Xbox Security Chief Says Account Hacks Linked To Phishing, Resale Schemes

snoopy · Oct 21, 2011

XBox Security Chief Says Account Hacks Linked To Phishing, Resale Schemes

Recent XBox Live account hijacks are most likely the product of phishing and identity theft scams that happened outside of XBox Live, and that are aimed at reselling and profiting from the stolen accounts, according to Stephen Toulouse, Director of Xbox LIVE Policy and Enforcement.

In an interview with Threatpost, Toulouse said that Microsoft hasn't found any evidence of a compromise of the XBox Live infrastructure, nor has it seen evidence of a flaw in FIFA 11 or FIFA 12, the games by Electronic Arts that media reports have linked to fraudulent in-game purchases. However, he said that the takeovers and illegal purchases fit a pattern of crime in which XBox Live accounts are taken over, tricked out with hot games and expansion packs and other features, then resold online.

The fraudulent activity affects a tiny sliver of Microsoft's 35 million active XBox users - much less than one percent, Toulouse said. However, with such a large user base, even a small percent represents a lot of customers. Microsoft is continuing to investigate the incidents and takes any suspicious activity seriously, he said. Toulouse said he does not know how the XBox live accounts in question were hacked, but suspects that the compromises typically follow phishing attacks, in a variety of forms.
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More details here: https://threatpost.com/en_us/blogs/xbox-security-chief-says-account-hacks-linked-phishing-resale-schemes-102011

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