(http://i.imgur.com/GY7CZ.jpg)
On November 6th, Steam forums were hacked and the database the hackers gained access to contained usernames, e-mail addresses, hashed passwords, game purchases, and encrypted credit card information. Steam is not fully aware what all the hackers gained access to, but the fact this information was potentially
accessed means everyone should keep an eye on their credit card statements and change their Steam Forum and Steam Account passwords (Steam is at least smart enough to keep both systems separate).
Message from Gabe Newell, co-founder of Valve:
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.