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Nintendo Security Games

Hackers Attack Nintendo, But Company Claims Data Safe 159

Posted by timothy from the 15-minutes-of-fame dept.
Dr Herbert West writes with this from the Wall Street Journal: "Nintendo said Sunday that a server for its US unit's website had been hacked into but that no company or customer information was compromised. The hacker group Lulzsec, which allegedly was behind other breaches of Sony websites earlier this week, claimed responsibility. Lulzsec posted a server configuration file as proof of its involvement yet said it wasn't targeting Nintendo. 'We just got a config file and made it clear that we didn't mean any harm,' the group said this morning via its Twitter.' Nintendo had already fixed it anyway. The attack comes as Nintendo this week launches its new online service for its 3DS hand-held game machine."
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Hackers Attack Nintendo, But Company Claims Data Safe More

Hackers Attack Nintendo, But Company Claims Data Safe

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  • Data is safe because... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 05, 2011 @02:51PM (#36344420)

    The data is safe because they make you put in your CC info every time you make a purchase, instead of storing the data. This is something that people whine about and say Nintendo is being too cautious about every time they talk about the Wii Shop Channel. Still whining, trolls?

    Also, if LulzSec doesn't get taken out soon, I'm fucking gonna find one of them and shit on their head. This is getting ridiculous.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Not only that, but there's no online accounts to access because Nintendo wisely uses only consoles and friend codes. Nintendo actually cares about their customers' privacy. There's basically no data to hack from Nintendo.

      Whereas Sony requires you to enter your life's story to use a fucking online service, Nintendo just gives you a short number. You give it to your friends. No accounts to create, no privacy to lose. It's simple, it's easy, it's private, and it's secure.

      I have to say, this is the first time t

      • Their princess was in another castle. (Score:5, Funny)

        by Oxford_Comma_Lover ( 1679530 ) on Sunday June 05, 2011 @03:15PM (#36344562)

        > I can't think of anything Nintendo has ever done to justify this.

        LulzSec was mad because their princess was in another castle.

        • ... or because you can't backup licenses in Mario Kart Wii. After unlocking all the extra tracks, vehicles, and characters for my 5 year old daughter, she somehow manages to delete her license. It has happened twice now.

          • You need to get a new daughter. Make sure that the Nintendo seal of approval is on the package.

          • There is homebrew software that allows you to bypass the copy protection and back up saved games and channels that are blocked from copying in the system software. Google around for instructions on how to install the Homebrew Channel and get started.

          • Re:Their princess was in another castle. (Score:5, Interesting)

            by MagusSlurpy ( 592575 ) on Sunday June 05, 2011 @06:09PM (#36345710) Homepage

            ... or because you can't backup licenses in Mario Kart Wii.

            FYI, you can copy your data to an SD card [nintendo.com], and then just remove the card.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by Khyber ( 864651 )

              EXACTLY! This is why the SD slot was put there! I can't believe people haven't thought about this. ESPECIALLY geeks on Slashdot. Hey guys, you know where the data is stored, you know it's on a removable medium, why don't you save, turn off, and REMOVE IT, then make a copy of the SD card and then stick the thing back in? Your laptop is your Wii backup (assuming it has an SD card reader, which most do.)

              • Thank you! Christ. Even worse, if you don't make the back-up, it's possible to just go grab a completed file off the internet and throw that on. When I got RE4: Wii Edition, I didn't bother doing the stuff I'd already done a dozen times on my GCN, I just grabbed a save file and played the stuff I hadn't played before. I can't imagine anyone playing through something 3 times for someone else willingly with the only goal of unlocking it when you can just toss a file on instead.

                • I can't imagine anyone playing through something 3 times for someone else willingly with the only goal of unlocking it when you can just toss a file on instead.

                  To be fair to him, it is Mario Kart, so maybe this was just his excuse to his wife to play it again. "I'm sorry, Honey, I can't mow the lawn, Amanda wants to play Bowser's Castle 2!"

            • FYI, you can copy your data to an SD card [nintendo.com], and then just remove the card.

