Xbox Live has not been hacked. Oh, and Xbox Live has not been hacked

We think that’s the message Microsoft is trying to send in releasing an extensive statement that effectively reiterates what it has said many times before – Xbox Live has not, in fact, been hacked.

Why is it having to repeat its stance? Because voices remain which insist that out there, somewhere, is a loophole that is allowing cyber crooks to access user information on Xbox Live.

So big has the saga become that late last year it even made it onto the front page of Murdoch daily The Sun.

Microsoft says that the arrival of ‘Safer Internet Day’ was the perfect opportunity to speak out on the subject. Yet after 800 words consumers are left none the wiser, apart from one fact – Xbox Live has not been hacked.

Last year, there was a surge of personal information being compromised and sold, and this undoubtedly has had an impact on all of us. While we here at Xbox have no evidence of a security breach in the Xbox Live service, that is of little comfort to our members whose accounts have been compromised by malicious and illegal attacks.

I realize it may fall flat when we don’t share specific details of our security architecture. At a broader level, Microsoft continues to investigate cyber-criminals and bot nets, and help shut them down. And although this is an industry-wide challenge, we are an industry-leading company that believes in our responsibility to actively address online fraud and identity theft.

Recovering compromised accounts – in a timely manner – is also a priority and an area where we’ve made, and will continue to make, improvements. We have invested more resources in our account recovery process and as a result, for most new fraud cases we are now able to investigate and return accounts within three days.

We do not take lightly the frustrations we’ve heard from our loyal Xbox LIVE members and remain committed to addressing and persistently resolving our customers’ individual and collective concerns.”