Help! (computer security)
I would be most grateful if people who know things about computers and security would read the following account of something that just happened and give me some advice.
STAGE 1: I got an email from Steam saying that there had been a request to use my account from another computer, and that if this wa right I should enter a special access code, but if I hadn't made the request I should change my password immediately.
STAGE 2: So, I went to Steam and logged on. When I logged on, it said it needed to verify it was me because either I was on another computer or I hadn't logged in for a whole. So it said it had sent me an email with a special access code. I retrieved the code and entered it and then was logged in.
STAGE 3: I found out how to change my password and changed it. I shut down the browser and logged off from Steam just in case.
STAGE 4: Then I went back into Steam to have a look at their security options. They seem pretty good. I chose the option to de-authorize other computers, so that my Steam account can only be accessed from another computer via a special access code sent to my email.
STAGE 5: I then realised, looking at my emails again, that in the messages sent to my email at STAGE 1 and STAGE 2 (i.e. the one prompted by someone trying to hack my account, and the one promted by me trying to log in) the special access codes were exactly the same. So does that mean that entering it to access my account was the wrong thing to do? I didn't realise when I did so.
Should I be worried?
OTHER NOTES: My Twitter account was hacked a month or two ago. I just realised that it had the same password as my Steam account. I deleted my Twitter account because I don't use it. I've now changed my Steam password but only did so today after receiving that email. My email account has a completely different password (at the time of the Twitter account hack though, I think it might have been possible to use one to guess the other, but now my email password is very different).
STAGE 1: I got an email from Steam saying that there had been a request to use my account from another computer, and that if this wa right I should enter a special access code, but if I hadn't made the request I should change my password immediately.
STAGE 2: So, I went to Steam and logged on. When I logged on, it said it needed to verify it was me because either I was on another computer or I hadn't logged in for a whole. So it said it had sent me an email with a special access code. I retrieved the code and entered it and then was logged in.
STAGE 3: I found out how to change my password and changed it. I shut down the browser and logged off from Steam just in case.
STAGE 4: Then I went back into Steam to have a look at their security options. They seem pretty good. I chose the option to de-authorize other computers, so that my Steam account can only be accessed from another computer via a special access code sent to my email.
STAGE 5: I then realised, looking at my emails again, that in the messages sent to my email at STAGE 1 and STAGE 2 (i.e. the one prompted by someone trying to hack my account, and the one promted by me trying to log in) the special access codes were exactly the same. So does that mean that entering it to access my account was the wrong thing to do? I didn't realise when I did so.
Should I be worried?
OTHER NOTES: My Twitter account was hacked a month or two ago. I just realised that it had the same password as my Steam account. I deleted my Twitter account because I don't use it. I've now changed my Steam password but only did so today after receiving that email. My email account has a completely different password (at the time of the Twitter account hack though, I think it might have been possible to use one to guess the other, but now my email password is very different).