Data Breach at VTech Hits Child Profiles, Adult Accounts
December 01 2015 - 4:10PM
Dow Jones News
VTech Holdings Ltd., the Hong Kong maker of digital learning
toys and cordless phones, said Tuesday that information about at
least 6.4 million children had been exposed in a recent data
breach. That is in addition to records for 4.9 million adult
customers VTech had previously said were affected.
In a statement posted on its website, the company said child
profile information only includes name, gender and date of birth.
Parent account information includes name, email address, password
details, mailing address and Internet protocol address.
On Monday, VTech said an "unauthorized party" had hacked into
its systems on Nov. 14; the breach was discovered Nov. 24. The
company said it had reached out to every account holder in its
database.
The data accessed was on VTech's Learning Lodge app store, which
allows users to download learning games and other educational
content. VTech's website on Tuesday continued to say it had
"temporarily suspended" the Learning Lodge site.
The incident points to increased worry about children's privacy
as they, like their parents, put more of their personal information
online to use modern toys or social networks.
There remains no evidence the hacker in the breach is seeking to
profit from the data or cause harm to those affected. A journalist
for Vice Media LLC first reported on the incident after being
contacted by the alleged hacker. When the journalist asked the
hacker what he or she planned to do with the data, the hacker said,
"Nothing."
Write to Danny Yadron at danny.yadron@wsj.com
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 01, 2015 15:55 ET (20:55 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2015 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
VTech (PK) (USOTC:VTKLY)
Historical Stock Chart
From Jan 2025 to Feb 2025
VTech (PK) (USOTC:VTKLY)
Historical Stock Chart
From Feb 2024 to Feb 2025