Steam is a platform known worldwide for giving us the option to buy thousands of games to run on our Windows, macOS or even Linux computers. Its founder, Gabe Newell, issued a great challenge to all people who had knowledge in computing: that They will try to hack your own Steam account to find out what he had in his library.
13 years after this challenge, Gabe Newell’s account remains a big mystery for all those people who dream of watching what a figure as iconic as this one plays. But Gabe even provided the necessary facilities to access Steam: his username and password were completely public.
Gabe Newell trusts Steam Guard with tests in hand
The rest is simple. Gabe’s username is [email protected] and the password is MoolyFTW, as he himself made public at CeBIT in 2011. With this data he was asked to try to hack his Steam account, something that a priori is really simple. The only condition was that no one could access your corporate email associated with Steam.
But although it may seem very simple, this challenge was launched along with the ‘obstacle’ that exists to achieve it, that is Steam Guard. The two-step authentication system promised to make the platform much more secure, and that is why the company’s founder placed all his trust in the system he had presented. With this activated, this challenge of hacking it was launched. Something that has been complicated.
Thirteen years have passed and no unauthorized access to this Steam account has been reported, making Steam Guard have proven to work really well. The only problem it has (and that Newell recognized) resides in the associated email accounts. And by being able to access them, you will be able to bypass Steam’s security system. Although this is something that happens indirectly.
Obviously, security systems have been increasing since 2011 with the inclusion of the two-factor authentication system or the configuration of external trusted devices such as a mobile phone. But this has not caused confidence in Guard to be withdrawn by having the challenge active and as a reward knowing the inside of this account that right now remains completely private. Whether anyone will be able to achieve it in the coming years is a mystery, but without a doubt whoever achieves it will be a great milestone in the world of the internet.
