Nintendo has arguably been one of the biggest victims of video game industry leaks - with inncidents like the 'Gigaleak' revealing years of company secrets across multiple generations - including concepts, prototypes and even cancelled projects.
It's obviously not the best look when security and data is breached, and during the recent shareholder meeting, Nintendo's president Shuntaro Furukawa was questioned about what kind of "risk-management initiatives" the company was taking to deal with information leaks and hacks.
The company is approaching these threats from all directions with "both physical and technical countermeasures" - calling on "outside specialists", improving the internal system for information security, establishing policies for info management, and educating employees with training:
"We are taking a variety of initiatives to address information security threats and vulnerabilities. For the services we provide, initiatives include cooperating with outside specialists and conducting diagnostics to check for security issues. In addition, as part of our internal system for information security, we introduced the information security management system in 2017 and have set up our Information Security Committee. Policies for information management have been established, and we have adopted both physical and technical countermeasures. In addition, we work to raise awareness of information security among our employees through training and other means."
Apart from leaks and more, Nintendo's software and hardware is often being datamined, and the company has had to issue special notices on how to change passwords after data breaches. And in other situations, it's deployed its legal team.
How do you feel Nintendo is going in terms of leaks, security and the handling & use of your personal data? Tell us below.
[source nintendo.co.jp, via nintendoeverything.com]
Comments 37
I believe they've increased training for the Nintendo Ninjas.
Can we have advance wars now please?
Nintendo should make a new game called Mario Ninja with gameplay like Sly Cooper to explain how was their Ninja team shut down the leakers and the hackers.
If only people were decent…
Pretty much everything in the industry leaks all the time. It's kind of stupid to really concern yourself with trying especially hard to combat it because it's gonna happen and it's not really going to hurt anything anyway.
Everyone's uncle should learn not to spread the things they hear inside the company.
In this day and age leaking has become so common that I believe it's often used as a tactic to build hype, or test public opinion. In all honesty, I believe it's good that Nintendo teaches their employees about leaking and its consequences, but I don't think it will ever stop people from doing what is very Human: to gossip.
In my opinion...
Leaking old games and those abandoned projects and lost/cut content are 100% okay! Leaking not yet revealed current games/plans is NOT okay. ESPECIALLY other peoples personal data. In fact I'm kinda confused why Nintendo didn't reveal a lot of facts the gigaleak found content themselves, could've gotten a lotta brownie points. People LOVE lost media these days. Like Starfox 2 releasing on the SNES Mini
If only Nintendo knew a competent plumber.
@Lizuka no? 😳
I hate to say this, but I think Nintendo will also be behind the eight-ball when it comes to security. I always though Japan was this world of high tech, but as we are finding out more and more they are the land of Fax Machines and pagers from the 90's.
If a hacker wants them, they will have them.
Nintendo heard y’all were talking ***** about the new 1 2 Switch
A company that has a plumber for a mascot has leaks.
😜
Maybe if Mario wasn't too busy playing Golf, soccer and tennis he could help.
“Policies for information management have been established, and we have adopted both physical and technical countermeasures.”
Threaten the employees with some ‘physical countermeasures’.. Nintendo going the mafia security route I see..
Nintendo's total investment in 2017-2022:
99% lawyers, security
1% game development
Forgive my ignorance, but was the old stuff found in the gigaleak stored with online access? In that it wasnt archived offline.
That's either bad practice; or they need to refer to it in the production of new stuff.
I think curating old stuff - concepts, abandoned ideas, etc - would be great, but it would take a lot of time and willpower. I doubt that there is mass appeal either.
@NinChocolate
We have physical countermeasures at work. Stops anybody accessing the building, and data.
As currently an InfoSec and Cybersecurity specialist, it's reasurring they're taking the necessary steps. I just hope this isn't just a side project on their end since security is a top priority in any organization. If not, the most important.
@Rambler Pretty well goes without saying.
@NinChocolate
Ah, I see! Yeah - what else are they doing?!?!
Big wheels of flames, huge spider mechs with lasers, scary robot monsters that run after you.
I think they could be implemented.
@Rambler well, I’m sure Nintendo isn’t actually doing anything clandestine.. although, would they want to? Definitely, without a doubt, lol
@Zyph yep, I read it as they started adopting industry best standards around 5 years ago. Considering Sony had their big PSN hack back in 2011 I’d suggest Nintendo weren’t just using withered technology for their consoles!
@Zyph - I would argue health and wellbeing of staff is equally important, but yeah, no data security, no business.
@Rambler Yes of course. I meant from the perspective of business and dev ops. People risk management is a thing afterall.
"we introduced the information security management system in 2017"
... Well, that worked...
@PBandSmelly It's because they release games like Star Fox 2 years later that info on old games shouldn't be leaked either. For example with the Zelda series a lot of cut ideas make it into later entries and if Nintendo made that info available, competitors could use their ideas before they do
I wouldn't agree that Nintendo has been one of the biggest victims of leaks in the video game industry - quite the opposite. They're part of a small number of companies that is able to keep a good number of big surprises under covers until the moment of their reveal. They have often been victim of leaks, sure, but so has everyone else, it's a plague affecting everyone.
@Purgatorium Fair point. One is too busy saving princesses and doing every other job under the sun, and the other is all about ghostbusting with a bit of rescuing on the side... including Mario.
Then there's Regular Giuseppe, who takes care of the home and all its bills while the other two are gallivanting around the Mushroom Kingdom and beyond.
@Spagetti69 not going to happen anytime soon, if ever, as long as that war is going on, the game will never be released
Removed - inappropriate; user is banned
Bill Gates had it right in the 90's. "If you want to be safe on the internet, unplug the ethernet cable."
@SwitchplayerJohn Actually the financial sector relies on fax primarily due to it's relative security. Ever wonder why lending/fraud departments at a bank always wants you to fax things, and will accept nothing else? Ironically being "backward" is actually being "forward" in the security realm.
@dinosaurfan38 “have their computers destroyed”
Tell me that you don’t know anything about technology without telling me that you don’t know anything about technology
But not what he’s doing in terms or releasing first party games
So…the giga leak is why they’ve been ultra salty as of late? That’s…that kinda makes sense from a business point of view. But to consumers this doesn’t explain why their recent releases have been so shallow on launch
@Purgatorium
sadly i imagine Wario priced himself right out of the market at this point.
"A variety of measures" including involving "outside specialists"? Getting a mental picture of musclebound, heavily tattooed Yakuza heavies showing up at suspected leakers' houses.
Even with all the leaks they still make an ungodly amount of money, it's really just a nothing burger that they always freak out about.
Piracy is never going away until we no longer use money as a species, and even then in may live on in other ways.
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