Seems everyone’s getting hacked these days.  Just this week Microsoft revealed that the Xbox Live accounts of several high-ranking employees were hijacked using the same method that hackers used to bully Brian Krebs, a security expert turned blogger who recently uncovered an underground hacker marketplace. SiliconAngle founding editor Mark “Rizzn” Hopkins discussed the latest news on this morning’s NewsDesk segment with Kristin Feledy.

Hopkins kicks off the interview by reflecting on LulzSec’s 2011 cyber campaign against Sony, the other major player in the game console market. The now defunct hacker group carried out over a hundred attacks on the company’s various business units as a part of the successful attempt to draw customers away from the company.

Hopkins points out that, besides the fact Sony competes with Microsoft, there is no overlap between the two incidents.  Hackers used a “stringed social engineering technique” to obtain the social security numbers of a few Microsoft executives, and managed to infiltrate their Xbox accounts using this data. The software giant did not disclose any names, but Hopkins suspects that CEO Steven Ballmer was not among the victims.

SSNs are in high demand on underground hackers forums, such as the one Krebs exposed in his article.  Because of the money at stake, and partially due to hurt pride, disgruntled members of the website launched a DDoS attack against his blog and even duped local authorities into sending a SWAT team to his home. The hackers that broke Microsoft’s defenses employed similar methods of deception to obtain employee data.

After providing additional details about the attacks, Hopkins concludes the interview by going over the official response from the Microsoft. Company officials dryly stated that they are collaborating with law enforcement agencies to block further attempts at compromising employees’ personal information.

See Hopkins’ full segment below: