Nintendo says US server was targeted in online data attack, reports no data lo

June 5, 2011

s-044135340.html

Nintendo says US server was targeted in online data attack, reports no data loss

By Yuri Kageyama, The Associated Press | The Canadian Press – 1 hour 47 minutes

ago

TOKYO - Nintendo was targeted in a recent online data attack, but no personal or

company information was lost, the Japanese maker of the Wii game console said

Sunday.

The server of an affiliate of Nintendo Co.'s U.S. unit was accessed unlawfully a

few weeks ago, but there was no damage, company spokesman Ken Toyoda said.

" There were no third-party victims, " Toyoda said, declining to elaborate. " But

it is a fact there was some kind of possible hacking attack. "

The damage from what could be part of a recent spate of such data breaches

targeting big-name brands was more serious at rival Sony Corp.

Sony has said massive personal information, including email addresses, names and

birth dates, and involving more than 100 million users, is suspected of having

been stolen after security was compromised in April for its network service for

the PlayStation 3 game machine, for other online services and, in the past week,

from Sony Pictures' website.

It is still unclear who is behind the attacks at Sony or Nintendo, based in

Kyoto.

Hackers calling themselves Lulz Security — a reference to Internetspeak for

" laugh out loud " — claim to have compromised more than 1 million Sony users'

personal information, posting many of the details to the Internet.

Lulz Security also claimed credit for the Nintendo attack, posting what they

said was a Nintendo server configuration file to the Web. The group added that

they pulled the hack off just for fun.

" We're not targeting Nintendo, " the group said in a message posted to Twitter

over the weekend. " We like the N64 (gaming console) too much — we sincerely hope

Nintendo plugs the gap. "

Tokyo-based Sony has said it is strengthening security measures. It has

contacted the FBI and other authorities for an investigation into the cyber

attacks.

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