Microsoft is looking into credit card retrieval claims on refurbished Xbox 360s

Last week we reported that according to researchers, credit card information along with other sensitive data could be retrieved from refurbished or second hand Xbox 360 units despite it having been reformatted. This certainly does not bode well for those who might have already sold their Xbox 360’s or who are planning to sell it. Microsoft has since then stopped forward and has released a statement of their own, assuring Xbox 360 owners that their privacy is certainly taken very seriously and that the researchers’ claims are “improbable”.

This is according to Jim Alkove, general manage of security for Microsoft’s game business, who stated:

“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,” he said. “Additionally, when Microsoft refurbishes used consoles we have processes in place to wipe the local hard drives of any other user data. We can assure Xbox owners we take the privacy and security of their personal data very seriously.

In any case, Microsoft is currently looking into the issue but there is no word yet on how they might address the problem if the researchers’ claims have been proven to be correct.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Gaming
Tags: Microsoft, Security, Xbox 360