Information Might Have Been Stolen From Valve Hack Back In November

Back in early November, Valve's database was hacked into. Originally everything was fine and not out of the ordinary, but today Gabe Newell is saying that there might be a problem.

In a statement to Steam users, Gabe Newell states that backup files with information on Steam transactions between 2004 and 2008 might have been stolen from the hack. These files includes user names, e-mail addresses, encrypted billing addresses and ecrypted credit card information, but not Steam passwords.

Here is the full statement below:

Dear Steam Users and Steam Forum Users

We continue our investigation of last year's intrusion with the help of outside security experts. In my last note about this, I described how intruders had accessed our Steam database but we found no evidence that the intruders took information from that database. That is still the case.

Recently we learned that it is probable that the intruders obtained a copy of a backup file with information about Steam transactions between 2004 and 2008. This backup file contained user names, email addresses, encrypted billing addresses and encrypted credit card information. It did not include Steam passwords.

We do not have any evidence that the encrypted credit card numbers or billing addresses have been compromised. However as I said in November it's a good idea to watch your credit card activity and statements. And of course keeping Steam Guard on is a good idea as well.

We are still investigating and working with law enforcement authorities. Some state laws require a more formal notice of this incident so some of you will get that notice, but we wanted to update everyone with this new information now.

Gabe

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Steam Back Up And Running

After a few does of the Steam User Forums being down due to a hacker attacking the forums and Steam Database, Valve has finally up and running.

I've heard from a few of my friends that we're are getting Portal 2 and Dota 2 as a compensation for the forums being down; that happening is highly and most likely untrue, there is no reason for Valve to give us free games just because they were hacked into and to the people who got a supposed e-mail from Valve stating free games will be given out, remember, e-mails were stolen so it most likely is fake.

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Steam Database Got Hacked

This last Sunday, it was reported that the Steam User Forums were hacked into, with a further investigation though it was found out that not only were the forums hacked, but the whole Steam database was.

It was found out today that personal information such as names, e-mails and encrypted credit card information might have been stolen from the database. Even though there have been no credit card misuse, Valve still advises to keep an eye on your credit card activity as a precaution.

Gabe Newell has this to say about the instrusion:

"Dear Steam Users and Steam Forum Users,

Our Steam forums were defaced on the evening of Sunday, November 6. We began investigating and found that the intrusion goes beyond the Steam forums.

We learned that intruders obtained access to a Steam database in addition to the forums. This database contained information including user names, hashed and salted passwords, game purchases, email addresses, billing addresses 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.

We don't have evidence of credit card misuse at this time. Nonetheless you should watch your credit card activity and statements closely.

While we only know of a few forum accounts that have been compromised, all forum users will be required to change their passwords the next time they login. If you have used your Steam forum password on other accounts you should change those passwords as well.

We do not know of any compromised Steam accounts, so we are not planning to force a change of Steam account passwords (which are separate from forum passwords). However, it wouldn't be a bad idea to change that as well, especially if it is the same as your Steam forum account password.

We will reopen the forums as soon as we can.

I am truly sorry this happened, and I apologize for the inconvenience.

Gabe."

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Steam User Forums Hacked

It seems like the Steam Forums had an attack last night by an unknown assailant that seems to be framing Fkn0wned.com, a hacking website.

The text, "Ever wanted to dominate the servers you play on with guaranteed results, but you were too afraid to cheat because of ban risks? Visit removed domain It's safe, secure and undetected. Along with hacks, we've also got some general discussion sections, hacking tutorials and tools, porn, free giveaways and much more. This site has been conditioned to meet all your needs in terms of resources so be sure to take a look and tell us what you think. Thanks again, the fkn0wned team" appeared on the front page of the forums with a link below it that redirected to Fkn0wned.com.

Fkn0wned is denying that they were the ones responsible for the attack, they even have this to say on their site, "Fkn0wned Forum is currently unavailable In lights of someone crediting us for the recent breaches of steam forums, the board is offline. Fkn0wned is not responsible."

Shortly after the attack, Valve took down the forums to fix the damage that was done.

It would be a good time to change your password, especially if you use the same password for multiple accounts.

