Valve: Steam Forums Were Hacked, Change Your Passwords

This weekend hackers defaced the forums of digital gaming store Steam. However, in a letter to Steam users, Valve founder Gabe Newell said that the hacking went beyond vandalism. Some users' information was taken as well.

"We learned that intruders obtained access to a Steam database in addition to the forums," read the letter. "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."

Newell says that they haven't seen any evidence of credit cards being misused. However, he advises gamers to watch their credit card statements closely.

As a precautionary measure, all Steam forum users will have to change their passwords the next time they log in. If you used the same password on other accounts, you ought to change it there as well.

Added Newell: "We do not know of any compromised Steam accounts, so we are not planning to force a change of Steam account passwords (which are separate from forum passwords). However, it wouldn't be a bad idea to change that as well, especially if it is the same as your Steam forum account password."

Valve is currently working to bring the Steam forums back online.