How to stay safe on Steam?

[Pizza on Pineapple]

Hello everyone, I just wanted to ask something.

I'm paranoid about hackers, and I have a long complicated password (unique), steam guard, long complex password for my email and I have an antivirus (Norton 360) on my computer. I also don't click any suspicious links, nor do I do anything that would give away my password.

There are many like me, but they still get hacked. Basically, what [more] tips can you give me? Thanks.

EDIT: How is that these hackers still get in?

[TOKYO ✦ VENOM]

I think you're good. LOL

[Pizza on Pineapple]

Originally posted by The Problem Solver:

I think you're good. LOL

Thanks! I've just heard about how people who get hacked are [very understandably] upset, and some lose lots of money in lost items that they'll never get back.

Any tips that anyone has is much appreciated.

[Mikoto]

its really easy to not get your account hacked, matter of fact is is quite hard to get your account hacked. just dont log into any links thrown at you and bam, hacks avoided.

they are getting crafty though like one idiot tried to say i had this old facebook friend who couldnt contact me...which is true (lucky guess on his part) but could not (or rather would not) say who he was but kept on saying that i had to go to the steam community hub through a link, which was typoed btw, to some other profile that my friend wouldnt be caught dead with the name it had or its picture.

you just have to stay vigilant, phishers are not smart and can easily be foiled by a simple question, like in my example, of "whats my friends name?"

[Thanatos]

No matter how much security you set up to protect yourself, the weaest linK is always the user. As long as you remain vigilent and use basic safe web practices, you will remain fine.

If you are wanting additional steps though, you can maKe your profile private or friends only (as well as everything else).

[Pizza on Pineapple]

Originally posted by Thanos:

No matter how much security you set up to protect yourself, the weaest linK is always the user. As long as you remain vigilent and use basic safe web practices, you will remain fine.

If you are wanting additional steps though, you can maKe your profile private or friends only (as well as everything else).

Does making my profile friends only (or private) make it safer? How so?


As for the responses - thanks guys; that's really reassuring! (I think! :P )

I will be vigilent. Thanks again.

[HLCinSC]

Avoiding Common Scams 

A Guide for Dota 2

By: Jimo

I will provide you information on commonly used scam techniques and how to better prepare yourself to avoid them.

[The Longest Rose]

Originally posted by Dr Seb Wilkes:

Does making my profile friends only (or private) make it safer? How so?

No. Don't accept random friend requests and don't randomly click on suspicious links (anything given in chat, promises of free games, etc.), keep up the precautions you have now, and it will be impossible to hijack you short of hacking into and decoding Valve's databases.

[Macabre]

1 get rid of Norton its worthless, I feel bad for anyone who funnels them money. There are countless FREE virus protection as well as paid ones if you must, that are far better. Also I want to point out that most virus are harmless and the ones that are actually real bad, virus protection is general useless against because

1 they rarely pick it up and
2 many newer virus are smart enough to lock you out of your system as well as safe mode,

if you are paranoid about security I highly recommend getting a rescue disk, as they will allow you to fix your pc even if you cannot boot it up.

As for steam never open a link from chat, even if you trust the person.
keep steam guard on, its very powerful tool,

make sure the email your account is tied to is very secure as well. Its just as important if not more than your steam account.

other than that just use common sense, getting hacked is very easy to avoid... Never give out personal info from your account to ANYONE, that includes anyone who claims they are a steam employee….


as for making your profile private the only value it gives you is people cannot see what games you own so a direct hacking attempt is unlikely as they cannot see if your account has any value to steal (hundred of games, large inventory ect) however its also annoying to friends, rathers I would suggest keeping your profile public but setting your inventory to friends only or private, in the end its up to you to decide, just use common sense.

The best protection is making something appear to not be worth stealing in the first place..

[Pizza on Pineapple]

Thanks guys! Really helpful. :)

[ReBoot]

Common sense. This is the best protection.

[Pizza on Pineapple]

Originally posted by ReBoot:

Uncommon sense. This is the best protection.

Corrected that for you! ;)