              From the page you linked: "Please note that while most game save files can be copied, some titles -- particularly those that have online play -- may not allow for the copying of save files to an SD Card." Every Wii game with WFC play that I own keeps the saved progress and the friend code credentials in the same SD card, and Nintendo doesn't want people copying friend code credentials.

      • Re:Data is safe because... (Score:5, Insightful)

        by artor3 ( 1344997 ) on Sunday June 05, 2011 @03:30PM (#36344638)

        Attacking PBS is altruistic? Is Big Bird really that much of a dick?

        • No, but Elmo is.

      • They're doing it for "teh lulz", most likely.

        And I also doubt most of the recent Sony hacks have been vengeance. The first one, yeah, probably, and justifiably so. Everything after that was just petty crooks - they smelled blood in the water, and swarmed.

      • Actually about Sony? (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Daetrin ( 576516 ) on Sunday June 05, 2011 @03:51PM (#36344734)

        I have to say, this is the first time the news of LulzSec hacking has actually made me mad. Everything else they've done could be argued to be altruistic, but this is just pointlessly lashing out at anyone they find. I can't think of anything Nintendo has ever done to justify this.

        Actually, i wonder if this was intended as a PR move intended to help Nintendo with the primary intent actually being to further damage Sony. Sony's been in the news for weeks for getting hacked multiple times and losing tons of data about customers. Now Nintendo gets hacked, but it's pretty minor and no customer data was compromised. Doesn't that make Sony look even worse in comparison?

        We've already got people in this very thread saying this means Nintendo's way of doing things is better Sony's. I'm not going to take sides on that issue, but if LulzSec's goal was to get people to criticize Sony in comparison to Nintendo then they seem to have succeeded.

      • I can't think of anything Nintendo has ever done to justify this.

        Nintendo consoles are made by Foxconn in China and Nintendo does not release any public information about how or if they assure that human rights abuses are not taking place. Do they use underage workers, workers forced to work unacceptably long hours, and workers forced to work in dangerous conditions? Maybe, probably, but we sure don't know and Nintendo isn't performing and publishing audits of third world manufacturing facilities and telling us when they stop doing business because of abuses (as a very f

        • Yes, these abuses are bad, but what would the alternative be? Massive poverty and unemployment. The problem isn't Nintendo, but is rooted in the Chinese government and the Chinese culture. Without large companies like Foxconn, the alternative most likely wouldn't be a higher standard of living, but instead would be more agricultural work, which is often more dangerous and almost always pays lower than factory work.
        • Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by KDR_11k ( 778916 )

        Also it's fast. I needed like 1-2 hours to get a 360 connected to the internet and ready to download demos and stuff, the Wii shows you the TOS and lets you into the store. No need to make three different accounts and deal with email verification and whatnot.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by syousef ( 465911 )

        Nintendo actually cares about their customers' privacy ... I can't think of anything Nintendo has ever done to justify this.

        This is the company that got their Wii hacked because they couldn't implement RSA (They chose to do a string comparison where binary was needed).

        Also the same guys that keep trying to kill off homebrew and go around harassing the homebrew devs.

        They would be hard pressed to be more anti consumer, but I bet we see a better attempt anyway with the Wii's successor. Me thinks you've been imbibing of the coolaid, or you're a Wii fanboi, or a Nintendo astroturf monkey.

        • Also the same guys that keep trying to kill off homebrew and go around harassing the homebrew devs.

          But what alternative do you recommend? Which maker of set-top video game appliances is friendly to homebrew devs?

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by syousef ( 465911 )

            Also the same guys that keep trying to kill off homebrew and go around harassing the homebrew devs.

            But what alternative do you recommend? Which maker of set-top video game appliances is friendly to homebrew devs?

            What maker has been effective at stopping them by harassing people.

            Honestly, go after the pirates, not the tinkerers.

            • What maker has been effective at stopping them by harassing people. Honestly, go after the pirates, not the tinkerers.

