• Home
  • Cyber Crime
  • Cyber warfare
  • APT
  • Data Breach
  • Deep Web
  • Digital ID
  • Hacking
  • Hacktivism
  • Intelligence
  • Internet of Things
  • Laws and regulations
  • Malware
  • Mobile
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Social Networks
  • Terrorism
  • ICS-SCADA
  • POLICIES
  • Contact me
MUST READ

Athlete or Hacker? Russian basketball player accused in U.S. ransomware case

 | 

U.S. CISA adds Citrix NetScaler ADC and Gateway flaw to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

 | 

UK NCA arrested four people over M&S, Co-op cyberattacks

 | 

PerfektBlue Bluetooth attack allows hacking infotainment systems of Mercedes, Volkswagen, and Skoda

 | 

Qantas data breach impacted 5.7 million individuals

 | 

DoNot APT is expanding scope targeting European foreign ministries

 | 

Nippon Steel Solutions suffered a data breach following a zero-day attack

 | 

Iranian group Pay2Key.I2P ramps Up ransomware attacks against Israel and US with incentives for affiliates

 | 

Hackers weaponize Shellter red teaming tool to spread infostealers

 | 

Microsoft Patch Tuesday security updates for July 2025 fixed a zero-day

 | 

Italian police arrested a Chinese national suspected of cyberespionage on a U.S. warrant

 | 

U.S. CISA adds MRLG, PHPMailer, Rails Ruby on Rails, and Synacor Zimbra Collaboration Suite flaws to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

 | 

IT Worker arrested for selling access in $100M PIX cyber heist

 | 

New Batavia spyware targets Russian industrial enterprises

 | 

Taiwan flags security risks in popular Chinese apps after official probe

 | 

U.S. CISA adds Google Chromium V8 flaw to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

 | 

Hunters International ransomware gang shuts down and offers free decryption keys to all victims

 | 

SECURITY AFFAIRS MALWARE NEWSLETTER ROUND 52

 | 

Security Affairs newsletter Round 531 by Pierluigi Paganini – INTERNATIONAL EDITION

 | 

North Korea-linked threat actors spread macOS NimDoor malware via fake Zoom updates

 | 
  • Home
  • Cyber Crime
  • Cyber warfare
  • APT
  • Data Breach
  • Deep Web
  • Digital ID
  • Hacking
  • Hacktivism
  • Intelligence
  • Internet of Things
  • Laws and regulations
  • Malware
  • Mobile
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Social Networks
  • Terrorism
  • ICS-SCADA
  • POLICIES
  • Contact me
  • Home
  • Cyber Crime
  • Hacking
  • Gaming platforms under attack – Nintendo and Ubisoft hacks

Gaming platforms under attack – Nintendo and Ubisoft hacks

Pierluigi Paganini July 11, 2013

The number of attacks against gaming platforms is constantly increasing, the recent data breach occurred to Nintendo and Ubisoft are just the tip of the iceberg.

Gaming platforms are considerable privileged targets for cybercriminals but also for state-sponsored hackers. The first group of attackers is mainly attracted by possibility to steal sensitive information, in many cases including credit card numbers, or other commodities resell in the underground market. The second category of attackers is principally interested to exploit the gaming platforms for cyber espionage purposes or to use them to compose botnets to conduct cyber attacks.

The consoles include various functionalities that make them attractive, often they are equipped with a camera and microphone that could be exploited to control the environment, again majority of application includes communications capabilities, such as VOIP channels and game chat, that could be wiretapped for surveillance purposes.

Once explained the motivations behind the attacks against gaming platforms let’s see the recent news on the topic, a group of hackers has hit Nintendo main fan sites Club Nintendo with a brute force attack, a true bombardment with 15.46 million bogus login attempts in a month. The announcement was made by Japanese video game that admitted the data breach and the stolen of almost 24,000 user accounts. The massive attacks lasted from 9 June to 4 July meanwhile the breach was discovered on July 2th.

The user’s data exposed are real names, addresses, phone numbers and email information.

“There were scattered illicit attempts to login since June 9, but we became aware of the issue after the mass attempt on July 2,” company announced.

The fan site was actively used by the Gaming firm for loyalty purpose, Nintendo allows gaming console owners to answer survey questions and register their products, customers in return receive “coins” or points to spend within Nintendo circuit. The Club Nintendo website has nearly four million of users all over the world, mainly in Japan, company spokesman Yasuhiro Minagawa told that login attempts were limited to Japanese accounts.

