Valve: Steam Hacked, Better Monitor Your Credit Card Statements

We hate to be the bearer of bad news, especially if you were in the midst of having a fine evening up to this point, but technically, Valve's Gabe Newell is the messenger we're imploring everyone not to shoot. Gabe's a likable guy, it's just that his message to Steam users is nothing short of disconcerting, and potentially infuriating. Straight and to the point, Steam's database was hacked and all your personal information up for grabs, including encrypted credit card details. How's you're evening going now?

Steam's forums were hacked into and defaced over the weekend, and upon further investigation, Valve discovered that the intrusion runs deeper than just forum shenanigans.


"We learned that intruders obtained access to a Steam database in addition to the forums. This database contained information including user names, hashed and salted passwords, game purchases, email addresses, billing addresses and encrypted credit card information. We do not have evidence that encrypted credit card numbers or personally identifying information were taken by the intruders, or that the protection on credit card numbers or passwords was cracked. We are still investigating," Gabe said in an email.

Even though Valve is only aware of "a few forum accounts that have been compromised" and so far has no evidence of any compromised Steam accounts or credit card misuse, Valve says "you should watch your credit card activity and statements clearly." Ugh -- is anyone else reminded of that scene in Step Brothers when Dale Doback screams, "It's bad! It's so bad!"