Up to 160,000 Nintendo Switch accounts have recently been accessed by hackers, leaving their owners’ personal information potentially at risk. This stems from a problem that has been brewing for quite some time, with rumors of Nintendo’s online network being vulnerable to cyberattack spreading over the past few days.
Earlier this week, there were reports of widespread security breaches involving Nintendo’s online systems in North America, Asia, and South America, with Switch players speaking of suspicious activity on their accounts over Twitter and Reddit. Making the matter even worse is the confirmation that the Switch itself has an as-of-the-moment unfixable flaw in its Nvidia Tegra X1 processor that renders it vulnerable to such cyberattacks, a possibility that has now unfortunately been realized as everyone’s previous concerns have been confirmed.
As confirmed on Nintendo's official Japanese website (translated via IGN), hackers have gained access to around 160,000 Nintendo Network IDs (or NNIDs for short) via what they refer to as “some means other than our service” earlier this month, using them to log into various Nintendo Accounts and potentially make unauthorized purchases. In response, Nintendo has abolished the use of these NNID logins, and accounts that appear to have been compromised will be sent an automatic password reset along with the option to cancel any suspicious purchases made under their username. Thankfully, it seems that users’ credit card information was not among the information accessed, although users' nicknames, dates of birth, country/region, gender, and email addresses were.
Created for older systems like the Nintendo Wii U and 3DS, these NNIDs are now used by owners of those systems to log into the newer Nintendo Accounts used by the Switch. There is still no word yet on how exactly the hackers were able to get ahold of the affected account information, but Nintendo insists that their own databases were not compromised. This is just the latest in a series of video-game related crimes in recent memory, including a money-laundering scheme last year involving Fortnite's V-Bucks online currency.
This recent hacking is no doubt a distressing matter for the Nintendo Switch users involved, as even with their money itself protected there is no telling what type of activity their other information could be used for. In a world increasingly dependent on the internet to purchase goods and perform other business transactions, keeping one’s personal information private has become a vital matter, especially in the world of online gaming. Hopefully, what has already happened is the extent of the damage caused to both Nintendo and its users, who are now reeling from this latest security breach.