Now there’s a new security process
There’s a real problem concerning Steam account security. For years, hackers have targeted Steam users to gain unauthorized access to their accounts and clear out their inventory of items. It’s a familiar story, but it’s an ever-growing one, too.
In a new post about security and trading, Valve reveals that the issue has gotten so bad that approximately 77,000 accounts are compromised each month. The trading system is mostly to blame, so Valve’s employing security protocols to tighten up the ship.
As of today, Valve has three new measures for users who don’t want to use two-step authentication. As described by Valve, they are:
- Anyone losing items in a trade will need to have a Steam Guard Mobile Authenticator enabled on their account for at least seven days and have trade confirmations turned on. Otherwise, items will be held by Steam for up to three days before delivery.
- If you’ve been friends for at least one year, items will be held by Steam for up to one day before delivery.
- Accounts with a Mobile Authenticator enabled for at least seven days are no longer restricted from trading or using the Market when using a new device since trades on the new device will be protected by the Mobile Authenticator.
The even easier answer would be to mandate two-step authentication from everyone. That’s not a road Valve wants to go down, though. The company says that it thought about it (and doing away with trading altogether), but it wants to do everything it can to keep from putting steps between the users and their desired results. So, these three new measures are the compromise for people who are most at-risk because they won’t protect themselves.
Security and Trading [Steam]
