Club Nintendo Hack Exposed Account Information

Users of Nintendo’s Club Nintendo website in Japan were warned recently that thousands of user accounts have been illegally accessed.

According to Nintendo, roughly 15.5 million logins were attempted during the past month, with nearly 24,000 leading to successful access. Access means getting access to account holders’ information, including real names, addresses, phone numbers and email information.

As a result of the attacks, Nintendo said Friday it has suspended the illegally accessed accounts and sent emails requesting users reset their passwords.

“There were scattered attempts to login since June 9, but we became aware of the issue after the mass attempt on July 2,” Nintendo spokesman Yasuhiro Minagawa told the Japan Daily Press, noting the illegal login attempts were limited to Japanese accounts.

Club Nintendo is a loyalty program for Nintendo users around the world. Through it, users can earn credits submitting codes found on Nintendo products that can be traded in for special edition items only available on Club Nintendo. The site has approximately 4 million users in Japan alone.

This is not the only hack affecting the gaming industry in recent days. Last week, SecurityWeek reported that gaming company Ubisoft was hacked and that email addresses, usernames and encrypted passwords had been accessed. Hackers broke into Ubisoft’s gaming network using a company website that was compromised via stolen credentials.