On December 20, my Xbox Live account was hacked. The breach was sophisticated, more so than Microsoft wants to acknowledge, but at the heart of it is EA's popular sports franchise FIFA. This breach isn't a new, hip hack that is sweeping the net, it has been happening for quite some time. My Xbox Live account housed over 3,000 MS Points and in one fell swoop, my balance was wiped clean.
Utilizing FIFA 12, players can purchase and trade digital cards with other Live members. Though this feature is also available in games like Madden NFL 12, the worldwide popularity of FIFA 12 has made it a breeding ground for criminal scum. Players get into Xbox Live accounts, purchase card packs, trade them to other accounts, and later sell the content for real money. Xbox Live breaches are not new, but the FIFA 12 hack is putting everyone on Xbox Live at risk in a new way.Many of us will have a credit/debit card associated with our live accounts. This raises quite an issue if people are out hitting live/hotmail accounts hard trying to break into them. Unfortunately, Microsoft have decided that if we have used our card to purchase Xbox Live (i.e. it is 'associated' with our membership), we are not allowed to remove the payment details from our accounts.
However, you can CHANGE the details. You can even change them to something wrong. So if you want to remove your credit card details, simply edit it and put in a completely made up number and expiry. Of course, when it's renewal time you will need to correct it again. Might give a bit of piece of mind though, that if you are hacked they can only steal the mspoints you already have (in my case, 80... moneybags me eh?)
shacknews.com
shacknews.com
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