By Jim Finkle
BOSTON, Dec 1 (Reuters) - Digital toymaker VTech Holdings
Ltd 0303.HK said on Tuesday that data on about 6.4 million
children was exposed in a hack of information on customers in
more than a dozen countries.
The Hong Kong-based firm initially disclosed the attack on
Friday, and said hackers took data of nearly 5 million adults,
but it did not disclose how many children's profiles were
accessed.
In a statement posted on its website on Tuesday, it
disclosed that the number of children affected exceeded the
number of adults, with data on some 6.4 million children
accessed along with data on 4.9 million parents.
"I've never seen a hack that affected children as much as
this one," said Chris Wysopal, co-founder of cyber security firm
Veracode. "This is sort of the Ashley Madison for children.
People unwittingly trusting their personal information in a
company that wasn't equipped to handle it."
The company's statement said the children's profiles
included only name, gender and birth date. Stolen data on their
parents included name, mailing address, email address, secret
question and answer for password retrieval, IP address, mailing
address, download history and encrypted password.
The largest number customers whose data was accessed were in
the United States, followed by France, the United Kingdom,
Germany, Canada, Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands.