Nintendo was recently on the receiving end of a hack-attack. Various Nintendo Switch users complained that someone had been accessing their account, mostly for the purpose of acquiring V-bucks in Fortnite. Well, Nintendo advised that users change their passwords and enable two-step authentication, but even then some people noted that their accounts were still being infiltrated. Well, it turns out that it had to do with the old Nintendo Network IDs that they originally instituted for the Wii U, and so as a safeguard they decided to discontinue support for the Nintendo Network IDs.
Nintendo informed the public about the discontinuation via a tweet on April 24th, 2020.
Please read important information regarding the discontinuation of Nintendo Account sign-ins using a Nintendo Network ID: https://t.co/u3KRfj5TxK
— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) April 24, 2020
The tweet contains a link that leads to Nintendo’s official website where they explain…
“We would like to provide an update on the recent incidents of unauthorized access to some Nintendo Accounts.
“While we continue to investigate, we would like to reassure users that there is currently no evidence pointing toward a breach of Nintendo’s databases, servers or services. As one action in our ongoing investigation, we are discontinuing the ability to use a Nintendo Network ID to sign in to a Nintendo Account. All other options to sign in to a Nintendo Account remain available.
“As a further precaution, we will soon contact users about resetting passwords for Nintendo Network IDs and Nintendo Accounts that we have reason to believe were accessed without authorization.”
The nature of the hack has still not been disclosed, but it’s possible that it was a data breach somewhere recently that contained username and password combinations that worked with the Nintendo Switch’s online database. It’s hard to tell exactly how widespread the issue is because Nintendo has been mum about the details, and it’s still not clear exactly how many people have been affected.
Even still, it’s best to play it safe than sorry and if you have a Nintendo Network ID or have used similar credentials for your Nintendo Switch, be sure to change the username, password, and maybe even the e-mail address associated with your account.
(Thanks for the news tip Mantorok’s Branded)