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Bethesda Encourages Password Change After A Security Breach

The people at Bethesda were nice enough to send out e-mails to its forums users of a security breach of their forum user database that happened Friday morning. The e-mail states:

"Dear Bethesda Forum User,

We have identified a potential breach of our forum user database that occurred Friday morning, Aug 12. We have reset your forum password as a precaution, in the event that any encrypted forum user passwords were compromised.

When you next try to login to the forums, your old password will not work. Click the "I've forgotten my password link" underneath the login boxes, and follow the steps to setup a new password for your account.

We recommend you do not use your old password or a password you have used for other sites. Further, if your old forum password was used for any other online purposes, we recommend changing the password on those accounts as well.

If you have any concerns, visit the following link:
http://www.bethsoft.com/eng/contact_email.php"

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PSN Back In Action

Everyone can finally join in hands and sing a merry tune, for Sony has been able to bring up the PSN and their services. We got an announcement (besides parts of Asia and Japan) saying:

"The first phase of restored services for these countries and regions will include:

• Sign-in for PlayStation®Network and Qriocity services, including the resetting of passwords
• Restoration of online game-play across PS3 and PSP
• Playback rental video content, if within rental period, of PlayStation Network Video Delivery Service on PS3, PSP and MediaGo
• Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity, for current subscribers, on PS3 and PC
• Access to 3rd party services such as Netflix, Hulu, Vudu and MLB.tv
•  'Friends' category on PS3, including Friends List, Chat Functionality, Trophy Comparison, etc
• PlayStation Home"

Along with another announcement about their new security:

"The company has made considerable enhancements to the data security, including updating and adding advanced security technologies, additional software monitoring and penetration and vulnerability testing, and increased levels of encryption and additional firewalls.  The company also added a variety of other measures to the network infrastructure including an early-warning system for unusual activity patterns that could signal an attempt to compromise the network."

After a near month of PSN being down, it is finally back up. Now let's hope this new security doesn't get attacked.

In other PSN related news though, it is rumored that the attack on Sony was through a rented Amazon server. Not much is said about it, but there is an investigation going on at the moment.

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Another Attack For Sony?

It is rumored that a third attack will take place this weekend against Sony's website, which can lead to more stolen credit card information and/or regular information. This rumor comes from Erica Ogg, a CNET writer. Even if this is a rumor, Sony should not take it light heatedly, and I hope they are ready for this blow. If you want to find out more,visit Erica Ogg's article on CNET about it.

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Sony Hacked...Again

Sony has been hacked once again, but it was not their PSN, this time it was Sony Online Entertainment. SOE includes DC Universe, EverQuest, and Star Wars Galaxies along with various Facebook games. They people over at SOE has stated:

"Dear valued SOE Customers,
We have had to take the SOE service down temporarily. In the course of our investigation into the intrusion into our systems we have discovered an issue that warrants enough concern for us to take the service down effective immediately. We will provide an update later today (Monday)."

With this attack, another 12,700 credit card numbers have been stolen, but non of them belong to U.S. citizens. 24.6 million users' information was stolen though. If you want more information, you can read more here.

Sony is getting smacked around hard, they better up their security to prevent any more attacks on them.

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PSN Update

There has been a few tidbits of news about the PSN yesterday and this morning. First, it seems like the whole PSN debacle has caught the attention of Homeland Security, they are now carrying out an investigation. Spokesman, Chris Ortman has stated:

"The Department of Homeland Security is aware of the recent cyber intrusion to Sony's PlayStation Network and Qriocity music service. DHS' U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT) is working with law enforcement, international partners and Sony to assess the situation."

On the bright side, the PSN is supposedly to finally come back with a full restore this week. And for waiting, Sony is giving us free content (it is not sure what the content is), a free 30 day Playstation Plus Membership, and a 30 day unlimited music subscription.

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PSN Hackers Selling Info

There has been a rumor going around that the hackers behind the PSN dilemma are selling information they took from 2.2 million users on random forums. It's also rumored that they hackers tried to sell the information back to Sony, but they denied. These are all rumors and may not be 100% true..

