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Grand Theft Xbox: 360

Editorial | April 13, 2012 6:54 pm

If you've ever sold an old Xbox 360 with the hard drive attached, two things are probably true. One, you probably got ripped off, and felt kind of dirty for a day or two afterward. Two, you probably reformatted the hard drive and assumed there was nothing on it that could potentially harm you if the 360 later fell into the wrong hands.

Need cash? You'll feel better about yourself if you do this...

Unfortunately, there's no cure for the dirty stink you feel after selling things to Gamestop- not at this time, anyway. Even more unfortunately, researchers at Drexel University discovered during a study that is still going on, reformatting your hard drive doesn't remove all your data off of it- even the data that is stored on Microsoft's servers, like your credit card data.

Xbox publisher, Microsoft, is doing a disservice to its customers by not doing a better job of keeping personal data protected.

~Ashley Podhradsky, researcher from Drexel University

If you're like me, right about now you're probably wondering where the heck Drexel University is, and if they're an actual school, or a school like the University of Phoenix is a school. After some research of my own, I've found they are actually a school, and are actually have some NCAA division 1 sports teams (field hockey, squash, and lacrosse to name a few)! Go Dragons!

Three researchers from this illustrious school, and one from Dakota State University, bought a used console and discovered that, even after wiping your hard drive, a hacker can use basic and easily available modding tools to get into your information. When you think about everything personal that is attached to your gamertag (address, credit card info, real birthdate...), it's hard to be comfortable with thinking there are people out there who can find this stuff out so easily. It's true, though- Drexel's research team fished out the original owner's credit card information, including the number and the company that issued the card.

And you can't delete cards, either!

So what about Microsoft's great data protection systems? According to Podhradsky, "Microsoft does a great job of protecting their proprietary information." Good to know that's safe, at least.

Your credit card isn't the only thing that could be floating around in someone else's cyberspace, though. According to Podhradsky's report, using a tool called XFT 2.0, they were able to recover deleted files, gamertags, network vulnerabilities, and a cache of the user's recent players list/ friend list, which included gamertags that the original xbox's owner interacted with. So even if you haven't sold a console yourself, your personal information can be at risk if you've just played with someone who went on to sell their console. With how frequently people use their gamertags as individual addresses to their Facebook and Google+ pages, gamers are more vulnerable than they have previously thought.

Think that's bad? Once someone is using XFT to crack your hard drive, they have access to your purchase history through the marketplace. Xbox caches an exported copy to the hard drive, and it remains there, even after the hard drive is reformatted.

Of course, none of this should surprise anyone who has watched a crime show before, since it's common for computers to be taken as evidence and for forensic teams to be able to reconstruct the contents of a deleted hard drive, but it still makes you think twice about the wisdom of using an old console as a way to make a quick 40 bucks.

If you absolutely must sell your console with the hard drive, or if you're throwing one out, Podhradsky's team suggests connecting the hard drive to your computer and downloading a software sanitizer to run on it. They recommend a sanitizer called Boot and Nuke, saying that when they used it, no data could be recovered off the old hard drive.

I guess a really big magnet was off the table...
image courtesy of macetech

Thanks to THEEvol1 for the tip!

(Source: http://xbox-experts.com/news/identity-theft-and-used-gaming-consoles-recovering-personal-information-from-xbox-360-hard-drives/)

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Re: Grand Theft Xbox: 360

04/13/12 7:46 pm | #2

Well I learned something today. That doesn't happen very often since we all know I know almost everything. Good article.

You should center the pictures and make the font under them tiny and italicized so it looks more like I wrote it.

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Re: Grand Theft Xbox: 360

04/13/12 7:51 pm | #3

Now I feel slightly better about the pile of dead hardware I've been hoarding under my bed. I knew there was a reason I never sold or tossed anything.

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Re: Grand Theft Xbox: 360

04/13/12 7:57 pm | #4

Phhbh.... Anyways I actually knew about the Drexel Dragons... mainly because of basketball though...

Nice read though. Makes me glad I have all my hard drives. It would be a bit of a suck for someone to steal my credit card info :no:

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Re: Grand Theft Xbox: 360

04/13/12 8:01 pm | #5

Any I actually knew? Nice Engrish.

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Re: Re: Grand Theft Xbox: 360

04/13/12 8:03 pm | #6

Quote by AJ:

Any I actually knew? Nice Engrish.

Pics or it didn't happen :laugh:

and thanks for the catch

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Re: Grand Theft Xbox: 360

04/13/12 8:04 pm | #7

Noob. Someone has to keep the grammatical order around these parts.

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Re: Grand Theft Xbox: 360

04/13/12 8:45 pm | #8

If those ninjas were worth half their salt, they could defeat even the finest Shotokan karate anyway. That $ would be wasted.

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Re: Re: Grand Theft Xbox: 360

04/13/12 8:50 pm | #9

Quote by AJ:

I could do that... Or I could leave it as is, so it's clear to everyone you DIDN'T write it.

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Re: Grand Theft Xbox: 360

04/13/12 8:51 pm | #10

When I first saw the sign, I was like, "What kind of crappy karate lessons are only four dollars??"

:cool:

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Re: Re: Grand Theft Xbox: 360

04/13/12 9:56 pm | #11

Quote by theEVOL1:

When I first saw the sign, I was like, "What kind of crappy karate lessons are only four dollars??"

:cool:

My thought as well.

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Re: Re: Re: Grand Theft Xbox: 360

04/13/12 10:08 pm | #12

Quote by Tig:

Quote by theEVOL1:

When I first saw the sign, I was like, "What kind of crappy karate lessons are only four dollars??"

:cool:

My thought as well.

Cheap karate lessons?

Seems legit.

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Re: Re: Re: Re: Grand Theft Xbox: 360

04/13/12 10:36 pm | #13

Quote by LilCuyler:

Quote by Tig:

My thought as well.

Cheap karate lessons?

Seems legit.

My guess is that for $4 he will teach you the 'Dwight Schrute" karate lessons.

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Re: Grand Theft Xbox: 360

04/14/12 8:56 pm | #14

How would you connect your hdd to the computer anyways?

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Re: Re: Grand Theft Xbox: 360

04/14/12 9:09 pm | #15

Quote by Hydrocannon:

How would you connect your hdd to the computer anyways?

It's just USB.

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