It seems that Steam has been hacked and our credit card information leaked:

http://www.fastcompany.com/1794209/amazon-buys-siri-like-yap-alaska-airlines-starts-burning-biofuel-walmart-launches-mobile-app


Damn, I really hope we get rid of forced use of systems like Steam.

wow....seriously? wow..

Good thing the credit card info is all encrypted, and if you change your password you should have nothing to worry about.

Another in the ever longer list of hack victims.

I always wonder, when they announce such a hack, whether it was shoddy security or just persistent hackers.

Why then is there a limit to the password length ~that's usually a tip off that its a fixed length field in a database, and not a hash of your password (like it should be).

** Reading Gabe Newell's official response, I see that he does mention them as being 'hashed and salted passwords'. I still don't know why there would be a limit to the user's preferred password length though.

Good thing i never use the steam forums.

Yep. If you ever use a credit card online to buy anything in this day and age, with any company, you are at some risk of this sort of thing happening. Just part of the modern reality. Pro tips for safety when using Steam: always keep the Steam Guard Account Security setting turned on- then nobody but you can change your account password- to do so, an email is sent to you when you start to change it, and you have to use the enclosed security code in order to complete the pwd change. Secondly, to avoid any remote possibility of your credit card number getting accessed and decrypted by hackers, simply choose not to save your credit card account number or info on Steam, when you use it to buy anything on Steam.

With those simple steps, you really have nothing much to worry about from these kind of events. Lastly, if your credit card info ever did get stolen, you do not have to pay for any fraudulent charges made to it by thieves- there are excellent consumer protections on all major credit cards, for your protection. They remain the safest way to purchase anything, online.

Is the forum account the same as the library account? (I thought they were separate).

* Steam is refusing to change my passwords at the moment; (It keeps responding "try again later").

I'm glad I use PayPal, I doubt eBay will be hacked soon, so no one will get my credit cards info... Hopefully.

Times like this I'm glad I've got a 360.

I do not understand your comment. You do not need to input credit card info to use Steam. It is only needed if you buy products directly from the Steam store. It is the same as if you bought games for the 360 from a retail website.

And the more paranoid ones among us pay with a pre-paid card. It's more expensive, but when someone hacks your card info you lose very little.

Remember when Sony got hacked? this could easily happen to Microsoft if someone found a security loophole.

Hypotheticals are still way better than actually being hacked. So I agree, right now it seems alright to be an Xbox user.

This is why I don't play pc. But I'm just getting into it and good think my steams not online yet