'Unfortunately, this is one of those times where we feel like we're forced to insert a step or shut it all down. 'Any time we put security steps in between user actions and their desired results, we're making it more difficult to use our products,' Valve said. These changes could end up having a 'large impact' on trading, the company warned.

These measures aren't perfect, however, Valve admitted.

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.

Otherwise, items will be held by Steam for up to 3 days before delivery.

Anyone losing items in a trade will need to have a Steam Guard Mobile Authenticator enabled on their account for at least 7 days and have trade confirmations turned on.

These changes have now been deployed and include the following: In the end, Valve ultimately decided that the three major changes would serve Steam best as it relates to hacking. 'It's important that you can give a friend a TF2 weapon when he comes to try out the game, or give a friend the last trading card she needs to craft a game badge.' 'Another easy choice would have been to require two-factor authentication for trading, but that's bad for the same reasons as removing it entirely,' it said. It would have been easy and it would have curbed hacking dramatically, but Valve said this would be a 'bad choice for users.' One option that Valve considered was removing trading entirely. And other users knew they needed it, but couldn't use it due to reasons beyond their control, like not having access to a mobile phone.'

Some felt they were smart enough about security to not need two-factor authorization. 'Many don't believe that they are actually a worthwhile target for a hacker who's out to make money. 'At this time, most people have not protected their account with this increased level of security,' Valve said. The developer also says it's improved how and when it informs users that their account is at risk and has introduced a self-locking system and two-factor authentication through Steam Guard.Д«ut accounts are still being hacked, in part because Steam users, generally, are not taking advantage of the new security features. Valve said this solution was deemed 'unacceptable.' Therefore, it's taken steps to improve security and close loopholes. 'This might be fairly minor for common items, but for rare items this had the potential to significantly increase the number in existence.'

Duplicating the stolen items devalues all the other equivalent items in the economy,' Valve said. 'We were fully aware of the tradeoff here. Valve's solution thus far has been to duplicate stolen items for people who lost them, but this isn't an ideal solution, especially when the pilfered items are of the rare variety. 'Having your account stolen, and your items traded away, is a terrible experience, and we hated that it was becoming more common for our customers,' Valve said. But instances of hacking jumped by twenty-fold, or close to 2,000 percent, following the introduction of Steam Trading four years ago. It's been happening since the platform's first days. Valve revealed the figure this week as part of a blog post in which it pointed out that account theft is nothing new on Steam. According to newly revealed statistics from Valve, some 77,000 Steam accounts are hacked every month.

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