In the past year, a number of Xbox Live subscribers have seen their accounts taken over by hackers. In the past, Microsoft has denied that their Xbox Live servers have been breached by cyber attacks and instead have blamed outside attacks, such as phishing scams, as the reasons for these issues.
Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 25 April 2012 - Following last year’s successful LEGO Mindstorms Hackerspaces Challenge, HITB is excited to be working with Microsoft for this year’s CommSec Challenge which will bring players into the world of motion capture devices. The Kinect for Windows CommSec Challenge takes place on May 24th and 25th alongside HITBSecConf2012 - Amsterdam.
The next generation Xbox has entered the manufacturing stages, according to a report by IGN. A source told the gaming site the hardware recently started being manufactured at the Austin, Texas branch of Flextronics, the company currently putting together the Xbox 360 and the original Xbox.
Microsoft is looking into allegations that credit card data can be retrieved off an XBox 360 even after the device has been (re)formatted.
Researchers at Drexel University allege that even after restoring an Xbox 360 game console to factory settings, some personal data (including credit card information and billing information) is still stored on the HDD which can then be retrieved using some basic hacking tools.
There have been some more whispers on the next-gen Xbox grapevine.
Apparently a developer summit happened for the console this week, attended by a Crytek dev who leaked the existence of the meeting by a tweet (which has since been deleted).
It seems like the recent release of Kinect for Windows has caused a resurgence in Kinect hacks over the last few days. The official Microsoft SDK makes it easier than ever to come up with interesting new uses for the depth-sensing camera system, and now there's a Kinect hack you can play with from the comfort of your own home without even buying a Kinect.
Today has been named as Safer Internet Day. On this occasion Microsoft has decided to take some time to talk to Xbox 360 owners and Xbox Live subscribers about how the company is trying to handle reports of Xbox Live accounts being highjacked. It's an issue that Microsoft and a number of Xbox Live users have been dealing with a lot lately. So far, Microsoft has insisted that the Xbox Live service itself has not been attacked and has blamed the account hijackings on phishing scams and other methods.
After his Xbox Live account was stolen, Josh had to file a Better Business Bureau complaint in order to make MIcrosoft pay attention to him and restore his account access. After three months, he was delighted to log back in to his account, but surprised to learn that he had been banned for a "code of conduct violation." What did his account do to get banned? It was trying to steal other accounts. Imagine that.
Microsoft will dump its Xbox Live point system by years' end, according to reports, in a move that could kill what is a cash cow for fraudsters.
The Microsoft Points system was used to purchase gaming content on Xbox Live.
But it was also used by scammers who etched out a grey market selling hacked Xbox Live profiles loaded with Microsoft Points. SC Magazine previously visited dozens of lawless auction and retail sites that freely sold Microsoft Points for a fraction of the cost charged by Xbox Live.
