Toy Maker VTech Hires Cyber Forensic Team To Help Beef Up Security After Data Breach

After a data breach at popular kids’ toy maker VTech that put the personal information of nearly five million parents and children at risk, as well as reportedly exposing many of their photos and chat logs, the Hong Kong-based company says it’s bringing in the pros to help shore up its security.

VTech, which makes digital learning toys, said on Thursday that a cyber forensic team from FireEye Inc’s Mandiant Incident Response team is working to strengthen the security of its systems and looking into how it handles customer information, reports the Wall Street Journal. The company also said it’s cooperating with law enforcement to investigate the hack.

Information for about 6.4 million children — name, gender and date of birth — and 4.9 million adults — name, email address, password details, mailing address and IP address — was exposed in the hack, VTech said on Tuesday.

The hacker who claimed credit for the Nov. 14 breach of the Learning Lodge app store claimed this week that the company also left tens of thousands of pictures and a year’s worth of chat logs easily accessible to cyber criminals.

Chief Executive Allan Wong offered an apology on Thursday for alarming parents, and said the company is “deeply shocked by this orchestrated and sophisticated attack.”

“We regret that users of Learning Lodge, Kid Connect and PlanetVTech, some of whom are colleagues, friends and families, are also affected,” he said. “We are taking all necessary steps to ensure that our users can continue to enjoy our products and services, safe in the knowledge that their data is secure.”

VTech Hires Cyber Forensic Team, Cooperating With Authorities After Data Breach [Wall Street Journal]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist