There's been reports of a Steam data breach recently, and instead of jumping the gun I reached out to Valve first to see what was going on.
From what I can tell the reports originated on LinkedIn from "Underdark.ai" that claimed there was a "Massive Alleged Steam Data Breach: 89M+ Records for Sale". This was then picked up on X/Twitter, and then lots of news websites posted it up. The initial report mentioned the company Twilio, who told me earlier today:
There is no evidence to suggest that Twilio was breached. We have reviewed a sampling of the data found online, and see no indication that this data was obtained from Twilio.
A Twilio Spokesperson
Next up, the full statement sent to me by Valve:
Yesterday we were made aware of reports of leaks of older text messages that had previously been sent to Steam customers. We have examined the leak sample and have determined this was NOT a breach of Steam systems.
We’re still digging into the source of the leak, which is compounded by the fact that any SMS messages are unencrypted in transit, and routed through multiple providers on the way to your phone.
The leak consisted of older text messages that included one-time codes that were only valid for 15-minute time frames and the phone numbers they were sent to. The leaked data did not associate the phone numbers with a Steam account, password information, payment information or other personal data. Old text messages cannot be used to breach the security of your Steam account, and whenever a code is used to change your Steam email or password using SMS, you will receive a confirmation via email and/or Steam secure messages.
From a Steam perspective, customers do not need to change their passwords or phone numbers as a result of this event. It is a good reminder to treat any account security messages that you have not explicitly requested as suspicious. We recommend regularly checking your Steam account security at any time at https://store.steampowered.com/account/authorizeddevices.
We also recommend Steam users set up the Steam Mobile Authenticator if they haven’t already, as it gives us the best way to send secure messages about their account and that account’s safety.
Valve Press
Will update when I learn any more verified information.
Quick little update 11:09 BST — Valve have now posted it officially on Steam.
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