Topic: Steam Guard

[idolminds]

Sounds good, but...

Steam Guard allows users to link their account to a specific PC -- any attempts to log into that account or make any changes to its settings from other PCs will notify the user and request their approval. Third party developers will be able to incorporate Steam Guard into their applications through Steamworks.

The new feature takes advantage of Intel's upcoming Identity Protection Technology (IPT), an encrypted, hardware-based feature available with 2nd Generation Intel CoreT and Intel CoreT vProT processors. IPT generates a new numerical password every 30 seconds, similar to security cards or key fobs.

The things to note would be:

1) If its hardware based on intel CPUs then are AMD users out of luck?
2) Being hardware based, what happens if your PC crashes or you upgrade?
3) "Third party developers will be able to incorporate Steam Guard into their applications through Steamworks." What does this mean? Will only certain games be protected? Why are 3rd party devs doing this instead of it being flat out a Steam feature?

Seems weird, but added security for Steam accounts is needed. When people have thousands of dollars of games all tied to a single account, its a gold mine for phishing.

[W7RE]

Seems similar to the Blizzard authenticators.

[idolminds]

Seems this is now in the current Steam beta. The whole Intel CPU thing is an added security feature on top of the regular bit, so you don't actually need it.

It seems nice, actually. You verify your email addy and Steam makes some sort of determination on what your PC is. If anyone (including you) tries to log in from another PC, you will get an email with an authorization code. So to steal someones account they would have to somehow get your Steam login info as well as access to your email account.

Thumbs up. Once its out of beta I'll be sure to set it up. They mention there will be other forms of secondary authentication, like the Intel CPU thing but who knows, they might make authenticators like Blizzard.

[W7RE]

who knows, they might make authenticators like Blizzard.

There's a lot more to lose (well, varies per person) by losing your Steam account than losing your WoW account. To me this makes even more sense than Blizzard making them. Well, except that half the population of China seems to be actively trying to steal your WoW account.

[idolminds]

I should set up a Blizz authenticator for my account now that I have an ipod touch. I havent actually played any Blizz game in ages, but it would probably be worth it to not have it stolen.

[MysterD]

Can you set this up for multiple PC's that you own? Or just one?

[idolminds]

You can do it for as many PCs as you want, you just have to go through the authorization stuff for each new one you try to log in on.

[MysterD]

You can do it for as many PCs as you want, you just have to go through the authorization stuff for each new one you try to log in on.

That's fine w/ me.