Oh great, go ahead and make me even more paranoid about hackers. I already always feel under constant threat about my computer, wondering if someone is messing with it, and now if I notice any errors or problems with my consoles, I'm going to have to worry about them being hacked as well? So help you if you take my Gamer Points hackers...so help you.

From the article:

Microsoft confirmed last month that recent complaints of identity theft made by disgruntled Xbox Live users were the results of pretexting, and not hacking, as had been originally assumed. However, the age in which console owners become the victims of hackers and harmful programs might be sooner than expected, according to a report by CVG.

"I haven't seen any malicious code that is specifically designed to run on a PlayStation 3 or an Xbox but I would expect it is not very far away," stated MacLeonard Starkey, a security analyst for Australia's Computer Emergency Response Team.

Starkey's hypothesis stems from the increased online functionality in today's video game consoles, with more and more gamers plugging their systems into broadband connections each day.

With a successful security breach, hackers would, of course, be able to gain access to one's personal account information. But, additionally, they would also be able to "log in and steal the items that players have collected over, in some cases, four of five years," Starkey later adds.

Read the full article over at gamepro.com