Microsoft: Xbox senior employees’ accounts invaded

In a “social engineering” hack, intruders obtained employees’ SSNs to trick unwitting third-parties into providing additional sensitive information which allowed access to the employees’ work accounts.

The hackers later targeted security researcher Brian Krebs because he helped to reveal the method by which they had been compromising the accounts of "Microsoft employees who work on the Xbox Live gaming platform," Krebs wrote.

Microsoft confirmed to The Verge that "a handful of high-profile Xbox LIVE accounts held by current and former Microsoft employees” [have been compromised] . . .We are aware that a group of attackers are using several stringed social engineering techniques to compromise the accounts of a handful of high-profile Xbox LIVE accounts held by current and former Microsoft employees.”