Microsoft is doubtful of recent claims that refurbished Xbox 360 consoles are prone to leaking credit card and personal information.
Researchers used an Xbox 360 console to illustrate how susceptible the hard drive is to data theft.
Security researchers from Drexel University found that sensitive data inside a Microsoft Xbox 360 console can still be accessed even if the hard drive is cleared and restored to factory settings. Researchers were able to achieve this using a widely available modding application. Jim Alkove, General Manager of Microsoft's security of interactive entertainment business released a statement posted on Joystiq.
"We are conducting a thorough investigation into the researchers' claims."
"We have requested information that will allow us to investigate the console in question and have still not received the information needed to replicate the researchers' claims," said Alkove.
The recent breach has caught the attention of consumers who use gaming consoles and mobile devices daily. User's information is at risk to data theft unless extra precaution is taken to completely erase data from the hard drive. Unless the data is physically overwritten, the information from files will remain on the surface of the disk, even after users think they have deleted it.
The Redmond based company may investigate the Xbox 360 console hard drives in order to confirm if the factory reset settings are indeed removing all personal data.
"Microsoft does a great job of protecting their proprietary information, but they don't do a great job of protecting the user's data," said Ashley Podhradsky, a research team member who breached the Xbox 360 hard drives, in an interview with Kotaku.
For now, Xbox users might be wary about reselling their old consoles until further reports confirm that the hard drives are not prone to leaking private information.
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