamed, not that Steam should ensure it’s users that it will take actions to improve security. The more we know about how the service got hacked the easier it will be to form an opinion, the biggest reason why people were upset with Sony is because it was leaked one of their servers was using old server software, even though it’s tough to say whether that directly led to the hack. Honestly though, I feel bad for what Sony had to go through when they were hacked in comparison to what Steam is getting right now. I think probably people understand that just about every service has it’s weaknesses, and that nothing is sacred to asshole hackers.

As a beloved user of the Steam service, I hope that we get more info soon and more promises of better safety!

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