Steam questions.

[Rath Darkblade]

I'm... a little confused. Earlier today I thought I'd have a look at acquiring GK via Steam. I logged in and found that my account had some complimentary software (games, I presume?) that I neither downloaded nor have access to. I also noticed that the Steam website does not show that it is encrypted (i.e. having the green lock icon, if you're using Firefox) until I have actually logged in.

So my questions are these:

1. Where did all this complimentary software come from? Can I get rid of it somehow, since I don't need it?

2. Why are my Steam username and password not encrypted? I certainly have no wish to log into Steam if my log-in details are not secure.

Thanks!

[Tawmis]

I'm... a little confused. Earlier today I thought I'd have a look at acquiring GK via Steam. I logged in and found that my account had some complimentary software (games, I presume?) that I neither downloaded nor have access to. I also noticed that the Steam website does not show that it is encrypted (i.e. having the green lock icon, if you're using Firefox) until I have actually logged in.
So my questions are these:
1. Where did all this complimentary software come from? Can I get rid of it somehow, since I don't need it?
2. Why are my Steam username and password not encrypted? I certainly have no wish to log into Steam if my log-in details are not secure.
Thanks!

For #1, I am sure there is a way to remove games from your Steam Library. Edit: I was wrong. But someone found a work around.

As for #2, I am not certain.

[Rath Darkblade]

Hmm... thanks for the reply, but I'm not sure if I made myself clear. I wasn't referring to removing games from my Steam Library; rather, when I log into my account under the Steam Store and then check my account (by going to the "[my name's] account" menu and then clicking on "Account Details"), I find that I have some free complimentary software. However, if I log out of my account and then log into the Steam client, that software never shows up.

I never asked to download it, I don't have access to it, and I can't get rid of it. *shrug* So I'm wondering if that has happened to you too - and where all this "complimentary" software has come from. It includes:

1. Company of Heroes 2 - Free Weekend (Oct 2014)
2. Don't Starve - Oct. 2014 Free Weekend
3. Blade Symphony - Oct. 2014 Free Weekend
4. Killing Floor - Free Weekend (Oct 2014)
5. Grid 2 - Oct. 2014 Free Weekend
6. XCOM Enemy Unknown - Oct. 2014 Free Weekend
7. Trine 2 - Free Weekend (Oct 2014)
8. PayDay 2 - Free Weekend (Oct 2014)
9. Trine - Free Weekend (Oct 2014)
10. Awesomenauts Free Weekend Oct 2014
11. Injustice: Gods Among Us Ultimate Edition Free Weekend October 2014

What does it all mean?

[adeyke]

Steam is offering access to those games for free for a limited time. They've previously done this for individual games, but now they're doing it for a bunch at a time. That's what the store's main page is talking about with its "The Free Weekend Weekend". During this free period, you can download the game and play it if you want. Once the free period is over, the game disappears from your library and you're no longer able to play it (unless you buy the game; the affected games are currently all on sale). If you don't want to play those games, just ignore them. They're not harming your just by being in your library for a short while (they're not even using up your bandwidth unless you choose to download them). If they really annoy you, right-click the game in the library and choose "Set Categories...", then check the box at the bottom that says "Hide this game in my library" and click OK. Just be warned that you might be setting yourself up for confusion later if you do end up buying the game and it's still hidden.

Steam is secure. The login page uses HTTPS, and that's where it matters.

[Rath Darkblade]

OK. I wasn't aware of these other issues, so I was a bit confused there. Thanks, adeyke!

One other thing. I wasn't sure about the difference between HTTP (which I'm quite familiar with) and HTTPS, so I looked up HTTPS on Wikipedia. The wiki article about HTTPS says (in part):

...having only a certain page that contains sensitive information (such as a log-in page) of a website loaded over HTTPS, while having the rest of the website loaded over plain HTTP, will expose the user to attacks. On a site that has sensitive information somewhere on it, every time that site is accessed with HTTP instead of HTTPS the user and the session will get exposed.

I can see that the log-in page uses HTTPS, but the other pages use HTTP - e.g. http://store.steampowered.com/. So... again, I'm confused. Is the wiki article out of date? Or have I misunderstood what HTTPS is all about?

[Collector]

Heartbleed.

[Rath Darkblade]

I beg your pardon? Now I'm even more confused. :-\ I looked up "Heartbleed" on wiki - I knew it was an exploit of some kind and found that it was a vulnerability exploit in OpenSSL. However, the same article also writes that

Games including Steam... were affected and fixed.

So, again, I'm puzzled. Can you please elaborate?

[Collector]

Just that it is foolish to assume that anything cannot be vulnerable. It was widely held as completely secure til it was found that it was not. The exploit was able to capture login info.

[adeyke]

Just that it is foolish to assume that anything cannot be vulnerable. It was widely held as completely secure til it was found that it was not. The exploit was able to capture login info.

I think it goes both ways. It's foolish to assume that anything cannot be vulnerable, and it's also foolish to demand complete invulnerability. The only way to be completely sure that your data are completely safe is to not use any technology at all.

As far as I know, Steam is currently secure enough. Just make sure you have a good password there and a (different) good password on your email account, and that you avoid getting phished.

[Collector]

That was sort of my point. In the end, often the weakest link in your security exists between your keyboard and your chair. There was an editor for Wired magazine that had linked all of his various accounts to his Apple account, which gave a hacker access to all of his accounts. So different good passwords for each of your accounts and do not link them.