So is Xbox LIVE safe from Hackers?

Yesterday, a collective online computer activist group calling themselves ‘Anonymous’ posted a video on YouTube aimed at the legal department at Sony currently pursuing hackers Geohot and Graf_Chokolo for making and supplying the PS3 Jailbreak software that essentially opens the PlayStation to the possibility of homebrew.

In the video ‘they’ state:
‘You have now received the undivided attention of Anonymous. Your recent legal action against our follow hackers, Geohot and Graf_Chokolo, has not only alarmed us, it has been deemed wholly unforgivable.’

I have to agree the legal action taken by PlayStation has been heavy handed to say the least but I don’t believe they will back down from the case because to do so would be a huge embarrassment for the electronics giant and it would damage the name they have made for themselves.

This is something we should all keep an eye on to see what kind of beef ‘Anonymous’ bring to Sony’s door.

So with this in mind is Microsoft’s Xbox Live safe from Hacker’s well the short answer would be no.

Recently a hacker named “Predator” attacked the accounts of Xbox executive Stephen Toulouse, after Toulouse banning him some thirty five times from the service. The result was an attack against Toulouse’s Xbox Live account, along with control over his personal blog.

Toulouse himself complained about the matter on Twitter saying “Sigh. please be warned. Network solutions has apparently transferred control of Stepto.com to an attacker and will not let me recover it.”, but he didn’t really seem that worried up about it with the job title of Director of Policy and Enforcement for Xbox LIVE must certainly have some perks.

Needless to say, his account was recovered soon after the problem was highlighted, but not before the Predator managed to get up a video on Youtube (which has now been removed), by its safe to say that it showed the world just how excited he was to be in the executive’s account.

Toulouse went on to explain that the hacker claiming to “help” Microsoft really wasn’t being all that beneficial with his constant harassment through phone calls and emails. Lesson to all, hackers going to hack. However, make sure you regularly changing passwords, checking your account for malicious activity and avoiding the being burnt.

Major Nelson AKA Larry Hyrb the Director of Programming for Xbox LIVE’s online gaming network, also recently had his account profile hacked. A not-so-mysterious hacker changed the bio information as well as the chat bubble. Kotaku has confirmed with Hyrb that this was an actual hacking and that he has regained full control of his account.

Lightzz.com has claimed responsibility for the hacking and has even posted a youtube video of the hacker actually doing it. How dumb can you get? He also posted his Skype name and is further promoting his skills by selling his skills to hack other players for $100. Comments on the Kotaku article further out the offender as a guy named Yasiel from Miami. This stuff is just comical.

Well this all leads to the question, how vulnerable are we actually? If our accounts are only worth $100 to hackers like this idiot, what does that say of the state of Xbox Live security? I can only hope further actions are taken by Xbox LIVE to secure our accounts further.

Think! When was the last time you changed the passwords to your most important online accounts? Well after saying that I am now off to change some passwords…….