Bungie XBL Account Hack Illustrates Security Concerns
Patrick Klepek at MTV has filed a story reporting a very disturbing security compromise concerning Microsoft and the Xbox 360. It's got nothing to do with keystroke loggers or malware:
Halo 3 multiplayer producer Joe Tung has had his Xbox Live account compromised by someone using "social engineering," - in other words, by someone who called up Microsoft customer service and managed to coerce a customer support agent into releasing what would normally be private information.
Nor is this by any means the first occurrence of such hijackery - Microsoft has retrained its customer service people before:
The danger stems from the apparent failure of Microsoft customer service to keep track of repeated account access, our expert said. This allows hackers employing social-engineering tactics to call support lines without being tracked. A hacker can then use this information to gain access to a user's Xbox Live gamertag, which typically has a credit card attached.
Actions you can take to protect yourself include, obviously, not giving out your password (especially to a site that asks for it in return for free Microsoft Points), but also not passing gamertags back and forth between friends and, by far the most helpful tip, making sure that the answer to your "secret question" is unrelated to the question: eg, making the answer to a question like "First Pet" something entirely unrelated to your first pet. That way anyone who's been able to find out your personal information won't necessarily have the correct puzzle pieces to steal your account info, credit card, and so forth.
Reports Of Hacked Xbox Live Accounts Stir Concerns Over Gamers' Security [MTVNews]
tiny dancer
Posted to Hot Stuff, Miscellany on 28 August 2008
Other stuff like this: hackers, halo, joe tung, microsoft, xbox 360
Name: Dave