Steam

Is it secure???

  • YES!!! 100%

    Points: 30 61.2%
  • NO!!!!

    Points: 5 10.2%
  • USUALLY ?

    Points: 14 28.6%

  • Total voters
    49
Im guessing your thinking about purchasing a game through thier digital download service. I would say yes 100% but as konvict said, you never really know.

So my advice would be to do what I do:
Go down to your local Eckerds or convenience store and pick up and online gift card that "allows for purchase online".
It acts like a credit card would without actually giving away ANY of your information, since its only tied to that card. If somebody DID get the information, all they'd have was the number to a now worthless "gift card".

Its 100% safer than using your real credit card, but works just as well.
 
Thousands of users, game hosting by multiple companies, it's been running for a few years. I've not had issues when buying games (I've bought 2, DOD and L4D).

IMO, it's pretty secure.
 
Nothing is 100% secure. Buying anything on steam is the same as buying on a website. It's secure, but nothing is 100%.
 
My service allows me to generate a card number for buying things online so I wouldnt be able to say...
 
It's very secure.

What isn't secure is buying it off Ebay, or similar buy/sell forums.
Steam is about as secure and legit as a game distribution service can get.
 
IRL, I work in network security so I always like to answer questions like "Is it secure?" with "...compared to what?" Steam is about as secure as you're going to get when buying something on-line.

Do you ever pass your credit card to your server at a restaurant? Now that is not secure. But I bet you still do it.
 
My fear is that one day steam will crash, so I always go for the hard copy. If you aren't afraid of that, then I'd say they're worthy of your credit card number. :)
 
My fear is that one day steam will crash, so I always go for the hard copy. If you aren't afraid of that, then I'd say they're worthy of your credit card number. :)

If STEAM crashes having a hard copy of Valve games won't matter as the games have to be verified through steam. I think what you mean is if STEAM goes out of business forever but even then in that case it would require Valve unlocking the games to its users.

STEAM is as secure as Amazon or eBay. They use HTTPS connections which I believe are 128bit encryption.

Not easy to crack but if someone wants it bad enough they could get it. I am certain that Valve employees highly trained security staff to keep this from happening.

STEAM can be secure all day long but if you have a wireless connection your signal can be snagged by someone as well which means they could get your information that way as well as you have to wirelessly transmit the information before it is sent via 128bit encryption. Wireless uses a lower bit encryption for bandwidth concerns.

Basically if you are paranoid this will bother you.
 
It is 100% secure, just dont give out personal information over steam, even if it is someone who messages you saying they are a steam representative. Valve will NEVER ask for personal info over steam.

And yes, even if you buy a hard copy of TF2, and steam crashes, you cannot play TF2.. it has to be played through steam.
 
I've bought The Orange Box (TF2, HL2, HL2 ep 1 and 2 etc) CoH, CoH:OF, DEFCON, COD4, Red Orchestra..

Through Steam, I have not had ANY problem with Steam or my credit card.
 
Wired Connection != Security

If STEAM crashes having a hard copy of Valve games won't matter as the games have to be verified through steam. I think what you mean is if STEAM goes out of business forever but even then in that case it would require Valve unlocking the games to its users.

STEAM is as secure as Amazon or eBay. They use HTTPS connections which I believe are 128bit encryption.

Not easy to crack but if someone wants it bad enough they could get it. I am certain that Valve employees highly trained security staff to keep this from happening.

STEAM can be secure all day long but if you have a wireless connection your signal can be snagged by someone as well which means they could get your information that way as well as you have to wirelessly transmit the information before it is sent via 128bit encryption. Wireless uses a lower bit encryption for bandwidth concerns.

Basically if you are paranoid this will bother you.

Sorry, but I need to disagree with you on some of your last points.

First, it really shouldn't matter, per se, whether you use wireless or wired connections for data security. If you ever need to transmit sensitive information, you need to have an end-to-end secure method of transmission. Just because you are connected to the "Net" via a hardwire does not mean you are more "secure."

Since the Steam client app runs on the endpoint (PC or laptop) the entire transaction between the customer (buyer) and Valve via Steam is secured end-to-end. Just as if you were purchasing something from Amazon or wherever via your browser of choice.

The real benefit to having an encrypted wireless connection is to prevent casual eavesdropping. In other words, it's easier to eavesdrop on a wireless because the medium of transmission is broadcast rather than point-to-point. But, from a data security POV, it doesn't matter. Especially since WEP and WPA, the two most common forms of wireless encryption, can be broken in minutes (as in less then 30 and in WEP's case, often less then 5).

Wired connections can certainly be eavesdropped. This can be done from a hardware perspective (splitters, for example) or software (e.g. port mirroring) or both (Sniffers, analyzers, etc).

Second, WPA2 uses a variation of AES encryption and does not use "lower bit encryption" to save bandwidth. In fact, WPA2 uses 128 bits of encryption which is the same amount used within SSL (the means of transport layer browser-to-browser) encryption.

Summary:

1. Steam is as secure as anything else on the Net. Wired or wireless.

2. Don't assume wired connections are more secure than wireless.

3. Always assume anything you transmit on the Net can and will be eavesdropped. If it's sensitive or private, check to see you are encrypted end-to-end (from application to server). Then you can worry about keyloggers..

Edit: WEP and WPA use lower bits of encryption because no one had figured out how to implement higher bits into wireless hardware (as a standard) at the time the equipment was being sold....
 
Just hack steam and like steal all the games you want(Jk)

Also i got gmod and tf2.
My account games and credit card still alive, like glados
 
Last edited:
i would say secure bought most of my games there
 
I voted 100%, even though statistically that's not true, since you can't ever be 100% sure ^^ That's a philosophical discussion I'd like to engage in anytime anywhere with anyone :)
 

Latest posts

Back
Top