A report has surfaced claiming that credit card information can be lifted from used Xbox 360 consoles even after the hard drives were restored to factory settings, which is supposed to erase all content on the hard drive. Microsoft issues a statement claiming this is not possible.
Researchers from Drexel University claim they are able to retrieve credit card numbers from a refurbished Xbox 360 using simple modding tools. “Microsoft does a great job of protecting their proprietary information, but they don’t do a great job of protecting the user’s data,” Drexel’s Ashley Podhradsky states.
Microsoft has issued a statement claiming that this is not possible. “We are conducting a thorough investigation into the researchers’ claims. We have requested information that will allow us to investigate the console in question and have still not received the information needed to replicate the researchers’ claims. Xbox is not designed to store credit card data locally on the console, and as such seems unlikely credit card data was recovered by the method described,” argues Jim Alkove, Microsoft’s security of interactive entertainment business.
In other words, Microsoft is still looking into this claim but is sticking with the argument that this is not possible. Perhaps this was an isolated incident with just one console that was not restored to factory settings? More on this as it develops.
