If you look in the eyes of the company they're making the best possible situation out of this. YOU are a legitimate case of hacking, but anyone else could say they are a legitimate case to but just are acting like it after they've pirated, cheated, and anything else they want to. So instead of risking a non-legit source they just take the path of least resistance.
Steam made me a pirate!
- Thread starter Fangface74
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Yeah, it refines down to some pretty shiny irony when a CEO finds himself in the situation of No Exceptions.megapenguinx said:
It happens in the movie The Bucket List where a rich guy who buys hospitals says "Two Patients per room, no exceptions" and then finds himself bedridden, he want's his own room.
This is the fallacy I go on with the argument of [very large quotation marks]"Natural Selection"matrix3509 said:
Oh come on!
You're all saying that it's possible for someone to be hacked despite using common sense protections. You are completely right; it is possible, someone with great technical knowledge could use their 1337 scripting shenanigans to get a hold of your login details. But it NEVER happens.
A large part of what I do for a living is banning users that hijack on-line accounts and determine who accounts originally belong to. I've taken a look at Steam's security advice FAQ and it's pretty standard for all on-line companies, that one page of text will help you protect your password from ALL the techniques employed by hijackers. And you don't even need to read it, because if you've read one of these you've read them all and I hope you've read one.
Unfortunately a lot of internet users haven't and will happily give their passwords to someone claiming to be staff who wants to check that they're the real owner, a website that's hosted on geocities but looks a lot like the Steam front-page, their friend who just wants to borrow their on-line copy of Half life 2, a cool gaming clan who need you to log into their site with your steam ID so your game stats are automatically added to the clan rankings, or the guy with the cool hax that will unlock every Steam game for free!
Now why in the name of all that is holy would you bother with advanced technical software intrusion when idiots are falling over themselves to give you their passwords! It's not efficient or economically viable if you're looking to profit from the activity.
EDIT: Oooh I quite liked The Bucket List despite how schmaltzy it was.
People here seem to think that when the OP says he's a pirate that he's downloading dodgy copies to replace those he's already bought. This isn't the case, he is making copies of Steam games and selling them cheap to recoup the money he has paid Steam in the past.
You're all saying that it's possible for someone to be hacked despite using common sense protections. You are completely right; it is possible, someone with great technical knowledge could use their 1337 scripting shenanigans to get a hold of your login details. But it NEVER happens.
A large part of what I do for a living is banning users that hijack on-line accounts and determine who accounts originally belong to. I've taken a look at Steam's security advice FAQ and it's pretty standard for all on-line companies, that one page of text will help you protect your password from ALL the techniques employed by hijackers. And you don't even need to read it, because if you've read one of these you've read them all and I hope you've read one.
Unfortunately a lot of internet users haven't and will happily give their passwords to someone claiming to be staff who wants to check that they're the real owner, a website that's hosted on geocities but looks a lot like the Steam front-page, their friend who just wants to borrow their on-line copy of Half life 2, a cool gaming clan who need you to log into their site with your steam ID so your game stats are automatically added to the clan rankings, or the guy with the cool hax that will unlock every Steam game for free!
Now why in the name of all that is holy would you bother with advanced technical software intrusion when idiots are falling over themselves to give you their passwords! It's not efficient or economically viable if you're looking to profit from the activity.
EDIT: Oooh I quite liked The Bucket List despite how schmaltzy it was.
People here seem to think that when the OP says he's a pirate that he's downloading dodgy copies to replace those he's already bought. This isn't the case, he is making copies of Steam games and selling them cheap to recoup the money he has paid Steam in the past.
I like the real world analogies so I'll try one:Richard Groovy Pants said:
I bought a shiny new Jaguar sports car and didn't understand insurance so didn't get any. I also didn't understand locks so didn't close the doors at night to avoid having to deal with that difficulty. I loved that car....
One day an elite ninja thief used his insane stealth skills and scary lock picking expertise to take my car from me under cover of darkness!
I demanded that the garage give me a new car but they are unreasonable arsehats and wouldn't do it so then a genius scheme occurred to me. I would buy a lot of cheap bicycles and build papier mache chassis' in the shape of Jaguars and fit them over the bikes. Then I'd sell these convincing replicants and in no time at all I'd have made enough money to buy a second shiny sports car from teh evil Jaguar corp.
Richard, I don't know why you're getting so much hate here. I hope I can deflect some.
Those who are recommending you sound like a wronged upper class gentleman when dealing with the Steam staff may not be quite right. If Steam work anything like we do, then they will only care about what evidence you provide, the sob story will have no effect on their dark stony hearts. Bear in mind that they probably hear upwards of a hundred tragic tales of sadistic hackery inflicted on unsuspecting loyal customers every day, before lunch.