              Homebrew feeds piracy, while homebrew itself is fine and dandy it exposes raw hardware which can easily be used for pirate methods (see wii usb loaders everywhere, which while they do serve a valid purpose for reducing loading times I imagine a fair number of people have a few games they don't legitimately own from tpb)

              Their aim is not to stop homebrew outright, but just make the barrier of entry higher. With a sufficiently high barrier of entry to playing with it tinkerers will simply be more determined an

              • Re: (Score:2)

                by syousef ( 465911 )

                What maker has been effective at stopping them by harassing people.

                Honestly, go after the pirates, not the tinkerers.

                Homebrew feeds piracy, while homebrew itself is fine and dandy it exposes raw hardware which can easily be used for pirate methods (see wii usb loaders everywhere, which while they do serve a valid purpose for reducing loading times I imagine a fair number of people have a few games they don't legitimately own from tpb)

                Their aim is not to stop homebrew outright, but just make the barrier of entry higher. With a sufficiently high barrier of entry to playing with it tinkerers will simply be more determined and the people who think 'I just want to play burnt games' are more likely to simply not bother.

                What you are arguing is essentially that no one should ever be able to tinker with their own hardware because it may compromise the platform. The same argument can be made against home programming on the PC. Yet copy protection schemes exist on the PC, some of which have not been cracked (but all of which seem to catch out legitimate users too). So it is possible to have hardware and software exposed to the user for play but to still secure games from being copied. Stifling innovation, tinkering and free sp

                • What you are arguing is essentially that no one should ever be able to tinker with their own hardware because it may compromise the platform.

                  Not really, tinker to your hearts content, but don't expect a company in whose best interests it is in to cut you out to make it _easy_ for you.

                  The same argument can be made against home programming on the PC.

                  If I buy a locked out pc (a.k.a console) I don't expect them to make it easy for me to do my own things. Sure I can do my own things anyway, and they can't stop me, doesn't mean they have to make it easy for me since after all I bought the device locked down knowingly of my own will.

                  Stifling innovation, tinkering and free spirit is way too high a price to pay to protect some company's intellectual property.

                  You cannot stop tinkering, but you are buying locked out hardware and bitching that

                  • Re: (Score:2)

                    by syousef ( 465911 )

                    I don't see life being that much harder for pirates at all. Locked out hardware which you then sell to the user to own is just an idiotic concept. Someone out there will have the tools to break it. Once broken they'll facilitate others with lesser tools, or sell mod chips. It has never worked. It is just moronic. All these megacorps have created is ill will and people unwilling to buy the next gen of console. Then they lament that the games industry is dying.

                    • Re: (Score:2)

                      by syousef ( 465911 )

                      ...and responding with "don't like the lockout, don't buy the console" is something you can afford, but not the console makers. Enough people don't buy and their business tanks.

                    • I don't see life being that much harder for pirates at all.

                      Were you even around for the dreamcast era?

                      You could burn discs and play them on unmodified consoles. You're saying that it's not making it that much harder? mod chips and even soft mods are a crap tonne harder than simply inserting a disc.

                      ...and responding with "don't like the lockout, don't buy the console" is something you can afford, but not the console makers. Enough people don't buy and their business tanks.

                      Their business, their choice, who are you to force any particular business decision upon them? (unless you are a majority shareholder, which I doubt). They seem to be doing well so far.

          • Alienware? Not really a set-top or an appliance, but I think that's the closest you'll get with anything modern.

            If you count the Atari Flashback 2, while it voids the warranty, they do give you the pinouts to add a cartridge port on the PCB, then it can run most Atari 2600 homebrew...

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by smelch ( 1988698 )
              I think the answer you are looking for is Microsoft [winextra.com]. They've made it the easiest to write games for their console, and actually supported hacking the kinect to work on PCs by releasing drivers and working on a forthcoming SDK.

      • Nintendo just gives you a short number. You give it to your friends.

        The problem here is that online games on Nintendo platforms don't give me the choice to host a game for anyone who has added my friend code or whose friend code I have added. It works only for mutual friends: anyone who has added my friend code and whose friend code I have added.

