Nintendo says that 160,000 of its customers' accounts have been compromised. The company says that this was done by third parties obtaining passwords and login information outside of its service, then illegally logging in to accounts. As a result of this, the company has disabled the Nintendo Network ID login process, so you won't be able to log in to any services with your NNID.
If you're one of the people affected by this, then third parties were potentially able to view private details like your real name, date of birth, and location. Nintendo's report counts accounts compromised dating back to the beginning of April, but there were reports of issues in March as well. The company says that third parties weren't able to view your credit card information. However, if you had happened to save payment information to your Nintendo Account, when gaining access to it with the password, they would be able to use it to buy things on the account - with vbucks appearing to have been a favorite purchase. We're not sure why it took Nintendo so long to respond to this problem. It's possible that normal operations have been slowed down by the ongoing coronavirus crisis.
In response to recent incidents related to some Nintendo Accounts, it is no longer possible to sign into a Nintendo Account using a Nintendo Network ID. We apologise for any inconvenience caused. Please visit our Support website for more information: https://t.co/NWyXLiS1wR
— Nintendo of Europe (@NintendoEurope) April 24, 2020
What should I do if my Nintendo Account has been compromised?
Nintendo says that starting today, it'll begin sequentially resetting passwords for Network IDs that may have been affected. If that's you, then you'll receive an email, both on your NNID address and your Account address. You'll need to reset your password. Nintendo strongly advises that you avoid reusing passwords and that you set different passwords for your NNID and your Account.
If you do spot a fraudulent purchase, the company says you should open a support ticket and cancel the purchase. You should also make sure you set up the two-step verification protocol so this has a smaller chance of happening again. Even if your account wasn't compromised, it's probably a good idea to go through this process anyway to be on the safe side.
Another thing you can do to help protect yourself is not saving payment information on your account or device, thus limiting what can be done if bad actors do gain access to your account in some way.
Have you been affected by illegal NNID access? Let us know in the comments below!
