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Nintendo server hacked

Company confirms attack, says no user information was obtained; LulzSec claims responsibility, posts server config file.

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Hacker headaches are no longer a PlayStation 3 exclusive. Nintendo today confirmed to the Associated Press that a Nintendo of America server was unlawfully accessed recently, but no user information was exposed during the attack.

Mario does not care for the lulz.
Mario does not care for the lulz.

"There were no third-party victims," Nintendo spokesman Ken Toyoda told the news service. "But it is a fact there was some kind of possible hacking attack."

The hacker group is LulzSec, which last week hacked into Sony Pictures' website and took personal information and passwords for roughly 1 million users. That event came just days after the group took over PBS.com and posted a story claiming that murdered rapper Tupac Shakur was alive, well, and living in New Zealand. On its Twitter account, LulzSec said the attack was "just for lulz" rather than intended to harm Nintendo.

"We're not targeting Nintendo," the group said. "We like the N64 too much; we sincerely hope Nintendo plugs the gap."

The LulzSec Twitter account also linked to evidence of the attack in a purported server config file. The file contains information on a variety of Nintendo-run websites, including Nintendo.com, chibi-robo.com, and animal-crossing.com.

Hacking has become a particularly hot topic in the industry since an April attack on Sony's servers exposed the personal information of more than 77 million PlayStation Network and Qriocity accounts, along with 24.6 million Sony Online Entertainment users. That breach caused Sony to take down the services entirely for nearly a month, with full service being restored only after six weeks.

[UPDATE]: A Nintendo representative confirmed the intrusion to GameSpot, saying, "The protection of our customer information is our utmost priority. Therefore, we constantly monitor our security. This particular situation was a server configuration issue that we investigated and resolved a few weeks ago. The server contained no consumer information."

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