Earlier in April, Nintendo announced that it had experienced a security breach when it came to user Nintendo Accounts. The breach was initially pinpointed to those who had used their legacy Nintendo Network ID (NNID) to sign in to their Nintendo Switch. In their initial announcement, the company noted that there were about 160,000 accounts that were affected, but, now, weeks later, the number of accounts has nearly doubled to 300,000 accounts. Nintendo attributes this increase to the investigation that it has undertaken in light of the initial detection.
The issue came to light when an increasing number of users on the switch reported that their accounts were being used to make purchases that owners were not aware of. If you have a credit card or Paypal account linked to your Nintendo account, it would be prudent to check the transactions that have been done on the account in the past weeks. Users who have been compromised are also getting sign-in notifications from unknown devices via email.
Nintendo of America tweeted for users to activate their two factor authentication (2FA) for logins out of the blue prior to the initial announcement. However, with the increase in the number of accounts being compromised, it is increasingly more evident that if you have a Nintendo Account, you’d best reset your password and activate 2FA. Otherwise, you’re risking unauthorised purchases via your linked credit card or Paypal account. In addition to unauthorised purchases, sensitive data such as date of birth and more can be viewed by bad actors.
Nintendo’s latest console, the Nintendo Switch, has put the company on the map again as a serious contender in the gaming console market with over 5 million consoles sold to date. The company is sticking to its guns saying that less than 1% of its users are affected. However, with investigations ongoing, users are advised to take precautions.