Valve has dismissed current reports its Steam platform suffered a “main” knowledge hack, confirming there was “NOT a breach” of Steam methods.
Whereas some customers had been involved about studies that over 89 million consumer data had been compromised, Steam’s personal evaluation decided that whereas there was a leak of “older textual content messages,” these one-time code SMSs didn’t embrace any private knowledge.
In a statement posted to Steam, Valve mentioned that after inspecting the leak pattern, it has decided buyer knowledge has not been compromised, saying: “The leak consisted of older textual content messages that included one-time codes that had been solely legitimate for 15-minute time frames and the cellphone numbers they had been despatched to. The leaked knowledge didn’t affiliate the cellphone numbers with a Steam account, password data, cost data or different private knowledge.”
“Outdated textual content messages can’t be used to breach the safety of your Steam account, and each time a code is used to alter your Steam e mail or password utilizing SMS, you’ll obtain a affirmation through e mail and/or Steam safe messages,” the corporate added.
Valve did, nonetheless, take the chance to remind gamers to arrange the Steam Cell Authenticator to offer 2-factor safety as it’s “the easiest way to ship safe messages about your account and your account’s security.”
Given the prolific rise in knowledge breaches and the truth that over 89 million of us have a Steam account, customers had good motive to be frightened about a doable safety compromise. Essentially the most notorious video game-related knowledge breach occurred in 2011 when PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Moveable networks suffered a extreme outage lasting practically a month, with 77 million accounts compromised as a results of the hack.
And it is not simply buyer knowledge that is in danger. Simply final October, Pokémon developer Recreation Freak suffered a vital hack the place knowledge about its former and present workers was leaked, in addition to its improvement pipeline. One 12 months earlier in 2023, Sony additionally confirmed knowledge of practically 7,000 of its present and former workers had been compromised in two breaches that 12 months, and in December 2023, hackers breached confidential knowledge at Marvel’s Spider-Man developer, Insomniac.
Vikki Blake is a reporter, critic, columnist, and advisor. She’s additionally a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually Excessive Chaos. Discover her at BlueSky.