Steam Hacked, Loses Credit Card Info

Millions of credit card users may be at risk as Valve's games-on-demand service, Steam, was hacked, possibly accessing users' encrypted information.

The info included users' names, hashed and salted passwords, previous game purchases, email addresses, billing addressees 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, Gabe Newell, chief executive of Valve, said in a letter to Steam users.

Even though hackers got the information, they probably won't be able to do much harm without decrypting the data. It doesn't seem like user's bank accounts are under any actual threat, other than by the new Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim game that just released. But regardless Newell said gamers should watch your credit card activity and statements closely. Also gamers won't be forced to change their passwords, but it wouldn't be a bad idea, according to Newell.

This incident is reminiscent of Sony's databases being hacked, which forced the PlayStation Network to be shut down for about three weeks in April and May when the company lost info on more than 70 million users.