77,000 Steam accounts get hijacked every month, so Valve’s getting tough with traders

As the game industry grows, so does the criminal element within it.

Valve says that hackers hijack and pillage more than 77,000 accounts on its Steam digital platform every month. And these aren’t just accounts belonging to new or naive users — they’re professional gamers, Reddit users, and item traders, according to a recent Steam blog post. Valve says that hacking is more widespread now that most users are involved in Steam’s virtual economy in some way, holding virtual items and trading cards that can be traded or sold (for Steam Wallet funds or even real money).