Recently on 24th April, Nintendo revealed that nearly 160000 accounts were hacked due to Network ID Breach.
Since few weeks, continuous suspicious activities of individual accounts were noticed and the report from gamers was posted regularly on social sites. After the complaints registered from the gamers regarding the unauthorised logins and purchases, recently on 24th April, Nintendo confirmed that over 160k accounts were hacked. The statement from the Nintendo officials stated that the hackers were constantly trying to hack the Network ID of Nintendo since April. Personal details such as nicknames, date of birth, country, and email addresses have been already accessed and also some fraudulent activities regarding the purchases have been seen. The NNID is a critical factor to gain access as it contains nearly everything which could cause a severe consequence. From personal details to card details, everything is there at one single place. It has been seen that the purchases were made to buy digital items like Fortnite VBucks. Taking safety measures into consideration, Nintendo has notified gamers to use two-factor authentication to keep the account completely safe.
Check out the Complete statement of Nintendo officials.
The primary use of Network ID was for 3DS and Wii U device which has been now restricted and players cannot use the NNID further to login. However, the new Nintendo account system present on the latest Nintendo Switch can be used to link the older accounts. Further, Nintendo is now resetting the password of every single account to recover the attacked accounts safely without any further damages. Also, Nintendo has asked the affected accounts to come up ahead and notify the company about the matter so that it could investigate and cancel the purchases.
Check out the Official Nintendo Support Page.