Gaming

Nintendo confirms roughly 160,000 accounts affected by recent hacks


The hackers may not be physically taking Switches but they have been taking people’s private data (Pic: Nintendo)

A lot of Nintendo Switch accounts have been affected by hacking attempts, but it looks like no one’s credit card data has been touched.

There were fears recently that several people had had their Nintendo Switch accounts hacked into, with many reporting that unauthorised purchases were being made.

Earlier this week, Nintendo itself confirmed that it was looking into the claims and now it has shared its findings. It turns out roughly 160,000 accounts that use a Nintendo Network ID have been affected by hackers.

This information was posted on Nintendo’s Japanese website and then shared on Twitter by Nibel, who has helpfully provided a brief synopsis of the details.

While the hackers were able to access personal information, such as birthdays and email addresses, apparently credit card data was unaffected; whether that extends to PayPal is unclear though.

If you have lost money as a result of somebody else using your account to make a purchase, Nibel says that you should contact Nintendo ASAP and it will cancel the purchase.

In order to combat the hacking, Nintendo has deactivated Nintendo Network ID login completely and reset passwords for the affected accounts.

That’s something the Nintendo UK Twitter account has confirmed but otherwise there’s been no comment in English.

It is still recommended that you use 2-Factor Authentication to further protect your account from any more potential hacking attempts.

Nintendo hasn’t stated whether it intends to reactivate Nintendo Network ID login in the future or if it has been abolished completely.

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