After 18 years, a Steam user was reunited with an old account that had been lost after a hacker took control of the email address used to access it. The Steam user who recovered their nearly two-decade-old account revealed that one game tied to it was played in 2009, which is a testament to the account's age.
Since its introduction in 2003, Steam has become the largest digital distribution platform in PC gaming. Steam periodically releases updates to its desktop and mobile clients that include bug fixes and some new features for users to customize as they see fit. In an August Steam Client Beta update, Valve gave users the option to change the names and box art of games in their Steam Libraries, with additional options to sort them based on any given criteria. The Steam Client Beta is currently available for all users to opt in, test out, and provide feedback to Valve ahead of its full release.
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Steam User Recovers Old Account After 18 Years
Several years after losing access to a Steam account due to a hacker taking their email credentials, one user shares the story of how they got it back. On the Steam subreddit, a Reddit user named Influence_X claimed that a hacker from Russia gained unauthorized access to an old Microsoft Hotmail email address and tried to gain access to a Steam account they had forgotten about. Although Valve has a history of recovering Steam accounts that have been compromised, Influence_X stated in a later comment that the hacker did not make it past the account recovery email process and tried to brute force their way into their Steam account. Influence_X was only notified of the security breach after receiving an alert in their Gmail inbox.
The account's last known activity was 4,712 days before the post was made, or just under 13 years ago. Only two games were tied to the recovered Steam account, with one of them showing up under the account's recent activity feed. Although it hasn't been played since December 2009, the game in question was a 2006 action RPG called Dark Messiah of Might & Magic, which currently holds an 89% positive rating on Steam. Dark Messiah of Might & Magic is currently available for $2.49, a 75% discount off its usual $9.99 price tag.
Following the Steam account recovery, Influence_X said they changed the passwords and credentials of both their Hotmail email address and their 18-year-old Steam account. With Valve consistently beefing up Steam's security measures, it remains to be seen what the company will do to keep its customers safe from bad actors in the future.
