Info on 5 million VTech customers hacked

Toy manufacturer VTech has suspended its app store after the company’s server was hacked last month, exposing the private details of millions of its customers. Hackers gained access to VTech’s Learning Lodge website, where parents can download apps, e-books and other materials for their toys.

The company, which sells children’s tablets, electronic learning toys and baby monitors, said the targeted database did not include credit card information, ID card numbers, Social Security numbers or drivers license numbers.

The intrusion happened on November 14, and was discovered 10 days later, says VTech.

“We take reasonable measures to protect personal information in an effort to prevent loss, misuse, and unauthorised access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction”, it reads. It is investigating the breach and says it has taken steps to prevent another one from happening.

It’s a parent’s worst nightmare: Photos of their kids’ smiling faces stolen by a stranger online, along with identifying information including their names, genders, birth dates, mailing addresses and the contents of their private chats.

Motherboard, which first reported the story and is in contact with the person claiming responsibility for the hack, had previously said the personal information of some 5 million parents and 200,000 children was jeopardized.

The fact that credit card information wasn’t stolen doesn’t comfort Jeff Hill, channel marketing manager at security firm STEALTHbits.

Louise Bulman, VP EMEA at Vormetric commented: “VTech has joined the increasingly long line of organisations facing a rather bleak end to 2015, as it becomes the latest to suffer a high-profile data breach”. VTech did not say whether access to monitoring services would be provided to affected consumers.

At this time, the alleged hacker has told Motherboard he has done nothing with the data. If you have questions about the hack, email [email protected].

Hackers were able to pull childrens’ photos, chat logs and other personal data stored in VTech accounts, according to blogger Troy Hunt, who tracks data security breaches and said he was the first to notify VTech about the hack.