VTech data breach leaves children and parents exposed

The digital toymaker VTech on Tuesday said that the data of over 6.3 million children was exposed in a hack that also compromised nearly 5 million parent accounts. The sensitive information stolen by the hackers includes names, email addresses, passwords and home addresses of the parents as well as the birthdays and genders of their children.

The hack comes amid a number of high profile security breaches in recent times after United Kingdom mobile communications company TalkTalk has thousands of customer details stolen.

The company emphasizes that its Learning Lodge customer database does not store credit card information and any personal identification data like ID card numbers, driving license numbers, and Social Security numbers.

In its apology, VTech said it has suspended the affected Learning Lodge service, and is notifying customers. We are committed to protecting our customer information and their privacy.

The hacking serves as a reminder to parents to be careful about what kinds of information about their children they enter on Internet-connected devices. The data hack took place on November 14, but VTech found out on November 24.

The hack that exposed the personal information of children and their parents is worse than expected.

Is Vtech contacting affected customers? VTech is a Chinese company that sells educational toys such as tablets, phones, smartwatches and baby monitors for kids as well as ebooks, games and apps for its electronic products. After receiving the email, Vtech said it “carried out an internal investigation and detected some irregular activity” on the Learning Lodge site.

The Hong Kong-based company, which manufactures gadgets, tablets and baby monitors, has acknowledged a breach after the details of up to five million VTech customers worldwide were accessed by hackers in mid-November. According to the toy maker, it’s sending out emails to all account holders to alert them of the breach.

This unfortunate incident is already considered as the fourth largest consumer data breach in history according to the website Have I Been Pwned.