Hackers! Horrible hackers! They're coming to steal our Gamertags and our Microsoft points and our souls! Raise shields and prepare the photonic cannon! Oh, wait, never mind. False alarm, it seems, according to Microsoft's own Major Nelson. Yesterday's fears about hackers taking control of Xbox Live seem to have been allayed.
Despite some recent reports and speculation, I want to reassure all of our 6 million Xbox Live members that we have looked into the situation and found no evidence of any compromise of the security of the Xbox Live Network or Bungie.net. There have been a few isolated incidents where malicious users have been attempting to draw personal information from unsuspecting users and use it to gain access to their LIVE account. This is a good time to remind our members that they should never give out any of their personal information. Additionally it may be a good idea to download this free PDF file from Microsoft.com ' Help Protect Yourself Against Identity Theft’ that gives you some excellent information and tips on how to protect yourself. Hope that clears things up.
We may never know how this tempest in a teapot started, but hopefully this will be the end of it. It certainly was a hot story though, wasn't it? How could we not be drawn in by a security breach in one of online gaming's most popular and prominent services? Such a thing conjures up images of Die Hard where a crack team of commandos take control of Nakatomi Tower. The truth is likely closer to a group of Cheeto-stained teens with too much time and Mountain Dew on their hands than Hans Gruber, but that stereotype doesn't make for an exciting mental image.