      • Everything else they've done could be argued to be altruistic

        Altruistic? That's a difficult argument to make. LulzSec are not whitehat [twitter.com]. An altruist would not release credit card details onto the internet for shits and giggles.

        This really is a case of, First they came for PSN, but I didn't speak out because I was a Sony hater...

    • Re:Data is safe because... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by node 3 ( 115640 ) on Sunday June 05, 2011 @03:45PM (#36344700)

      This whole thread is so full of troll...

      "The data is safe because Nintendo doesn't provide the same level of service as Sony", is somehow turned into "the data is safe because Sony is a bad company and Nintendo is good".

      One of the really funny things about defending the way Nintendo does it is that if you buy a new console, you can't even redownload your purchases. With Sony, you just log in with your PSN ID, and download away! Isn't that usually the argument against online purchases? That you have to re-buy everything? Yet since Sony is the one doing it right, you guys find no trouble contorting yourself to make it look like it's the other way around.

      And this is clearly an attempt by LulzSec to make Nintendo look good and Sony look bad, by the very same double-standard. They say they didn't want to hurt Nintendo. But they clearly wanted to hurt Sony. So they tried to hurt Sony, but didn't try to hurt Nintendo, but the headline reads as though Nintendo was hacked, but their security kept customer data safe, when reality is that there was no customer data to steal, and LulzSec didn't seem interested in doing any damage other than to prove they were there.

      As a company, I like Nintendo much more than Sony, but I'm not going to let that get in the way of reality. In terms of online offerings and capabilities, Sony is way ahead of Nintendo. Spinning this as a good thing is just absurd.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Plombo ( 1914028 )

        One of the really funny things about defending the way Nintendo does it is that if you buy a new console, you can't even redownload your purchases

        Yes, you can. You connect your Nintendo account to your Wii, and when you get a different Wii you connect it to the same Nintendo account.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by node 3 ( 115640 )

          One of the really funny things about defending the way Nintendo does it is that if you buy a new console, you can't even redownload your purchases

          Yes, you can. You connect your Nintendo account to your Wii, and when you get a different Wii you connect it to the same Nintendo account.

          Unless it has changed, that's not how it works. Your Virtual Console purchases are tied to your Wii.

      • Re:Data is safe because... (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Darkness404 ( 1287218 ) on Sunday June 05, 2011 @04:36PM (#36345078)

        One of the really funny things about defending the way Nintendo does it is that if you buy a new console, you can't even redownload your purchases

        Call up Nintendo's tech support and you can transfer games if your other console breaks.

        When it comes to Nintendo's DS line, nearly all DSi games can be transfered to the 3DS, with the exception of 11 games that either are getting re-made to take advantage of the new hardware (flipnote studio), had security flaws (sodoku) or had complex licensing (oregon trail).

        And I have no doubt that when Project Cafe is released, the same thing will work with Wii Ware and Virtual Console titles.

        The difference isn't really a technical thing, but the way that Nintendo and Sony/Microsoft look at consoles. Nintendo views consoles as something where (except in rare cases where one breaks) you really only buy one until they release the new version.

        On the other hand, Sony/Microsoft view consoles as something to upgrade midway through the lifecycle (the new slim models of the PlayStation line, the new version of the Xbox). So it makes sense that Sony/MS makes it more straightforward to redownload things because they expect a large segment of their gamers to get the new console when it launches.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by node 3 ( 115640 )

          I don't think Sony expects many people to upgrade to a slim PS3, just as I don't think Nintendo expects many people to switch to a black Wii. And if you want to talk upgrade cycles, let's talk about Game Boys and DSs!

          You're doing exactly what I'm talking about. Taking something and flipping it on its head solely in order to maintain the "Sony sucks, Nintendo is good" concept.

          • And on upgrade cycles for DS/game boy Nintendo hasn't given up backwards compatibility which was the original argument that with upgrades you lost things you purchased. For example, despite 3 entries in the original game boy line (Game Boy, Game Boy Pocket, and the Game Boy Light which was only available in Japan) they were all compatible with the same games and accessories (the link cable did need a dongle to fit the smaller link port, but that was it), the original game boy line lasted from 1989 to 1998 (
      • Yes you can get your purchases transferred. I believe with the Wii you may have to call customer services but with the 3DS you will be able to do it yourself quite easily.

