Microsoft has confirmed that Xbox Live Director of Programming Larry Hryb, better known as Major Nelson, had his Live account hacked over the weekend, but it shouldn’t be too hard to track down the perpetrators – they posted their contact info online.
While the Major was off attending PAX East, three hackers belonging to a group called “Fear” (or possibly “LiGHTzz,” it’s not really clear) managed to take over his Xbox Live account. They made various changes, then posted a remarkably stupid, NSFW video of the attack in which one of the members advertised an “account jacking” service for 60 bucks a pop. Amazingly and rather tellingly, he also offered up other personal contact information, including a Skype address, which will probably make it fairly easy for Microsoft to track him down.
And it certainly looks like the company has an interest in doing so. In Twitter posts made yesterday, Stephen Toulouse, Microsoft’s director of Xbox Live policy and enforcement, wrote, “We have gotten Major’s account back. We’ll investigate what happened.” A few minutes later he added, “Looks like this was very specific and very targeted to Major. I’ll look into the details and report back later.”
Thanks to the generosity of the morons behind the attack, he probably won’t have to look very hard.
via: Gamasutra
