Nintendo has revealed that the number of accounts affected by a security breach is almost twice as high as it initially thought.

Earlier this year, Switch owners with Nintendo Switch Online accounts were subject to a security breach. It was estimated by Nintendo that around 160,000 Switch owners had their accounts accessed illegally. Nintendo immediately went to work on righting the wrong and protecting the vulnerable information of its subscribers.

It did that by changing the passwords of anyone whose account was hacked and notifying them. It also urged anyone with an NSO account to enable two-step verification in order to further protect their accounts from hackers. Although it seems as if Nintendo got the breach under control, it has since come to light that a lot more accounts were affected than first thought.

Nintendo revealed on Tuesday that the number of affected accounts is closer to 300,000 as opposed to the 160,000 first reported, nearly double the original amount. The passwords of those additional 140,000 accounts have now had their passwords changed by Nintendo and their owners have been contacted. As for how many of those accounts were used to make illegal purchases, Nintendo claims that only happened to less than 1% of the accounts accessed.

As for why the breach happened when it did, back in April of this year, cybersecurity strategists believe it has everything to do with the global climate we find ourselves in. Proofpoint’s Adenike Cosgrove highlights that as more people turn to streaming and subscription services during the COVID-19 outbreak, hackers have spotted a window and taken advantage of that. This is why users of NSO and any other subscription service for that matter should increase their security measures.

Fingers crossed this is the last we will hear of the Nintendo breach, and there won’t be a third announcement two months from now revealing the number of affected accounts is actually on or around the half a million mark. Either way, whether your NSO account was affected or not, two-step verification is relatively quick and easy to do. Should you need pointers on how to set it up, follow TheGamer’s handy guide which can be found below.

Source: Nintendo