Valve: 77,000 Steam Accounts Hijacked Each Month

Last month in a bid to cut down on scams, Valve introduced a waiting period for gamers who wanted to trade items with each idea. The reason behind this is because hackers who steal Steam accounts try to get rid of the inventory as fast as possible before the account is returned to the owner.

So by introducing a waiting period, it might discourage hackers and give players more time to recover their account. However not everyone was thrilled by the waiting period, so much so that Valve has since posted on Steam the reason why they instituted the wait period, and one of the shocking reasons is because of how many Steam accounts are hijacked on a monthly basis.

According to Valve, it seems that every month they see an average of 77,000 Steam accounts hacked. “We see around 77,000 accounts hijacked and pillaged each month. These are not new or naïve users; these are professional CS:GO players, reddit contributors, item traders, etc. Users can be targeted randomly as part of a larger group or even individually.”

Granted there are methods like two-factor authentication, but at the same time Valve knows there are users out there who don’t really care about it. “So what if instead of trying to prevent hackers from being able to steal a Steam account that hasn’t enabled two-factor authentication, we tried removing their ability to profit from the theft. If hackers couldn’t move the stolen goods off the hacked account, then they couldn’t sell them for real money, and that would remove the primary incentive to steal the account.”

However at the end of the day, the onus is on you to protect your own account, and such methods like the waiting period is merely Valve trying to give you a hand.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Gaming
Tags: Hacking, Security, Steam (Valve), Valve