How the hell does one even hack an account that's Steam linked?

[DirTek]

I just logged into the game after a few days spent away from it just to be greeted by a Punkbuster kick. When I got back into the main menu I observed that somehow I had 2 extra characters and my main one had about 8 hours of extra playtime. His reputation was also -502 and all my gear was gone.

I didn't register on their website, I just clicked play when I got the game. So how the hell did my account get hacked? Because I know for sure that my Steam account is intact. Also, is there any way to prevent something like this from happening again?

[The doctor is in]

if its pb kick then what is the violation number and associated message

unlike fairfight pb is a local thing having to do with something that you have installed, loaded, running.

you registered a new account at their website when you first ran the game...

[DirTek]

Like I said, I didn't register an account. I simply started the launcher, it patched itself then I hit play and that was it.

Also, the first message I got from PB was something about "multi-hack". Now I just the a message saying that I got kicked for "prior kick/ban".

Even if I would have created an account on their website (which is impossible for me because I can't even access the "My account" section, it just redirects me to the homepage), I use long and complicated passwords. That's why my mail never got broken into, even though Google warned me about attempts from Russia, China and Indonesia.

So this is clearly something on their side. My guess is that the guy wanted to screw around with random accounts, somehow got into mine, created his extra chars, played for as long as he could using hacks and what-not and when he got banned he just moved on.

[- digiz3d]

You used a poorly secured password.

[DirTek]

Dude, did you at least read what I wrote? I did not use any password, I didn't have to create an account! And I never use poorly secured passwords. All my passwords are either random letters and numbers OR a random word that comes through my head + a series of numbers randomly generated. And all of them have at least 16 characters, unless the website/game/etc I register for doesn't allow passwords that long.

Also, I cannot even access the "My account" section of their website. It just redirects me to the homepage. I cannot see nor change my login details. Steam handled it for me from the start. I dunno if it was some sort of a glitch, because I never had to register on their website.

I, indeed, had a forum account on their website for a very long time, even before I got the game, but that account isn't linked to Steam and I doubt it's linked to the game, since I have yet to see a bridge between an IPBoard forum and a game.

[DirTek]

I am aware that the guy might know my email but that's not useful to him in any way, because even if there's one chance in a million that he'll learn my password, my email is set to automatically block itself if the IP is very different than the one I'm using. In order to unlock it he'll need access to my phone and also my 3 other mail addreses that I've set up for recovery.

I also never show any of my loging to anyone, not even my family.

I appreciate the suggestion about the nonsteam version, I'm downloading that one right now. I'll get back with updates if I'll manage to solve anything related to changing my e-mail/password.



UPDATE
------------------------

Well, that didn't do any good. I downloaded the trial launcher from their website, I even tried doing it from the steamapps folder. I succesfully changed my password, didn't log in with it but Steam still logs in flawlessly. Well, at least I think I'm secure for now. However, there PB ban is still there for another 44 hours or so. And there is something fishy about my account because the launcher didn't even flinch when I started it from my Library with my new password, and since all you guys are telling me that I should have gotten the login window when I first started the game. It's really weird and frankly I don't like it. Anyway, thanks for the help, guys. Much appreciated!

[Holden_Mcgroin]

Автор сообщения: DirTek

I, indeed, had a forum account on their website for a very long time, even before I got the game, but that account isn't linked to Steam and I doubt it's linked to the game, since I have yet to see a bridge between an IPBoard forum and a game.

hopefully you didn't link your "forum badge" to a legendary or pioneer account then? (forum accout to game serial key)

Man, I'm so glad I never linked this game to my steam account.
So many people getting their accounts hacked it is more than just careless security or poor passwords.
I'd bet this is a lot to do with the number of bans handed out.

[DirTek]

No, I didn't link the forum badge. Like I said, the Steam link has been done automatically. And like I've stated before my password was in no way weak. They probably just have a weak or maybe no password encryption on their servers for the user details which makes it really easy to hack into other accounts.

And yeah, from what I heard, most of the bans are because the accounts were hacked, but Hammerpoint doesn't really care about that. When it happens as much as it happens with their game, they should really stop pointing at the users and take a look at their own security.