I agree I did not make myself clear, what I meant was that I didn't have time to read the next three pages (from the perspective of my front page quoting of you) but I wan't to have a say anyway.Richard Groovy Pants said:
My analogies were probably too severe and I'm trying to think of an appropriate one but the best one I can come up with is It's like saying that you should be allowed to throw dodgeballs at people in the street because they should have enough dodging skills. It does sound like you're saying that gullible people deserve all the hacking they get.
Eggo, you need to spend less time insulting a whole forum (which you seem to spend a lot of time on), and more time thinking about your posts instead of just +1ing all the time. I get your point but you gain nothing from saying the forum is filled with prepubescent males, It's sexist and stereotypical I guess. Perhaps you are the one who should grow up.Eggo said:
Wow, that was mean, whiskers on kittens?
Edit: Sorry for the double post but I'm lacking in mad quoting skillz.
Steams customer service is horrible, they sometimes will not even reply to serious problems like "This game is not licensed to this steam account (you don't own the game)" yet you do. And it's a well known issue as it's happened to quite a few people. I've yet to have any major problems with steam, one gripe I had was that I got the orange box and they wouldn't let me give away my second copy of Team Fortress 2. But oh well.
The reason they are against Richard is simple: They are sympathetic. They know it is possible, one day, that they will screw up badly as well. When that day comes, they will want someone to pat them on the shoulder and say 'there there.' Not someone hitting them around the head with cold hard logic. Yes, in some way it is their fault! It is much easier to hack a password then it is to hack the encryption directly but even now, with today's technology, it would take decades to hack a good password unless of course: you mess up!
Now Richard:
As for hacking passwords, give me time and I could do it without too much problem. Do you know how many people out there can be 'dictionary hacked?' It is a sad thing but most people like passwords they can remember and will chose something relating to themselves in some way. You might be harder, you're in the know and will chose something which isn't so easily hacked, but most people are not willing to accept random character passwords for the simple fact they are not easily remembered.
That normally means a password consisting of one word, usually the first letter capitalised, followed by a number that usually is no more then 2 digits long. Takes a computer maybe a few minutes to break through one of those....
So it isn't always directly the users fault, they don't always give out the password to have it hacked. All it comes down to is basic human nature as most of us have had experience having to reset a password cause it has been forgotten, I face this too much, yet very few of us will have experience having our passwords guessed to begin with. We 'play the odds' that we will be more likely to forget a password then have it hacked, so chose something easier to remember though that is weaker security wise.
Personally, I rather understand how the hacking programs go about it and design a password that will confuse them to the point the have to go character by character to hack it. Then I know I will not have to worry for at least fifty years.
So simply put to people here: Put a capital letter in the MIDDLE of your password and have at least three numeral digits somewhere in there, start and end is just as good as in the middle for those numbers. The capital will break most 'dictionary hacks' right there and it isn't hard to remember what digit is capitalised. If the numbers are important to you, say the day you where born, then put a 1 at the end or enter the number twice, if there is room, to make it harder for them to just guess.
We are not saying you need random character generated passwords, but just use a little 'spice' to keep it from being so easily guessed by a computer just quoting the dictionary to your steam account.
Now Richard:
As for hacking passwords, give me time and I could do it without too much problem. Do you know how many people out there can be 'dictionary hacked?' It is a sad thing but most people like passwords they can remember and will chose something relating to themselves in some way. You might be harder, you're in the know and will chose something which isn't so easily hacked, but most people are not willing to accept random character passwords for the simple fact they are not easily remembered.
That normally means a password consisting of one word, usually the first letter capitalised, followed by a number that usually is no more then 2 digits long. Takes a computer maybe a few minutes to break through one of those....
So it isn't always directly the users fault, they don't always give out the password to have it hacked. All it comes down to is basic human nature as most of us have had experience having to reset a password cause it has been forgotten, I face this too much, yet very few of us will have experience having our passwords guessed to begin with. We 'play the odds' that we will be more likely to forget a password then have it hacked, so chose something easier to remember though that is weaker security wise.
Personally, I rather understand how the hacking programs go about it and design a password that will confuse them to the point the have to go character by character to hack it. Then I know I will not have to worry for at least fifty years.
So simply put to people here: Put a capital letter in the MIDDLE of your password and have at least three numeral digits somewhere in there, start and end is just as good as in the middle for those numbers. The capital will break most 'dictionary hacks' right there and it isn't hard to remember what digit is capitalised. If the numbers are important to you, say the day you where born, then put a 1 at the end or enter the number twice, if there is room, to make it harder for them to just guess.
We are not saying you need random character generated passwords, but just use a little 'spice' to keep it from being so easily guessed by a computer just quoting the dictionary to your steam account.