Although Microsoft was quick to leap to its own defence over claims the Xbox Live system had been hacked, a former hacker and current online security expert Cal Leeming says the company should have better security measures.

Microsoft say the issues are the result of phishing scams, but Leeming has told NowGamer there are other reasons behind the problems.

"From the user's perspective, some of them have been de-frauded and are 100% positive they have not entered their details into a phishing site,” Leeming says.

"But people tend to have a habit of re-using their login credentials, so it could be that there was a huge breach of email/passwords list (we've seen lots of these leaked out over the last few months) from a completely different place, and that scammers are basically going through and seeing which ones are valid on the Xbox login portal.

Leeming also says Microsoft need to take better care of their customers in terms of both protection and compensation.

"MS (like many other companies) aren't doing enough to prevent this behaviour, nor are they doing enough to help themselves and their customers once the news hits the media,” Leeming says.

Microsoft issued a statement yesterday assuring they had not been hacked, in response to a story from The Sun. The company urged users not to open unsolicited emails, and to keep their personal information secure.