You know, once upon a time there was a software company that had the good fortune to make a game that was considered critically as one of the finest around at the time. That game was called half-life. A few years later an enthusiast created a modification for Half-Life that was released for free as an add-on pack you could download. The add-on known as Counter Strike, was even better. People actually bought half-life just so they could play the free add-on.
Steam
Using this as an opportunity to turn computer games into a service Valve launched a service called Steam. Steam made it impossible to play a Valve game without an internet connection because if you don’t have a net connection your user id and password can’t be checked. Steam rather cynically, has turned computer games into a service that you pay for and if you want to play you have to use the Steam client.
Steam Hacked
In order to buy software from valve you have to use the steam client which posts your personal details and credit card information to an un-secure database that has been hacked. But if you are a Steam customer you could be forgiven for not knowing that this was the case, because Valve have been covering it up.
Any reference or question about the hack has been deleted from their forums. Valve, instead of asking the hackers who contacted them about the hack how it was done and improve the security of their system, have issued take down requests to have the hackers web sites removed. I would like to point out that taking down the web site of someone who contacted Valve to let them know that their system is insecure does not make that system secure.
Since January.
There are files available on the net that contain thousands of Valve customers personal information and credit card details, and to make matters worse the hack discovered in January 2007 is still exploitable nearly 4 months later.
Steam… Creamed…
But you know I’m an ideas man, and I have a solution. I’ve decided to launch my own service called CreamPowered.com. Where customers can come along and pay to get fleeced. We won’t even pretend to sell intangibles like software, instead we’ll issue creamed points. The more that’s stolen from your credit card the more creamed points you’ll earn. You wont be able to redeem the points but at least you’ll have a better idea of how much suffering you’ll go through than you would with steam.
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