But in good news, Sony has stated that the trophies for your games are unaffected, phew! And there are talks about ways for Sony to show appreciation to users and for us waiting. I demand for early released games, and for them to be free.

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Sony Gets Sued

A law firm in California are starting to file lawsuits against Sony complaining that Sony did not take proper measures in securing their network with proper data encryption. Things are not looking good for Sony since each PSN user can get up to $318, these lawsuits can take Sony up to the billions though.

And with that, supposedly an investigation took place where there was data found containing no decryption, making it easier for hackers to get users' information. If this is true, then Sony is in a lot of trouble.

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Hackers May Have Your Info From PSN

Lots of people know that PSN is down because of major hackers. What people don't know is that those hackers might have your credit card info. The Sony PlayStation Blog states:

"Valued PlayStation Network/Qriocity Customer:
We have discovered that between April 17 and April 19, 2011, certain PlayStation Network and Qriocity service user account information was compromised in connection with an illegal and unauthorized intrusion into our network. In response to this intrusion, we have:
1. Temporarily turned off PlayStation Network and Qriocity services;2. Engaged an outside, recognized security firm to conduct a full and complete investigation into what happened; and
3. Quickly taken steps to enhance security and strengthen our network infrastructure by re-building our system to provide you with greater protection of your personal information."

Followed by:

"Although we are still investigating the details of this incident, we believe that an unauthorized person has obtained the following information that you provided: name, address (city, state, zip), country, email address, birth date, PlayStation Network/Qriocity password and login, and handle/PSN online ID. It is also possible that your profile data, including purchase history and billing address (city, state, zip), and your PlayStation Network/Qriocity password security answers may have been obtained. If you have authorized a sub-account for your dependent, the same data with respect to your dependent may have been obtained. While there is no evidence at this time that credit card data was taken, we cannot rule out the possibility. If you have provided your credit card data through PlayStation Network or Qriocity, out of an abundance of caution we are advising you that your credit card number (excluding security code) and expiration date may have been obtained."

It is not a for sure thing that your credit card info was obtained, but keep an eye on your card just in case. I'm not sure if I have my card on info, so I'll be keeping an eye on it. I mainly use the PSN cards for my purchases.

In good news though, the PSN should be back by next week.

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PSN Suspended

Here's an update about the PSN suspense, it seems like that Sony is temporarily shutting PSN/Qriocity down, but no one is sure when it will be brought back up. What they are doing is rebuilding the whole system, they're reprogramming their whole network, so that's going to be quite a down time for the PSN. The senior director of Sony's communications and social media, Patrick Seybold, states:


"We sincerely regret that PlayStation Network and Qriocity services have been suspended, and we are working around the clock to bring them both back online. Our efforts to resolve this matter involve re-building our system to further strengthen our network infrastructure. Though this task is time-consuming, we decided it was worth the time necessary to provide the system with additional security. We thank you for your patience to date and ask for a little more while we move towards completion of this project. We will continue to give you updates as they become available."

If you guys have any DLC or games you wanted to purchase online via your PS3, well, looks like you're out of luck. And I haven't updated my copy MvC3, and I was planning on doing it today also. But this will probably effect Sony in some great way.

Hopefully the new security will work and keep the troublesome hackers who started all of this away. Maybe they will even bring a new GUI to the table while they're working on the new PSN, that would be pretty neat. I just hope there won't be too many bugs right after it is finally released.

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PSN Temporarily Shut Down

The PSN has been down since April 20th due to attempted hackers. A Sony representative (Patrick Seybold) has stated:

"An external intrusion on our system has affected our PlayStation Network and Qriocity services. In order to conduct a thorough investigation and to verify the smooth and secure operation of our network services going forward, we turned off PlayStation Network & Qriocity services on the evening of Wednesday, April 20th. Providing quality entertainment services to our customers and partners is our utmost priority. We are doing all we can to resolve this situation quickly, and we once again thank you for your patience. We will continue to update you promptly as we have additional information to share."

Ill inform you guys if there are anymore related news about this. Hopefully things will get resolved soon, I'm sure many PS3 fans are lost and confused. I would be too if I depended on my PS3.

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