Valve denies massive Steam leak; says systems “NOT breached”

Valve has responded to reports of a massive leak that allegedly exposed data from over 89 million Steam accounts. The company says its systems were not breached and that user data remains secure.

The rumors had sparked concern across the gaming community, but Valve’s new statement aims to calm things down. The Valve Steam data leak claim surfaced just days ago and quickly spread online.

Valve responds to alleged Steam user data leak

The original report came from X user MellowOnline1 on May 12. They pointed to a LinkedIn post about a dark web listing that supposedly contained data from 89 million Steam users.

In a post shared on May 14, Valve confirmed the leaked info was not tied to any breach of Steam systems.
“You may have seen reports of leaks of older text messages that had previously been sent to Steam customers,” the company said.

Valve reviewed the sample and says the leak did not compromise Steam. “We have examined the leak sample and have determined this was NOT a breach of Steam systems,” the post reads.

The company added that it’s still investigating where the messages came from. One issue is that SMS messages are unencrypted and often pass through multiple third-party providers. Valve further adds:

The leak consisted of older text messages that included one-time codes that were only valid for 15-minute time frames and the phone numbers they were sent to. The leaked data did not associate the phone numbers with a Steam account, password information, payment information or other personal data. Old text messages cannot be used to breach the security of your Steam account, and whenever a code is used to change your Steam email or password using SMS, you will receive a confirmation via email and/or Steam secure messages.