    • I'm a security guy and I think they are doing a great service for everyone... companies house a lot of very personal and private information and it is so common that they do not protect it or nowhere near to the level they should because they either do not fund it since they see no value in protecting it properly or they have short staffed their security/IT dept. so much that they can't have proper security. No matter what, burying you head in the sand or hoping they go away is the WORST possible option. Th

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • Of course. Nothing to see here, move along

  • The hackers made it off with (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 05, 2011 @02:51PM (#36344428)

    Over 1,000,000 gold coins and several thousand mushrooms.

  • sure you did. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ubergamer1337 ( 912210 ) on Sunday June 05, 2011 @02:52PM (#36344434)
    "We just got a config file and made it clear that we didn't mean any harm" - AKA they were unable to get to any meaty stuff, and now claim altruism rather than failure.
  • interesting. So they said "hey we can do this, you better secure your shit".
    Is this a PR move by them or are they really worried about Nintendo's security?
  • I once found out by chance & server fault they where using it when I was like 12 or something, & back then OS X was still a 'thing'. Since they've gone through at least 2 major web design revisions...

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by node 3 ( 115640 )

      You can easily check it yourself. They are running apache on F5 Big-IP boxes, which are Linux-based systems.

  • The Nintendo castle is contantly being broken into (Score:4, Funny)

    by rishistar ( 662278 ) on Sunday June 05, 2011 @03:00PM (#36344472) Homepage
    ..by Bowser but Mario always gets the data back.

  • Poor web security five to ten years ago. (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    About five to ten years ago, out of boredom, I was trying to log in to various web servers via FTP. Some of Nintendo's allowed anonymous login that allowed one to traverse files on a few different networks. I don't recall how the setup was, but I do recall being able to see files on different lettered drives (C: drive, Z: drive, things like that). There were various files such as orignal artwork files in PSD formats for various video game artworks. We're talking original files, where when you view them

  • Still... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Nrrqshrr ( 1879148 ) on Sunday June 05, 2011 @03:20PM (#36344590)
    This is more humilating to Sony than to Nintendo.

    Nintendo will get away with it unharmed, they have actually proven that people's data is "secure".
    Sony on the other hand....

  • Brick Nintendo? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by jdb2 ( 800046 ) * on Sunday June 05, 2011 @03:27PM (#36344624) Journal
    I wonder if this has anything to do with the FSF's "Brick Nintendo" [defectivebydesign.org] campaign [defectivebydesign.org]. Perhaps the hacker in question was trying to further the FSF's efforts with regard to bringing attention to the super-draconian TOS of the 3DS, but in the wrong way of course. Since this is not "Anonymous" it makes me think that the answer to the former hypothesis is "no" and this is just another immature teenager up to stupid sh*t.

    Oh, BTW, have you bought and sent your bricks [defectivebydesign.org] yet?

    jdb2

    • I wonder if this has anything to do with the FSF's "Brick Nintendo" campaign...

      this is just another immature teenager up to stupid sh*t.

      This is the first I've heard of FSF's "Brick Nintendo" campaign. Which seems to be fully up to its usual sophomore beer blast spring break standards.

    • I doubt that it has anything to do with "Brick Nintendo" because out of all the companies, Nintendo is easily the most homebrew friendly. Yes, Nintendo has released a few pointless updates to the Wii simply to prevent homebrew to be run, but they are few and far between, but a console running homebrew still can do all the things an unmodded console can do. Modified Xbox consoles can't access Microsoft's online service without risking being banned. And the PS3 has had multiple features disabled in the name o

      • out of all the companies, Nintendo is easily the most homebrew friendly.

        Then please explain Nintendo's lack of anything even remotely like Microsoft's App Hub and Xbox Live Indie Games. For example, Nintendo rejected Bob's Game solely because it was developed at home, as opposed to in an office. Microsoft, on the other hand, encourages home development; its most significant requirement that I can see is that a game has to be written from the ground up for Microsoft platforms.

