77,000 pirated Steam accounts every month. What remedy? The time – ZDNet France

Steam has become in the space of a few years a reference for PC gamers who can play online and buy games in a toy library with thousands of titles.

Steam but also attracts hackers. And according to the service provider, compromise or loss, and theft of objects that follows, is the first complaint of users. According Steam itself, well what are 77,000 accounts each month that are hacked and looted.

The theft of virtual items, a real business

” To have your account stolen, and your bartered items, is a terrible experience, and we hate that this has become more common for our customers “Steam wrote on his blog. For the platform, enough is enough, especially since she said “all Steam accounts are now targets.”

The virtual theft of property on Steam has become a real business for experienced hackers, continues the service. “What was once a handful of pirates is now a very effective network, organized in Robbery and selling items.”

And Steam assured, all victims of these hackers are not naive users who click on malicious links or share their passwords. However, security measures are in place to fight against fraud and protect accounts.

As various online services, Steam offers an authentication mechanism to two factors involving the sending a unique code of a mobile phone. But then, few players have enabled this security, Steam Guard Mobile Authenticator.

Steam has decided to tackle the problem in another way. And if instead of trying to prevent further hacking account, the firm tried to prevent thieves from taking advantage of their flight? For this, new conditions will be applied to Steam Market where players can trade their objects together.

not imposed strong authentication, but more advantageous

For these transactions, Steam does not wish to impose the two-factor authentication, which could yet ensure that the seller of an object is its owner and not the hacker an account. Not the right solution relative to usage, however, judge Steam.

Instead, the editor will play on the period after which an object is actually transferred. Thus, an item will not be sent within three days if the player has not activated Steam Guard Steam Mobile Authenticator (for at least seven days) and activated confirmations for transactions on the Market.

If users are “friends” for at least a year, which implies a priori trust transfers between accounts, transfer of an object will be finalized after one day. Meanwhile, so Steam which keeps it.

Finally users with enabled Mobile Authenticator will no longer be banned from the Market when using a new terminal since celui- is protected by the authentication system.

The safety of Steam Market, a business issue

“This means that anyone using Steam Guard Mobile Authenticator to confirm transactions can continue to trade as before. Users who have not activated, or can not, can still trade, but they will have to wait three days for the transaction to succeed. This gives both Steam and users time to discover that their accounts were hacked and recover before hackers can not steal their objects “

The advantage of this solution c is also is economically interesting for the publisher. Earlier blog, Steam explains that to compensate the victims of these flights, it duplicates the stolen items to return the injured players

Problem:. “The duplication of stolen items devalues all other similar objects in the economy. ” And rare items, this is not trivial. However, players whose value is so devalued objects are not the only ones affected. Steam also because of the income it generates through transactions on the Steam Market.