Steam Account Stolen

[BanzaiCat]

^ Nice site, Ian C. My Steam password would take 100 years to crack so I feel relatively safe. My other passwords are upwards of 16 billion years to crack so I should be good I hope.

[bbmike]

^ Nice site, Ian C. My Steam password would take 100 years to crack so I feel relatively safe. My other passwords are upwards of 16 billion years to crack so I should be good I hope.

Oh how you underestimate the little Russian hacker kids.  >:D

[Ian C]

Hackers use a 'Brute Force' attack to crack your password. They will use an app that repeatedly tries various passwords but this can easily be defeated by websites that disallow multiple login attempts within seconds or having a really strong password that isn't obvious and uses upper, lower case, spaces and special characters. The Brute Force attack is  pretty old hat though.
More likely, the hack is through a trojan virus. Once a PC is infected, it's an easy task for a hacker to steal whatever they like. This is why you need to have a Firewall and Antivirus software installed and working at all times.

However, in the case of Zulu1966, I'm guessing his original password for mail and STEAM account was something really simple to guess, like 'password' or his star sign or similar. The hacker used a simple method and got lucky. Sadly, a lot of people get stung this way.  Glad you got things fixed Zulu.

[bbmike]

Yeah, this thread inspired me to change both my Steam account and my Amazon account passwords.

[BanzaiCat]

^ Me, too. No point in tempting fate. I haven't changed them in a very long time, but I need to get into the habit of changing them every few months.

[Gusington]

Damn. I'm using that password site above and getting nervous.

[trailrunner]

Damn. I'm using that password site above and getting nervous.

It would make me a little nervous just typing in my password to some random internet website.

[mirth]

Damn. I'm using that password site above and getting nervous.

It would make me a little nervous just typing in my password to some random internet website.

This

[bbmike]

Damn. I'm using that password site above and getting nervous.

It would make me a little nervous just typing in my password to some random internet website.

Don't. Type in similar ones.

[Staggerwing]

Damn. I'm using that password site above and getting nervous.

It would make me a little nervous just typing in my password to some random internet website.

Don't. Type in similar ones.

That

[Staggerwing]

I found that putting just one more non-alpha in my pseudo password increased the cracking time factor by several hundred over what it was before.

[Ian C]

yesterday     = 2 minutes
Yesterday     = 19 hours
Y3sterday    = 4 days
Y3st.erday    = 10 years
Y3st.erda_y   = 5 thousand years
Y3st.erda_y*&   = 47 million years

[Gusington]

I'm good with 47 million years.

[Staggerwing]

Makes all your troubles seem so far away...

[Zulu1966]

Hackers use a 'Brute Force' attack to crack your password. They will use an app that repeatedly tries various passwords but this can easily be defeated by websites that disallow multiple login attempts within seconds or having a really strong password that isn't obvious and uses upper, lower case, spaces and special characters. The Brute Force attack is  pretty old hat though.
More likely, the hack is through a trojan virus. Once a PC is infected, it's an easy task for a hacker to steal whatever they like. This is why you need to have a Firewall and Antivirus software installed and working at all times.

However, in the case of Zulu1966, I'm guessing his original password for mail and STEAM account was something really simple to guess, like 'password' or his star sign or similar. The hacker used a simple method and got lucky. Sadly, a lot of people get stung this way.  Glad you got things fixed Zulu.

Not quite as simple as password but similar. Didn't help it was the same as my mail either. As I say lesson learned. 😏