Steam Guard

[Pave Low]

VALVE UNVEILS STEAM GUARD

March 3, 2011 -- Valve announced today a new Steam and Steamworks feature called Steam Guard, which gives users greatly increased account security.

Steam Guard allows users to link management of their account to a specific PC. Attempts to modify or change account settings by any other PC won't be possible without the user's approval.

Steam Guard will take advantage of upcoming Intel® Identity Protection Technology (Intel® IPT), an encrypted, hardware-based feature available with the new 2nd Generation Intel® CoreT and Intel® CoreT vProT processors. IPT generates a new numerical password every 30 seconds, integrating into the processor functionality that previously required a separate card or key fob.

Users will also be notified if any PCs other than those authorized by them attempt to log into or modify their account settings.

Steam Guard is available to third parties to incorporate into their own applications through Steamworks.

"Account phishing and hijacking are our #1 support issues," said Gabe Newell, President of Valve. "With Intel's IPT and Steam Guard, we've taken a big step towards giving customers the account security they need as they purchase more and more digital goods."

"We expect to see widespread adoption of hardware-based security like Intel IPT by other service providers," said Doug Lombardi, Valve's Vice President of Marketing. "If as a customer you are buying movies, music, games, or digital goods, you want to know that they are more secure than your physical goods."

"With over 30 million accounts worldwide, Steam is an ideal platform for Intel IPT," said George Thangadurai, General Manager of PC Client Services at Intel. "Those running Steam are investing in a robust digital collection of PC games. By adding hardware-based protection to these investments, we hope to bolster the amazing success of platforms such as Steam."

For more information, please visit www.steamgames.com

[Pave Low]

Steam Guard is now available

Steam Guard Now in Beta

Steam Guard, a new Steam account security feature offering two-factor authentication, is now available in beta. As a Steam account holder, you can now take advantage of this additional level of account security, further prohibiting others from gaining access to your account.

As a beta participant, once you've verified your email address with Steam, Steam Guard becomes available for your use and is enabled for your Steam account by default.

With Steam Guard enabled, anyone attempting to login as you from an unrecognized computer must first provide additional, one-time authorization. A special access code will be sent to your contact email address, and this code must be entered into Steam before your first login on an unfamiliar computer is complete. You will also be notified if any login attempts from computers other than those you've authorized occur. Steam Guard essentially acts as a form of "User Rights Management," where you as the user have greater control over access to your stuff.

"Account phishing and hijacking are our top support issues," said Gabe Newell, President of Valve. "With Steam Guard, we've taken a big step towards giving customers the account security they need as they purchase more and more digital goods."

Gabe demonstrated further development of Steam Guard today at the CeBIT computing trade show in Hannover, Germany. In addition to email-based authentication, Steam Guard will soon offer other forms of secondary authentication, such as Intel® Identity Protection Technology, a hardware-based security feature available with the new 2nd Generation Intel® Core™ and Core™ vPro® processors. With IPT, secondary authentication is effortless, as it is provided by the chipset itself.

To opt into the latest Steam client beta and begin protecting your account with Steam Guard, launch the Steam client and visit Steam Settings' Account tab, then changing your beta participation to “Steam Update.”

OK, so it's actually "Steam Beta" that you need to select AND Then you need to Restart Steam three times

Then you will see a new option "Manage Account Security" under Settings \ Account

[Evilducky]

Sooooo... what happens when you do major upgrades to your pc? Do you have to jump through all those hoops everytime you want to log in? haha. Sounds like fun =P

[Pave Low]

all those hoops

Hardly hoops

anyone attempting to login as you from an unrecognized computer must first provide additional, one-time authorization.

A special access code will be sent to your contact email address, and this code must be entered into Steam before your first login on an unfamiliar computer

That's how most validation is done (even on forums) they email a code to your registered email & you type the code in

you only need to do it once per PC.

[Evilducky]

I guess "all those hoops" was a bit unneeded there =P. I guess I missed the "one time" part.

[Pave Low]

Beta has finished, now on full release

Steam Guard Now Available to All

As a Steam account holder, you can now take advantage of Steam Guard, a new feature of Steam that enables an additional level of account security. Your account may already be protected by Steam Guard, as the new feature automatically begins protecting your account once you've verified your email address with Steam.

With Steam Guard enabled, anyone attempting to login as you from an unrecognized computer or browser must first provide additional, one-time authorization. A special access code will be sent to your contact email address, and this code must be entered into Steam before your first login on an unfamiliar computer is complete. You will also be notified if any login attempts from computers other than those you've authorized occur. Steam Guard essentially acts as a form of "User Rights Management," where you as the user have greater control over access to your stuff.

To read more about Steam Guard and learn how to protect your account, visit our Steam Support knowledge base.