If you’re one of the millions of parents who bought a VTech internet connected device for their child, you’ll want to take notice, as the company has revealed that five million customer accounts were compromised in last week’s data breach.
VTech says it’s alerted Learning Lodge customers of the hack, and if you’ve got one of its devices, you should change your password (and password retrieval info) immediately. While the attack didn’t reveal credit card data or sensitive personal information (like Social Security numbers or driver license IDs), it gave hackers access to customer’s names, addresses, encrypted passwords and even birthdays and genders for kids.
The toymaker says it’s still investigating the breach, and is examining ways to strengthen its security. As a precautionary measure, the company has suspended Learning Lodge and the following websites temporarily for thorough security assessment and fortification:
While data breaches like this have unfortunately become common in today’s connected world, this is unusual in that the breach involves data about children, not a subject that is brought up nearly enough during discussions about securing data.
For more information about the data breach, visit the VTech FAQ page.
