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Nintendo and FBI hit by latest hack attacks

Nintendo is the latest company to admit to having been hacked -- and so has a company affiliated with the FBI.

Richard Trenholm Former Movie and TV Senior Editor
Richard Trenholm was CNET's film and TV editor, covering the big screen, small screen and streaming. A member of the Film Critic's Circle, he's covered technology and culture from London's tech scene to Europe's refugee camps to the Sundance film festival.
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Richard Trenholm
2 min read

Nintendo is the latest company to admit to having been hacked -- and so has a company affiliated with the FBI. A group calling itself LulzSec -- you know, for the lulz -- claims to have hacked the Japanese gaming giant, as well as FBI-affiliated cyber-security public-private partnership Infragard.

LulzSec tweeted that the group "love Nintendo and Sega, if anything we'd hack *for* them. If you're listening Nintendo/Sega, you, you uh... you want Sony hacked more?"

The hacker group posted what it claimed was a file from a Nintendo server. Ninty counters that no personal data was accessed, and that the attack took place and was resolved a few weeks ago. The breach appears to have done a tiny fraction of the chaos wreaked by the calamitous violation of Sony's security dominating recent headlines.

The Infragard hack was more serious, with, LulzSec claimed, 180 users' passwords exposed, the company's site taken down, and details of US hack attempts against Libyan infrastructure. They proceded to test those users' passwords on other services and entered into a nasty little conversation with a security consultant called Karim Hijazi, whose personal and company email they hijacked. LulzSec claimed Hijazi offered them money to attack his business rivals.

Sony was attacked yet again at the weekend. Sony says no protected data was half-inched, as the only information accessed was already publicly available. Given that the personal and financial information of 100 million PlayStation Network users is out in the wild, that doesn't narrow it down.

The PlayStation Network is now fully restored to working order after around a month of downtime. Users can claim two free games from a short list, as well as free movies and extended subscriptions. Free identity-theft packages are also offered, although our survey revealed that many of you feel the compensation package is not enough.

Nintendo is set to reveal a fistful of new gaming goodness at gaming extravaganza E3 this week, including a possible Wii 2, successor to the popular but ageing Wii. Our console-loving compadres from GameSpot UK are on the ground in LA for all the latest button-bashing news and previews.