Question for all of you STEAM users...

seeyouspacec0wboy

So I just made a steam account and was wondering if it is bad if my login name and community name are the same?

augustgrace

They should really be different, otherwise you've just handed someone half of what they need to steal your account.  Though is would still be a bit hard to steal your account even if someone did know your log-in name.

Quailman

Can't the people on your friends list see your account name under the alias tab anyway? If so, then it really doesn't matter either way. As long as you have a secure password and don't give it to anyone, you should be fine.

seeyouspacec0wboy

Originally posted by Quailman

Can't the people on your friends list see your account name under the alias tab anyway? If so, then it really doesn't matter either way. As long as you have a secure password and don't give it to anyone, you should be fine.

Ah ok, wasn't sure about this but its just what I needed to hear. Thanks : )

HYPERI0N

Just make your password hard to guess. And remember to WRITE it down.

alakram

example of secure password: 4h7s91g8

always use something random and completely unrelated to you.

Ogrelin

The main problem with steam is really not the risk of getting yout steam-account hacked. The big problem is the chance that somone hack your mail-account, then they have no problem resetting your steam-password.

So it's more important to keep your mail-account safe imho...

and remember to print out something from steam that can help you reclaim the stolen account if it get hacked.

GrandVizier

Originally posted by alakram

example of secure password: 4h7s91g8

always use something random and completely unrelated to you.

For me, how easy a password is to remember is paramount.  Myself, I often forget completely random complex passwords very easily and I don't write down passwords for security reasons (the same reason I have the password to begin with).  What I've found works, is using a line from a movie/song. 

Let's include only alpha-numeric characters (no special characters except the blank space).  That breaks out to 52 alphabetic (upper and lower case), 10 numeric, and a space.  Each password character has 63 possibilities that it could be.

For example: 'I gotta feeling that tonight's gonna be a good night' (Black Eyed Peas song lyric)

In my example above it's 52 characters long (and reasonably easy to remember if I like Black Eyed Peas).  That means that the permutation count for my password is 63^52 which breaks out to 63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63 *63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63 (or 3.6788202771123699417524064920556e+93 possible combinations).  In your complex password example the permutation count would be 63^8 which breaks out to 63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63 (or 248,155,780,267,521 possible combinations).  Both are very effective at stopping manual guessers, but there is a night and day difference if it becomes an automated attack.  Standard home desktop PCs can perform upwards of millions of attempts per second (a lot less if it's being done against online sites).

One other option I've seen done for a password that needs to be shorter is be to take the phrase and extract the first letter from each word (as in my example that would make the password: Igfttgbagn which is 10 characters or 63^10 possible permutations).  Sure it doesn't have numbers but you can substitute some for the "leet" speak, i.e. a=4, e=3, etc if you want.  Again, it provides an extra avenue for making "complex" passwords easier to remember.  Both long and short form are complex to anyone not knowing them, but easier to remember for the one choosing it.

Personally, I find I can remember ones like the above examples a lot easier than the completely random characters.  Random or planned complex passwords are both very effective for preventing manual guessing.  After all, who's going to try the first characters of words for every song/movie I like?  Or try and write out every line for that matter?  And because I like it, it has a personal touch and that makes it a lot easier to remember.

pythi

Originally posted by GrandVizier

Originally posted by alakram

example of secure password: 4h7s91g8

always use something random and completely unrelated to you.

For me, how easy a password is to remember is paramount.  Myself, I often forget completely random complex passwords very easily and I don't write down passwords for security reasons (the same reason I have the password to begin with).  What I've found works, is using a line from a movie/song. 

Let's include only alpha-numeric characters (no special characters except the blank space).  That breaks out to 52 alphabetic (upper and lower case), 10 numeric, and a space.  Each password character has 63 possibilities that it could be.

For example: 'I gotta feeling that tonight's gonna be a good night' (Black Eyed Peas song lyric)

In my example above it's 52 characters long (and reasonably easy to remember if I like Black Eyed Peas).  That means that the permutation count for my password is 63^52 which breaks out to 63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63 *63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63 (or 3.6788202771123699417524064920556e+93 possible combinations).  In your complex password example the permutation count would be 63^8 which breaks out to 63*63*63*63*63*63*63*63 (or 248,155,780,267,521 possible combinations).  Both are very effective at stopping manual guessers, but there is a night and day difference if it becomes an automated attack.  Standard home desktop PCs can perform upwards of millions of attempts per second (a lot less if it's being done against online sites).

One other option I've seen done for a password that needs to be shorter is be to take the phrase and extract the first letter from each word (as in my example that would make the password: Igfttgbagn which is 10 characters or 63^10 possible permutations).  Sure it doesn't have numbers but you can substitute some for the "leet" speak, i.e. a=4, e=3, etc if you want.  Again, it provides an extra avenue for making "complex" passwords easier to remember.  Both long and short form are complex to anyone not knowing them, but easier to remember for the one choosing it.

Personally, I find I can remember ones like the above examples a lot easier than the completely random characters.  Random or planned complex passwords are both very effective for preventing manual guessing.  After all, who's going to try the first characters of words for every song/movie I like?  Or try and write out every line for that matter?  And because I like it, it has a personal touch and that makes it a lot easier to remember.

To be honest using a password that complex is a waste of time, unless you have a password that is lets say 000 your first name or anything that obvious you not only deserve to lose something but brute force hackers will not I repeat will not be taking a rainbow table or anything similar to a steam account, or even your email. Now that I have said that such passwords are needed for some things such as server admins etc. having a 12 digit password that is in a 255 bit encryption could take years to break using brute force. That being said key loggers and such are your worst enemy.