Gaming platform hacked Nintendo

The Japanese company revealed that it discovered the data breach after it noted a large number of access errors on the portal, internal security team believes that the hackers obtained the credentials from an outside resource. The countermeasure adopted by Nintendo is the immediate suspension of a compromised accounts and then sent to their owners, via email, the request to reset their password. Nintendo clarified that the cyber attack were concentrated in Japan only, the country has about four million registered members in the fan site Club Nintendo.

It’s not the first time that Nintendo was hit by a cyber attack, in 2011 it suffered an online security breach due to an attack by hackers belonging to the group Lulz Security that compromised a server of one of company affiliates in the US.

But we haven’t to go back to the past to discover other attacks against Gaming Platforms, Ubisoft recently warned its customers  of a data breach that exposed users’ e-mails and passwords:

“We recently discovered that one of our Web sites was exploited to gain unauthorized access to some of our online systems,” “During this process, we learned that data had been illegally accessed from our account database.” Ubisoft stated.

Also for Ubisoft isn’t the first time that the company suffers an attack, in 2010, a consortium of hackers known as Skid Row claimed responsibility for breaching Ubisoft’s Web site “in protest over a policy that required gamers to have a constant Internet connection to play their games.”

Gaming platforms Ubisoft

Sophos’s Chester Wisniewski noted a passage in the hackers’ announcement that could  indicate the involvement of same attackers in other data breach such as Sony, LinkedIn, Zappos.

“This time, membership site that we run ” Club Nintendo that an unauthorized login of 23,926 cases were performed using the ID · password that seems Regarding “, and flowing out of the other services were found.” [emphasis added]

The greatest attacks against gaming platforms ever occurred is the PlayStation Network breach in 2011, in that occasion the hackers exposed data related to 70 million users forcing the Sony company to shut down the entire infrastructure for a week.

In the specific cases mentioned both Nintendo and Ubisoft companies didn’t store credit card data for a user’s account, but anyway the consequences of the hacks could have anyway serious repercussions. The users in fact could share the same credentials for other web services such as payment service providers.

Each data breach could expose the user’s digital identity to serious risks due password reuse habit.

Security is a critical aspect of gaming industry, the company involved manage a huge quantity of customer’s data that need to be protected against a threat increasingly aggressive, gaming platforms are privileged targets and hackers know it!

Pierluigi Paganini

(Security Affairs – Nintendo, hacking, Gaming platforms)


facebook linkedin twitter

brute force attack Cybercrime Cyberespionage data breach gaming platforms Hacking Nintendo state sponsored hackers Ubisoft underground market

you might also like

Pierluigi Paganini July 11, 2025
U.S. CISA adds Citrix NetScaler ADC and Gateway flaw to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog
Read more
Pierluigi Paganini July 10, 2025
UK NCA arrested four people over M&S, Co-op cyberattacks
Read more

leave a comment

newsletter

Subscribe to my email list and stay
up-to-date!

    recent articles

    Athlete or Hacker? Russian basketball player accused in U.S. ransomware case

    Uncategorized / July 11, 2025

    U.S. CISA adds Citrix NetScaler ADC and Gateway flaw to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

    Hacking / July 11, 2025

    UK NCA arrested four people over M&S, Co-op cyberattacks

    Cyber Crime / July 10, 2025

    PerfektBlue Bluetooth attack allows hacking infotainment systems of Mercedes, Volkswagen, and Skoda

    Hacking / July 10, 2025

    Qantas data breach impacted 5.7 million individuals

    Data Breach / July 10, 2025

    To contact me write an email to:

    Pierluigi Paganini :
    pierluigi.paganini@securityaffairs.co

    LEARN MORE

    QUICK LINKS

    • Home
    • Cyber Crime
    • Cyber warfare
    • APT
    • Data Breach
    • Deep Web
    • Digital ID
    • Hacking
    • Hacktivism
    • Intelligence
    • Internet of Things
    • Laws and regulations
    • Malware
    • Mobile
    • Reports
    • Security
    • Social Networks
    • Terrorism
    • ICS-SCADA
    • POLICIES
    • Contact me

    Copyright@securityaffairs 2024

    We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept All”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent.
    Cookie SettingsAccept All
    Manage consent

    Privacy Overview

    This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities...
    Necessary
    Always Enabled
    Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
    Non-necessary
    Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
    SAVE & ACCEPT