Analyst: hackers to target online consoles this year
And so we're raising the Console Terror Alert Level to intense orange-red, based on very credible, detailed information on a non-specific threat.
A security analyst for Australia's Computer Emergency Response team (who, contrary to the emergency response phrasing, don't get their own vans with flashing lights and sirens) has warned that, due to the online integration of new game consoles, he expects hackers to soon target your Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 consoles.
"I haven't seen any malicious code that is specifically designed to run on a PlayStation 3 or an Xbox but I would expect it is not very far away," he said. CVG notes that these predictions come after the Xbox Live account hack fears, though those turned out to be nothing more than some idiotic customer service reps being talked into divulging info over the phone.
Given that Xbox Live titles are tied to the original console and gamertag only, we'd say the possibility of a theft of your games and / or save files very unlikely. Not only that, but the peer-to-peer transfer of files over any of the console's self-contained networks is not possible. (In this sense, the PS3 and Wii are more vulnerable by merit of having a web browser.) There is always a worry over any medium where you have to enter financial or personal information (in this case your credit card), and the Xbox 360's inability to let you erase that card information has been chronicled in the past. However, the likelihood that you will be the victim of a console hack (and not in the traditional sense) without instigating it through your own console modding is, in our estimations, very slim.
