160,000 Nintendo users impacted in account hack

The company responded via a statement published on its Japanese site to a wave of user complaints that started surfacing recently. As such, Nintendo users took to social media to complain that hackers were accessing their Nintendo accounts and then abusing attached payment card info to buy Fortnite currency and other Nintendo games. Many users mentioned they used strong passwords that were unique to their Nintendo profiles, and almost impossible to guess or have leaked anywhere online.

Nintendo confirmed that a credential stuffing attack isn't the source of its recent troubles. Instead, the gaming company says hackers abused its Nintendo Network ID (NNID) integration. NNID is a legacy login system, used to manage accounts on the old Wii U or Nintendo 3DS platforms. On newer Nintendo devices, users can link their old NNID accounts to a Nintendo profile. Nintendo said it was deprecating the ability to log into main Nintendo accounts using the older NNID profiles, although the company warned customers that hackers might have gained access to other account information, such as Nintendo nicknames, dates of birth, countries of origin, regions, and email addresses.