The hack – first reported on by Motherboard – exposed the private data of almost 6.5 million kids, as well as almost 5 million parents.
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A man has been arrested in connection with the recent VTech hack, which saw a huge theft of data relating to some 6.4 million children (VTech is a Hong Kong-based toy making company).
The hacker told Vice Motherboard he’d attacked the company to highlight the poor security at VTech. It then confirmed that several million users had been affected, with their personal information, photos and audio copied away from unsecured servers.
According to a statement from Britain’s South East Regional Organized Crime Unit (SEROCU), the man faces multiple charges including suspicion of using a computer to gain unauthorized access to a program or data.
Serocu’s cyber crime unit, acting with a number of partner agencies, swooped on an address in Bracknell on the morning of 15 December and seized a number of electronic items to be examined forensically.
KitGuru Says: Be careful with the connected toys, especially at this time of year.
The support servers for the Learning Lodge app, an application which lets customers access and download content such as games and ebooks produced by VTech, were accessed. In the days following the reports of the security breach, VTech reassured customers that no credit card data had been compromised.
Law enforcement and regulators in Hong Kong, the United Kingdom and U.S. are investigating the breach. The database also houses e-mail addresses, names, passwords, mailing addresses and download histories. “We will continue to work closely with our partners to identify those who commit offenses and hold them to account”, said Jones.
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By ensuring everything is safeguarded from hackers, companies can have the upper hand against criminals and ensure not only their sensitive company-related information is protected, but also their customers can be safe in the knowledge their information is secure too.
