‘Steam Stealer’ malware targets your account details

Steam Stealer is a unique breed of malware that specialises in obtaining Steam account details and allowing hackers to access your account.

Steam Stealers specifically target Valve’s distribution platform and its 100 million registered users. The purpose of this malware is to obtain the victim’s account credentials with the intent of hijacking and selling the account to other Steam users.

The prevalence of this form of cyber crime has grown along with Steam, as the large amounts of money in player accounts and the value of certain Steam inventory items paint a bright target for hackers and cyber criminals.

According to official Steam data, more than 77,000 accounts are hacked or hijacked on a monthly basis.

Kapersky Lab researchers report that Steam Stealer malware accounts for a large percentage of these figures, as the malware is easy to both acquire and to implement.

Researchers from Kapersky Lab have so far discovered over 1200 different types of Steam Stealer malware, with the Russian and Eastern European regions experiencing the most activity.

This malware is usually propagated through social engineering via direct communication or through fake, malicious websites.