Stephen Toulouse, head of policy enforcement for Xbox Live, has multiple voicemail recordings laced with colorful expletives from the hacker known as “Predator.”
Yesterday, we reported that Toulouse’s Xbox Live account was “jacked” by Predator, who posted a video on youtube (now removed) covering his exploits this weeekend. Toulouse confirmed that his Xbox Live account information was compromised briefly, but he blames the web-hosting company of his private website stepto.com for the breach. Predator apparently convinced someone at Network Solutions to reset Toulouse’s password, and then used that to log into Stepto.com to steal the password for his Xbox Live account. In response to Predator’s claims that he is only reaching out to Toulouse to point out holes in his security blanket, the Xbox Live enforcer played a voicemail message he received from Predator.
“He got an old cell phone [number] of mine, and yeah, he called it occasionally,” he told Joystiq. “I have a six minute one where he and his friend discuss all the different ways they’re gonna have sex with my wife.”
Because of messages like that and Predator’s actions taking over his website, Toulouse seriously dismisses the notion that Predator is benevolently hacking to help close security holes with Xbox Live. “What happened here had absolutely nothing to do with Xbox Live,” Toulouse said. “What these kids try and do is, all day long, they try and get my account or someone’s account who’s popular or prominent. We’re talking like hours and hours and hours of phone calls and trading tips and tricks on forums. It’s quite humorous sometimes to watch.”
He expects to pursue this attack with as much legal gusto that Microsoft can muster. “What he did, from a lot of people’s point of view, I think, is a crime, and we’re going to be investigating that,” said Toulouse. “We certainly take threats against accounts seriously. We want to make sure that our customers are protected as well.”
For what it’s worth, Predator claims that he’s been banned “over 35” times for allegedly modifying his Xbox 360 console and that Toulouse “had it coming.”
“I’m simply letting them know I’m willing to help them secure accounts from future hackers,” Predator explained. “All accounts are open for hacking.”
Source: Joystiq
Published: Apr 5, 2011 09:20 pm