Steam For Mac Gets Hacked, Change Your Passwords And Watch Your Statements

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The Steam gaming network has been incredibly popular on the Mac since it made its debut in March of last year, and it enjoys over 35 million subscribers all over the world, offering a huge library of over 1,400 games. It’s not exactly the most popular network amongst gamers today, however, after it confirmed that its database has been hacked, potentially compromising the personal data and credit card information of all its subscribers.

Valve, the company which owns the Steam platform, confirmed the news to PC Gamer and is in the process of sending out an IM to all Steam users informing them of the hack. Here are the details:

Our Steam forums were defaced on the evening of Sunday, November 6. We began investigating and found that the intrusion goes beyond the Steam forums.

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.

As things stand, Valve says there’s been no evidence that Steam accounts have been compromised, or that illegal credit card activity has taken place.  While the database was hacked, they say there is no evidence that the hackers actually took any subscribers’ personal information. The company is still investigating the situation, however.

Valve recommends Steam users change their passwords as soon as possible, which can be done by accessing the Settings menu from within the Steam client on your Mac or PC.

Gabe Newell, Valve’s co-founder and managing director, ended his statement to users with an apology:

I am truly sorry this happened, and I apologize for the inconvenience.

Steam now joins the list of gaming networks that have recently been targeted by hackers looking to steal users’ personal data, which also includes Sony, Codemasters, and Bioware. How long until the Mac App Store gets hit?

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