A gang of internet hackers claims it has leaked personal details of more than 13,000 users of PlayStation, Xbox and sites including Amazon in what appears to be the latest high-profile breach of internet security in recent weeks.
The hackers - who say they are affiliated to Anonymous, the shadowy anarchist hacking collective - released a document containing username and password combinations, with credit card numbers and expiry dates added later.
Microsoft’s Xbox games console, Sony’s PlayStation equivalent, and online gaming site Twitch.tv were among the main targets of the hack, the Dailydot.com website reported. Other reported targets include Walmart, the US supermarket giant, Amazon, Dell, computer games including The Sims 3 and Dragon Age: Origins and a host of porn sites.
However Microsoft said it had found "no evidence" of a security breach.
Games consoles such as Xbox and Playstation, as well as computer games, use the internet so that gamers can play each other online.
The hackers, who posted on Twitter that they had carried the hack out "for the Lulz", or laughs, also uploaded the The Interview, the controversial Sony film that has recently caused a diplomatic row involving the US and North Korea, to a file-sharing website where it can be illegally downloaded.
A tweet, posted by the @AnonymousGlobo account, said: “A total of approximately 13k accounts. We did for the Lulz.”
If confirmed, the apparent hack comes soon after other high-profile breaches of internet security.
Sony is still battling to fully restore its PlayStation services following a separate hack over Christmas took gamers around the world offline, just as they were settling down to enjoy their new festive gifts.
The company on this weekend urged players to be patient as it worked to bring services on its PS4, PS3 and Vita systems back online. Microsoft’s Xbox, which also went down over Christmas, was restored on Boxing Day.
A group of hackers, calling themselves Lizard Squad, took credit for the attacks, with a man claiming to speak for the group claimed they had done it for the “public good” to “raise awareness” about shortfalls in security systems.
Some security experts believe Lizard Squad is closely allied with Guardians of Peace, the group blamed for the attack on Sony provoking
a diplomatic row between North Korea and the US.
But tracing the hackers could be problematic, say experts, while Sony and Microsoft continue to decline to give exact details of where the hacks originated.
A spokesman for Microsoft said: "We have no evidence of a security breach in Xbox Live services. Microsoft takes the security of our customers’ data very seriously and employs a team of professionals to monitor and manage the security of the services that process and store customer data."
Source: Telegraph
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