{"id":7459,"date":"2025-05-15T11:07:23","date_gmt":"2025-05-15T11:07:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.isshicare.com\/?p=7459"},"modified":"2025-05-15T18:23:20","modified_gmt":"2025-05-15T18:23:20","slug":"valve-confirms-steam-data-leak-but-denies-its-a-serious-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.isshicare.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/15\/valve-confirms-steam-data-leak-but-denies-its-a-serious-problem\/","title":{"rendered":"Valve confirms Steam data leak but denies it\u2019s a serious problem"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n\t\t\"Steam\t<\/div>
Valve says there’s nothing to worry about (Valve)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Steam<\/a> users are in a panic about a supposed data breach, but according to Valve<\/a> nothing significant has actually happened.<\/p>\n

Data breaches at big companies<\/a> are hardly a rarity, in the video game world or elsewhere, so when talk of a \u2018massive\u2019 breach at Steam started to appear online it wasn\u2019t necessarily that surprising.<\/p>\n

Warnings spread that customers should immediately change their passwords, phone<\/a> numbers, and payment details, with reports that personal data had been stolen by hackers.<\/p>\n

However, according to Steam owner Valve, the whole story is overblown and only \u2018older text messages\u2019 have been accessed, that are no help in breaking into Steam accounts. As such, they insist that this is \u2018NOT a breach of Steam systems\u2019 and nothing is at risk.<\/p>\n

The rumours of a breach started with a LinkedIn post<\/a> which, for some reason, everyone decided to believe, even though the talk of a \u2018dark web forum\u2019 and the hacker demanding only $5,000 (\u00a33,700) for \u201889 million user records\u2019 sounded extremely made-up.<\/p>\n

Valve\u2019s explanation of the situation is confusingly written but it does seem to confirm that text messages were acquired illegally, even if they\u2019re of no use to anyone.<\/p>\n

The breach was supposedly achieved by getting access to two-factor authentication SMS logs, but as Valve points out those messages are only good for 15 minutes and according to them all the ones that have been leaked are old.<\/p>\n

\u2018We\u2019re still digging into the source of the leak, which is compounded by the fact that any SMS messages are unencrypted in transit and routed through multiple providers on the way to your phone,\u2019 reads the statement on Steam<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2018The leaked data did not associate the phone numbers with a Steam account, password information, payment information or other personal data. Old text messages cannot be used to breach the security of your Steam account, and whenever a code is used to change your Steam email or password using SMS, you will receive a confirmation via email and\/or Steam secure messages.\u2019<\/p>\n

Importantly, they insist that: \u2018You do not need to change your passwords or phone numbers as a result of this event.\u2019<\/p>\n

Given the extreme bad publicity that would result if Valve were found to be underplaying the leak there doesn\u2019t seem any reason not to take their comments at face value, especially given the more absurd elements of the initial LinkedIn post.<\/p>\n

As they point out though, you should always treat any security messages you have not requested as extremely suspicious. They also recommend the Steam Mobile Authenticator app for added security.<\/p>\n

\n
\n\t\t\"Valve\t<\/div>
It sounds like Dr Evil made the ransom demands (Valve)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Email gamecentral@metro.co.uk<\/a>, leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter<\/a>, and sign-up to our newsletter<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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For more stories like this, check our Gaming page<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Valve says there’s nothing to worry about (Valve) Steam users are in a panic about a supposed data breach, but according to Valve nothing significant has actually happened. Data breaches at big companies are hardly a rarity, in the video game world or elsewhere, so when talk of a \u2018massive\u2019 breach at Steam started to appear online it wasn\u2019t necessarily that surprising. Warnings spread that customers should immediately change their passwords, phone numbers, and payment details, with reports that personal … Continue reading “Valve confirms Steam data leak but denies it\u2019s a serious problem”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":506,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.isshicare.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7459"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.isshicare.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.isshicare.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.isshicare.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.isshicare.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7459"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.isshicare.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7463,"href":"http:\/\/www.isshicare.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7459\/revisions\/7463"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.isshicare.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.isshicare.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.isshicare.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.isshicare.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}