Sunday, March 25, 2007

Microsoft Confirms Xbox Live Pretext Hacking

Via ComputerWorld.com -

Months after Xbox Live users began complaining of hacked accounts, Microsoft yesterday admitted that the service's support staff is at fault, victims of "'pretexting" calls by identity thieves.

Reports of account theft on Xbox Live have been making the rounds of its member forums since at least December. But Microsoft responded only after noted security researcher -- Kevin Finisterre of "Month of Apple Bugs" fame -- last week went public about how his account was hijacked.

As recently as Friday, the company was saying only that it had "found no evidence" of a data breach, and that any thefts had occurred could be blamed on users giving out personal information.

That assertion changed yesterday. "A security researcher, Kevin Finisterre, discovered not a hack, but the fact that some accounts may have been compromised as a result of 'social engineering', also known as 'pretexting,' through our support center," said Larry Hryb, director of programming at Xbox Live, in a blog entry. "Once I realized what he was talking about (he sent me some painful-to-listen-to audio files) I confirmed that the team is fully aware of this issue. They are examining the policies, and have already begun re-training the support staff and partners to help make sure we reduce this type of social engineering attack.

"There's no other way to say it; this situation shouldn't have happened. Our customers deserve better," Hryb added.

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KF's recorded phone calls.....
http://www.digitalmunition.com/xbox-live-remix.m4a. (3MB)

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