Hackers continue to target Nintendo account holders, with the number of reported compromised accounts having risen by 140,000 in recent weeks, adding to the 160,000 hacked accounts first reported in late April of this year.

Nintendo accounts are likely particularly appealing to hackers due to the fact that they can be tied in with a user’s PayPal account, which gamers often use to not only purchase games but to buy in-game currency for specific titles like the wildly popular Fortnight, whose V-bucks currency can then be sold for real money.

Though no specifics have been given by Nintendo as to how the accounts were actually hacked, the Japanese video game giant did release a statement saying that hackers obtained users’ passwords “by some means other than our company’s service,” casting blame on weak or reused passwords.

Before it actually acknowledged that there had been a data breach, Nintendo tweeted in April that users were encouraged to enable two factor authentication for extra security.

The account hack also comes at a time when, due to the COVID-19 virus, people are spending more time at home and consequently more time online. The rise in online activity has also led to a rise in cybercrimes, and biometric or two factor authentication is a solution many experts are recommending to help safeguard people’s private data.

Source: TechCrunch