Steam Users Beware!

On Thursday, November 10th; Valve announced that their Steam forums had been compromised.  In an initial release from Mr. Gabe Newell it was stated that the intrusion "went beyond the forums".  But it is unclear how far beyond the forums this attack managed to go.  Valve is saying that there is no evidence that any personal data or credit card information was harvested or stolen and they are continuing the investigation.

If you have used Steam (or it's forums) you'll know there is a separate login for the forums which requires a separate password.  Of course this is assuming you have theoretically passed "Online Security 101" and are not using the exact same password as you do for your Steam purchases (if so you're billing info could very well be at risk).  One of the first recommendations of online safeguarding is to not use the same password for everything you do online.  Why?  Simple, if that password is compromised it then becomes very easy for the rest of your online dealings to be compromised too.

Valve will be resetting forum passwords and urging user's to update their passwords in general.  In short, this is probably a good rule of thumb for anyone using Steam.  Regardless whether you are actually at risk or not. Here are two things to help:
- Change your password for both Steam Forums and your overall Steam Account.
- Keep watch on whatever method of billing you have setup for Steam purchases to be on the safe side.

I think it is a shame that yet another game service has been compromised.  I'll be the first to admit that it is probably impossible for any service to be 100% bulletproof when it comes to security.  And when it comes right down to it, the fact of the matter is that our online security as customer's lies at fault with ourselves.  Sad but true.  How can customer's hold a particular service to blame for security issues when customer's are using weak passwords, not changing passwords regularly, and flat out putting themselves at risk?

In short, we can't.