The server of the world renowned maker of electronic learning devices for kids, VTech, was recently breached. This comes after the massive data breach instances that took place in the government offices and health insurance companies over the past few months. As per VTech, the data breach took place in the Learning Lodge portal, the company’s app store database. This is where users can download apps, games and eBooks from.
The data breach was discovered after a Canadian journalist sent a mail to the authorities asking about the incident. As per the initial statement released by the Hong Kong-based firm, around 5 million accounts have been affected by the hack that has exposed sensitive information such as first names of the users (including adults and kids), gender and even birthdays. What is even more worrying is that the hackers were also able to obtain photos and chat-logs of the users.
The Internet is being excessively used to direct attacks against unwary users, more on the children as compared to adults. From cyber bullying to spying on kids and involving them in crimes, the web is fast becoming a den of unscrupulous activities. And since this time the threat is particularly on kids, it is indeed a challenging time for the parents. While the stolen data hasn’t yet been (mis)used or so it appears, this doesn’t actually reduce the fears. One can’t be sure about the plans of the hackers and what they might be doing with so much data of the kids.
The company has called this incident ‘a criminal act’ and a ‘well planned attack’ and as a precautionary measure has taken down the hacked portal to prevent further damage.
