Steam accounts stolen every month, according to Valve

Also, items traded without the authentication of a mobile device will be held by Steam for three days before the transaction is completed.

“We see around 77,000 accounts hijacked and pillaged each month”. It’s not the random trolling of script kiddies-the internet’s go-to nebulous ne’er-do-wells-but organised networks of hackers in the virtual hat game for real profit.

Accounts with a Mobile Authenticator enabled for at least 7 days are no longer restricted from trading or using the Market when using a new device since trades on the new device will be protected by the Mobile Authenticator.

If you’ve been friends for at least 1 year, items will be held by Steam for up to 1 day before delivery. This does leave those without a compatible Android or iOS system to twiddle their thumbs, but Valve is adamant that this is the way it has to be. Asking users to enter a password to log into their account isn’t something we spend much time thinking about today, but it’s much the same principle – a security cost we pay to ensure the system is able to function. These items are traded over and over until they reach an innocent user.

Most “hacks” involve gaining access to a user’s account, initiating trades, and then selling the items on third-party sites.

One of the crucial parts of Steam – the computer gaming platform developed by Valve Software – is the economy of trading items.

Valve realizes that this change will likely have a big impact on an item-trading community which is used to the convenience of instant trades, but it says “this is one of those times where we feel like we’re forced to insert a step or shut it all down”. Personally, I don’t do much item trading, but two-factor authentication is pretty much a must-have for everyone, if you want to keep your account safe. And there will always will be people who’ll never use the Steam Mobile Guard, or think they aren’t worthwhile targets.

So by introducing a waiting period, it might discourage hackers and give players more time to recover their account.

Valve apologizes for the extra step it is introducing for most Steam users and says that it is comfortable with this trade-off between security and ease of use.

Home console accounts are at the moment a smaller target for those who seek to hack accounts and get access to virtual items, mainly because it’s easier to try and breach security to find credit card numbers and identity information.