        • Because Nintendo is a company born out of the video game crash of the early '80s and fears their systems being overwhelmed with crap games that no one wants (though, I guess it is happening with the Wii/NDS that has about 21312312 Sudoku/crossword games, but they all sell fairly well so its no problem for Nintendo), because of that they have a (rather archaic policy) of only giving SDKs to established companies. Bob's game is more of the exception than the rule, one only needs to own a smartphone to see tha

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by tepples ( 727027 )

            Yes, there are some gems in the world of indie games like Angry Birds and Castle Crashers, but the vast majority of indie "games" are unplayable crap.

            Which raises two questions. First, how does one determine whether a particular game is "unplayable crap"? And second, once my team has developed something that is noticeably better than said "unplayable crap" yet isn't in a genre suitable for the exclusively touch-based input of phones, can you recommend a guide to establishing a company to market it?

            a flash cart, which can be found even at Wal-mart.

            Yes, for a time Wal-Mart sold Datel's "Games 'n Music" flash card for DS, and my sister bought one. But I haven't seen anything like them in a Walmart store la

            • Which raises two questions. First, how does one determine whether a particular game is "unplayable crap"?

              Get any iOS or Android device and search through the games section, for more fun pick your favorite genre, go to an unfiltered category (as in, not top rated, or editors pick or anything like that, but just the newest releases) and download a few games, and see how many of them are adequate and how many of them are broken either gameplay wise (bad physics, unbalanced gameplay, etc.) or technologically broken (crashes, lags, etc.).

              If you are lucky you might find a few gems, but I think you will find th

              • see how many of them are adequate and how many of them are broken either gameplay wise (bad physics, unbalanced gameplay, etc.) or technologically broken (crashes, lags, etc.)

                Technologically broken should be easy to define. I found one Android game that's technologically broken (Cordy), but that's because I played it on an Archos 43 with a resistive single-touch screen, and the game's control uses onscreen buttons that depend on the capacitive multitouch screen found in most Android-powered phones. As for broken gameplay-wise, is there a standard for defining "bad physics, unbalanced gameplay, etc." that the mainstream video game industry follows?

                Personally, I'd go for the PC market

                I would too for a single-player

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Raenex ( 947668 )

        Nintendo is easily the most homebrew friendly.

        Wrong: http://www.joystiq.com/2008/07/29/nintendo-files-lawsuit-to-curb-ds-piracy/ [joystiq.com]

        If they wanted to make it easy to do homebrew, they'd allow it as built-in functionality. Instead, they keep on trying to lock users out of their devices, and keep going after the companies that allow homebrew (and piracy, because Nintendo doesn't separate the two).

        • I never said that they fully embraced homebrew, but lets look at the three competitors.

          Sony which sued someone for creating software to jailbreak the PS3, removed functionality to use third party controllers and disabled features included in the PS3 from day one (OtherOS feature) to prevent people from modifying their PS3.

          Microsoft which locks out people running modified software from accessing xbox live along with destroying functionality offline (can't access Windows Media, can't add stuff to HDD)

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Raenex ( 947668 )

            Microsoft at least has an official homebrew methodology. That's more than can be said for Nintendo.

            It's also rather disingenuous to say Nintendo "lets people use homebrew as they please", as they have repeatedly blocked the various ways that people came up with to run homebrew, including deleting any homebrew they found on system updates. About the only thing they don't do is ban people from online.

  • How long would it take if the authentification system limited ot to one attempt per hour?
    • Sorry, browser fart.
    • It is like every other authentication system, if it was one per hour and someone who has a job maintaining and running the servers made a typo, the company would be out of quite a bit of money and time. Oddly enough, a secure password is pretty easy to make typos when you are typing a password like ZH72$uew36fwz*eiwJjewiwifaghe32^.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by jeek ( 37349 )

        ZH72$uew36fwz*eiwJjewiwifaghe32^

        WTF?! That's the combination to my luggage!

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