It’s dismaying enough when hackers manage to steal data on adults, like the recentCapcom ransomware cyberattackthat resulted in employee information and details about future projects being leaked. But when the hack involves a popular children’s game,Animal Jam,the news can be even more alarming.
Hackers can pose a serious threat to the security of a company and the account information of users who provided personal details to that company in good faith. Recently,Animal Jam,aNational Geographicgame whose target demographic is 9 to 11-year-old children, was hacked and 46 million records were stolen. This cyber breach occurred sometime between October 10-12, spurring game developer WildWorks to release a statement notifying parents of the attack on November 11.
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In the statement, WildWorks reassured parents that no real children’s names were stolen during the hack and only 0.02% of the compromised records contained billing names or billing addresses. This means that the ability for the hackers to potentially identify the parents of players is greatly limited. All of the usernames inAnimal Jam,on both mobile andPC,are moderated by real people upon creation to ensure that none of them contain a real name or personally identifying information.
The database of 46 million records stolen in the cyber breach ofAnimal Jam,dating back to the game’s launch in 2010, is being circulated by the hackers. The WildWorks statement broke down precisely what information was accessed from thehacked accounts:
Initially, at the time of the break-in sometime between October 10-12, WildWorks believed that only its vendor’s server had been compromised and did not realize that its own database of account information had been accessed. Accordingly, the company worked to proactively increase protections against anothersecurity breach. A month later, on November 11, independent security researchers monitoring a hacker forum noticed theAnimal Jamdatabase posted there and alerted WildWorks of the theft. WildWorks immediately issued the notification to parents.
The company has taken the additional step of working closely with the FBI and other law enforcement agencies to hopefully identify the people responsible for the hack. In the meantime, allAnimal Jamaccounts are being required tochange their passwords. The WildWorks statement provides additional steps that concerned parents can take to ensure their safety or to check if their information was included in the leak.
Animal Jamis available on mobile and PC.
