14 DAY TRIAL // A man suspected of stealing personal information of 4,000 gamers from a Nintendo website and then blackmailing the company has been arrested in Spain.
The hacker is believed to have exploited a vulnerability in a website used by Nintendo to promote its upcoming 3DS console in the European country.
Nintendo Spain claims the hacker stole data which included names, email addresses and postal codes, on February 6.
He then contacted the company with demands and threatened to contact the Spanish Data Protection agency about its failure to keep personal information secure.
When Nintendo did not reply to his threats, the hacker released one gamer's details on a forum to show that he means business.
The company contacted the Spanish authorities who tracked the man down and arrested him in the province of Malaga.
According to a police press release [Google translation], the hacker also modified the information of many users in the database and downloaded details about 55 events planned by Nintendo in Spain.
"[...] It would seem prudent to ensure that you are not using any passwords related to your Nintendo accounts on any other websites," says Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at antivirus vendor Sophos.
"Furthermore, you should be on your guard regarding Nintendo-related phishing attacks which may arrive in your inbox," he advises.
This incident comes after at the beginning of the month news broke out that 'Runes of Magic' publisher Frogster Interactive was also being blackmailed by a hacker who broke into its systems and stole player information.
Frogster said it will not cave in and the hacker went ahead and released the personal and billing information of 2,000 gamers. As of August 2010, the game has over four million registered players.