steam protection

[SGTyogi]

read this thought it should go here



Valve Looking At New Anti-Account Theft Solution 3FL Gaming Network

[Drac]

Nice one Valve.

[PhatFreD]

Steam Guard will allow users to link their accounts to a specific PC. Any attempts to modify or change account settings by any other PC will not be possible without the user’s approval.

So what happens if your computer crashes or gets stolen?

[Drac]

Steam Guard will allow users to link their accounts to a specific PC. Any attempts to modify or change account settings by any other PC will not be possible without the user’s approval.

This basically means if someone using another PC tries to change your steam registered email address (so he can then change the password, which requires they click a confirmation link that's emailed to your steam registered email address) they won't be able to unless they can also get access to your PC.

You'll still be able to log in to your steam account from another PC, you just won't be able to change your security related account settings. No doubt you'll be able to assign a different PC as the "secure" one via a confirmation link sent to your currently registered email address, but you won't be able to change anything else until you do that or perhaps there's some other ID measure in place with the system.

Rest assured there will be contingency measures in place regardless.

[Jigoku]

Steam Guard is now available through participation in the client beta.

[Jigoku]

The Escapist : News : Gabe Newell Gives Away Personal Steam Password

YouTube - Gabe Newell stellt IPT für Steam auf der Cebit 2011 vor

[delushin]

First I seen this ... what do we reckon?

+ / -

[Thermal Ions]

Originally Posted by Jigoku

The Escapist : News : Gabe Newell Gives Away Personal Steam Password

So now instead of getting 100 emails per day, he's getting 10,000 "A request was made to change your steam registered email address ...." emails.

Personally, I'm happy enough with the security of my password and validated email address. I'm not that fussed with security systems that are tied to your hardware even if there's a work around if your hardware gets fried.

[Thermal Ions]

Oh, it seems that the initial release of Steam Guard is email based, with the hardware version coming soon.

News - Steam Guard Now in Beta

With Steam Guard enabled, anyone attempting to login as you from an unrecognized computer must first provide additional, one-time authorization. A special access code will be sent to your contact email address, and this code must be entered into Steam before your first login on an unfamiliar computer is complete. You will also be notified if any login attempts from computers other than those you've authorized occur. Steam Guard essentially acts as a form of "User Rights Management," where you as the user have greater control over access to your stuff.
...
Gabe demonstrated further development of Steam Guard today at the CeBIT computing trade show in Hannover, Germany. In addition to email-based authentication, Steam Guard will soon offer other forms of secondary authentication, such as Intel® Identity Protection Technology, a hardware-based security feature available with the new 2nd Generation Intel® Core™ and Core™ vPro® processors. With IPT, secondary authentication is effortless, as it is provided by the chipset itself.

Apparently it's on by default if you join the beta. Be interesting to see what they do when it's rolled into production. I'm aware of some people that didn't know about the email validation when it rolled out as an option (off by default) and subsequently got hacked. They'd have voted for on as default for that I'm betting.

[Unknown]

Originally Posted by Thermal Ions

Oh, it seems that the initial release of Steam Guard is email based, with the hardware version coming soon.

Since the hardware version relies on a feature only (afaik) present in the most recent release of Intel processors, I suspect they'll be relying heavily on the email version for quite a while yet.

Originally Posted by Thermal Ions

Apparently it's on by default if you join the beta. Be interesting to see what they do when it's rolled into production.

For better or worse, I'm betting they'll have it "on" by default when the updated client goes live. From a support perspective, I think they're hoping that the number of people complaining about or having trouble with the new feature will be far smaller than the number of support issues surrounding hijacked accounts...