No-Steam forum poster MaddoxX claims to have bypassed the security of Valve's digital distribution platform Steam. In a thread entitled "Better read this VALVe! *UPDATE*", the hacker bragged of his exploits, posting a 3.83 MB archive that includes a text file signed by MaddoxX & cIntX, unverified credit card numbers, transaction amounts, Valve's supposed bank balance, and data that reportedly allows the creation of counterfeit cafe certificates. If true, this would permit free access to Valve's Cyber Cafe program, which offers subscribers access to most of the titles available on Steam. Also included in the package was a file named "lolhaxed.jpg", apparently created in MS Paint, featuring a caveman stalking a brontosaurus.

"We also don't want money from VALVe," MaddoxX's message read. "We want a simple message on their site."

Topics relating to the supposed hack were quickly deleted at the official Steam forums. "Please do not re-post that thread. Valve are aware of the issue and are investigating," explained one moderator. "Making threads on the issue will not help."

"As far as I know only the Cyber Cafe owners were hit," the moderator wrote in a later message. "I am not sure though." Cyber Cafe subscribers say they have heard nothing from Valve about a possible security breach.

However, MaddoxX claims to have access to all of Steam's credit card records, as evidenced by his publication of alleged transaction details such as names, credit card numbers, and amounts ranging from $40 and $50 to $860. "I just came accross [sic] the login details when I was browsing some stuff," MaddoxX told The Register. "The access to their whole customer database was more like luck, but still a hack because the login details are inside some files. They changed the logins now and made it not possible anymore to get the details from the files. The [credit card] details itself are stored in a MySQL database where I still have access to."

"Happy Easter hahahahah," MaddoxX taunted after posting the information. "I'm waiting for you VALVe."

Requests to Valve for comment have not yet been returned.

Update: According to The Steam Review, Steam itself was not accessed, but rather a Valve file server. Furthermore, the site explains that only the credit cards of Cyber Cafe subscribers were compromised. "The numbers in danger are all held by cybercafe owners, who have recurring subscriptions to their Steam games and have probably all long been informed," the posting reads. "Consumer data are only stored in enough detail to fight mass fraud, not make purchases, and weren't compromised anyway."

Update 2: "There has been no security breach of Steam," Valve director of marketing Doug Lombardi told 1UP. "The alleged hacker gained access to a third-party site that Valve uses to manage the commercial partners in its Cyber Cafe program. This Cyber Cafe billing system is not connected to Steam. We are working with law enforcement agencies on this matter, and encourage anyone with more information to e-mail us at Catch_A_Thief@valvesoftware.com."

Restarting Steam will have you grab an updated Steam client, as noted on the Steam website. The update takes care of two crashing bugs, and also fixes an issue where more content would be downloaded than required.

The Steam website notes that an update has been released for Half-Life 2: Episode One. It fixes jerky animation in demo recordings, and also takes care of a bug so that the SDK can access Episode One content.

As expected, an update has been released for Source multiplayer games. The Source Engine update includes improved voice communication and a reworked text chat with chat history and message filter.

1UP, GameSpy and FiringSquad are three of the latest sites with Portal impressions, checking out Valve's upcoming action puzzler at the Game Developers Conference.

GameSpot and IGN have Portal previews posted this evening, sharing their impressions of the game after playing it at the Game Developers Conference.

There's a Portal preview on Game Informer, offering the latest impressions of Valve's puzzle-platformer. The article contains new screenshots and video material from the game, which will be included with Half-Life 2: Episode Two.

The latest Steam news update is now available, noting a few things including a communications update that's coming for the Source Engine.

We'll be releasing an update soon to both text chat and voice communication in the Source Engine that will improve communication for people in multiplayer games. We've completely rebuilt the text chat system, adding the ability to browse your chat history right in the chat window and a filter to remove messages that clutter your game screen. Voice communication will be getting a huge boost in quality, so if you have a microphone sitting on the corner of your desk collecting dust, now would be a good time to plug it back in.

And a couple more screenshots as new snaps from Half-Life 2: Episode Two have also been released. The expansion pack, which will also include Team Fortress 2 and Portal, is currently scheduled for a fall release.

Several new Portal screenshots are now available, showing the Source Engine powered puzzle game to be included with Half-Life 2: Episode Two.

EA and Valve Unveil The Black Box and The Orange Box is the press release officially announcing the two Half-Life 2: Episode Two releases we mentioned a few weeks ago. According to the announcement, Episode 2 has been delayed again, as a Fall 2007 date is mentioned. It was previously due out this summer, which already represented a delay.

The chaps at Computer & Video Games have posted a Q&A with Doug Lombardi, asking Valve's director of marketing about the company's Steam service.

As was expected, a Steam client update is now available. To grab it just restart your client. Here's what is new

* Added Guest Passes functionality - allows owners of certain Steam games to let their friends play games for free, for a limited time trial
* Changed Steam client auto-update mechanism to first acquire updates in the background and then ask user whether to restart & apply
* Added Favorites area and collapsable status categories to 'My Games' list
* Added 5 new colored skins (Default, Ice, Sand, Obsidian, and Grey), selectable in "Settings"
* Added 'next' button to Steam news window, allowing multiple messages to be viewed in a single session
* Fixed client attempting to update some games which user does not own; was occuring when user had played game during a Free Weekend
* Fixed games purchased via PayPal not working in offline mode

The latest Valve news update is now available through Steam, noting the recent 20 hours of downtime and mentioning "We learned a lot and are taking steps to make sure that when the next storm like this hits our area 15-20 years from now *fingers crossed*, people will still be playing games on Steam while we are buying flashlight batteries." The update also notes holiday discounts for various games on Steam.

As many Steam users have noticed, the service has been unavailable all day and complaining in the Steam forums isnt possible, as those are down as well. The reason for this downtime is that the Seattle area was hit by a storm last night, taking out power. According to the Seattle Times story, it could take until midnight tomorrow before power is restored everywhere. With Steam unavailable, people are unable to play games they purchased over Valve's content delivery platform, which certainly shows one of the downsides to a service like this. Update: the forums are now slowly loading, and have this message.

There is currently a wide spread power outage in Bellevue/Seattle impacting Steam Server availability. Unfortunately ETA for when the power will be restored is unknown as the power company will only work on restoring it once the storm has eased and the high winds have died down. Any issues you are experiencing with connecting to Steam are only temporary, as this isn't an end-user issue.

Following up on news earlier this year, Valve today officially announced that the popular physics-based Source toolbox Garry's Mod will be available on Steam as of Wednesday, November 29. According to Garry's Mod creator Garry Newman, the Steam release of the mod has been recreated from the ground up. "It has a bunch of new tools to play with (winches, hydraulics and hoverballs), totally new spawn menu and a few new Post Processing effects to play with," he said. "The great thing about Steam is that I can update really regularly, really easily--which is something I plan on doing--so expect more tools/gamemodes/stuff to come."

Garry's Mod will run $9.95 over Steam; the game requires another Source-powered game installed in order to run. A Garry's Mod bundle including Counter-Strike source will be sold for $24.95 for users without an existing installed Source-based product.

New at FiringSquad today is this Natural Selection 2 Q&A. Charlie Cleveland is asked about plans for a Source Engine powered followup to the popular Half-Life 1 RTS/FPS hybrid mod.

New at FiringSquad this afternoon is a Half-Life 2: Episode Two Q&A. Valve's Doug Lombardi is asked about the reaction to Episode One, the EpTwo storyline, gameplay changes, the Team Fortress 2 look, Portal, and SDK plans.

The latest Steam news update mentions that Valve has recently banned 10,000 Steam accounts after new Valve Anti-Cheat technology found people cheating in Counter-Strike: Source and other games. 'We expect to see a surge of forum posts laying blame squarely at the feet of "my little brother."'.

Tech Report is the latest site with an article on Valve adding multi-core CPU support to the Source Engine, taking a look at what all is involved to make this possible and the new possibilities that become available.