77,000 Steam Accounts Are Hijacked Each And Every Month According To Valve
If you’re anything like me then account security isn’t something that crosses your mind all that often with Steam. It’s easy to take the approach that nothing has happened to you yet, so nothing will. As it turns out, this is anything but the case. Valve has estimated somewhere in the region of 77,000 accounts are hijacked and taken control of each and every month. The number has increased a staggering 2000% since Steam Trading was introduced.
Once your account has been hacked, the person responsible can in theory change your password and email address, assuming total control of your Steam account and any payment methods and items within, blocking access to your entire games library. With most of us now having a Steam library numbering in the hundreds, along with stores of items and trading cards, the potential loss of an account can be a huge deal. I think if that happened to me I’d just curl up in a ball and sob.
The figures come courtesy of a new blog post from Valve, which details the new two-factor authentication system Valve has implemented on steam. The Steam Guard Mobile Authenticator app should help prevent users from having their accounts hijacked, the only problem being you’ve got to supply Valve with your mobile phone number. In theory this should stop hackers, who would also need access to your phone.
It’s easy to dismiss those who have had their accounts hacked as naive, but Valve has said these are “professional CS:GO players, reddit contributors, item traders, etc” with long-standing accounts. Persistent and effective hackers will almost always find a way. This is made even easier by the fact the vast majority of Steam users have yet to protect their Steam accounts with two-step authentication.
It all comes after Valve recently introduced trade holds, whereby items are held for a number of days until the transfer goes through. If you want to sell a hat now, you have to wait three days until the transaction goes through. This is intended to give users whose accounts have been stolen more time to notice some has gone awry and attempt to gain access. Adding two-step authentication will shorten the hold time for Steam Trading.
As usual it’s a case of the few ruining things for the many, forcing us to up our security and adding an additional layer of encumbrance to using Steam. Do you have two-step authentication? Do you think your Steam account is sufficiently protect? Or have you had an account hijacked? Let us know below!
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