A massive security issue has darkened Christmas for PC gamers, as mega digital games retailer Steam has compromised an unknown number of users’ accounts.
The issue is allowing users to view sensitive account information for random other users when attempting to view their own account. Users’ saved payment information may be vulnerable, as well as personal information like email addresses associated with the accounts.
It is unknown what exactly is causing the issue. Steam Database, a site that is not affiliated with Steam owner Valve Corporation but uses tools to “track updates for both applications and packages” on the Steam database, claims that the issue is a caching error and that users should not attempt to access any part of the Steam website or application nor remove payment information, as it may put your account at greater risk of being compromised.
A Steam community moderator has posted the following announcement to the Steam community forums claiming the current issue is not the result of a hack, but Valve appears to have pulled Steam servers offline at the time of this writing.
Breitbart Tech has reached out to Valve for more information and will update this story once we learn more. In the meantime, I will be monitoring my credit card purchase history and Steam-affiliated email account. Stay safe, Breitbart Tech readers.
**UPDATE** Valve’s Doug Lombardi emailed the following statement to Breitbart Tech, sounding the all clear:
Steam is back up and running without any known issues. As a result of a configuration change earlier today, a caching issue allowed some users to randomly see pages generated for other users for a period of less than an hour. This issue has since been resolved. We believe no unauthorized actions were allowed on accounts beyond the viewing of cached page information and no additional action is required by users.
This story has been revised as credit card information saved to accounts is required to be censored and to include the response on the Steam community forums.
Noah Dulis is the Deputy Managing Editor of Breitbart News and co-editor of Breitbart Tech. Follow him on Twitter @Marshal_Dov.
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