The 2020 proved to be a particularly difficult year for companies, especially for Nintendo . The Kyoto giant was the victim of an unprecedented leak: information about consoles and games never released was leaked , as well as source codes from platforms such as GameCube and Wii. Other sensitive data concern the strategies adopted by the company in certain contexts, such as in that of security, where the company has operated in rather unusual ways.

Nintendo: this is how it decided to fight hackers and modders

The Eclipse leaker, very active for everything related to the Nintendo world, has shared a series of company documents that would reveal some security measures adopted by the Grande N for thwarting hackers and modders who have handled their intellectual property.

The case of Neimod, a Belgian modder who in 337 was able to hack the Nintendo 3DS. Reading the documents we discover that the company has conducted several investigations on the boy, browsing in his professional and private life . We find a real list of the surveillance activities carried out – presumably – by Nintendo, which would thus have discovered where Neimod lives, where he works and with whom he has come into contact.

Nintendo’s plans also included a direct meeting with the modder: the company has in fact set up a small team in charge of approaching Neimod with the aim of convince him to collaborate .

The “Knock and Talk” strategy engineered by the company is surprisingly detailed and even includes a scheme that collects all the possible outcomes of the conversation with the hacker. If the modder – Neimod, in this specific case – had chosen to collaborate with the company, Nintendo would have finalized its proposal; otherwise, the company would have taken legal action.

Everything was reported by Eclipse and confirmed by some modders who, apparently, had already been contacted by Nintendo for the same reasons. This is the case of Hector Martin , coder who in the 2015 had been approached by the Japanese company via email for “special advice”.

Storytime: I did some pentesting and advising work for Nintendo after they approached me (via email, not stalking) in 2015. This was professional work on a freelance / consulting basis.

That NDA has expired. I won’t talk about project details but let’s talk about how that went.

– Hector Martin (@marcan 42) December 22, 2020

Martin also commented on the issue of stalking activities, citing the example of the modder Bushing : he had been contacted by telephone by Jodi Daugherty, former lawyer of Nintendo of America, who allegedly put in place an authentic “intimidation tactic” , according to the coder.