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I just recently started using steam again and was introduced to their new security system...

Grr...

...where I have to put a code (sent via email from steam) in everywhere i want to assess my account. Even if it's just on their website from my work.

What are the Pro's and Con's of this? It's really irritating to put in a code every time!

Steam asked me multiple times to authenticate my PC/Webbrowser. Is it just me or has this happend to other people as well?

Extra Info

Steam Guard will ask you to verify when reinstalling, and a second time when you replace your steamapps folder

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    Even though this is about a gaming website, it's not about a gaming topic. It's about a web security topic. Which is off topic for gaming.
    – Invader Skoodge
    Apr 26, 2011 at 13:20
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    @StrixVaria Web security? What the heck does this have to do with web security? It's a security feature of a gaming platform.
    – Šimon Tóth
    Apr 26, 2011 at 13:24
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    @Josefvz You could ask on security.stackexchange.com But I'm not sure if that would be on-topic.
    – Šimon Tóth
    Apr 26, 2011 at 13:28
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    @Let_Me_Be Even if it is a security measure within a gaming platform, which I didn't realize at first (I thought it was only on steamcommunity.com), it's still decidedly not related to gaming. It's a question about the pros and cons of a security feature. Expertise in gaming adds no insight to the answer of this question.
    – Invader Skoodge
    Apr 26, 2011 at 13:36
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    This is ridiculous, it is a question about a feature of a gaming platform that end users must make decisions about. Decidedly on-topic for Gaming.SE. Sure, it could go on other sites, but there is no rule that says sites must have zero overlap.
    – Nick T
    Apr 26, 2011 at 20:27

2 Answers 2

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Pros for you - If your account is stolen, the other users won't be able to repeatedly login with your account.

Cons for you - You have to do a one-time validation

Pros for Steam - It is harder for people to share accounts, since only one e-mail can be listed and they will always get the notifications.

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    You do have a choice. It can be disabled, just look in your settings within Steam.
    – Matthew Read
    Apr 26, 2011 at 13:32
  • Not really a one-time validation as steam has asked me multiple times on the same machine
    – Stingervz
    Apr 28, 2011 at 13:17
  • It is probably using a cookie, so if you delete the cookies from your machine you would need to validate again.
    – bwarner
    Apr 28, 2011 at 16:03
  • cookies are being used by browsers. THe steam Client itself asked me to validate multiple times
    – Stingervz
    Apr 29, 2011 at 7:36
  • I think the bigger pro for Steam is that they don't have answer so many support calls about stolen accounts, saving them tons of support money. This is the same reason Blizzard introduced two-factor authentication for their games.
    – BlueRaja - Danny Pflughoeft
    Jul 22, 2012 at 4:50
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It's the usual security-convenience trade off to make it (slightly) harder to lose access to a Steam account. If your email password and your Steam passwords are the same, however, it won't do much.

Then again using the same password everywhere is a bad idea.

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