Neopets is a popular virtual pets community where users get a chance to own and care for pets virtually. The website suffered a data breach in which personal information or at least 69 million users of the platform got exposed.
For your information, this is the second time that Neopets has suffered a data breach. In 2013, hackers were caught selling 26 million of its stolen accounts on the dark web however in 2016, the entire database was leaked online to the public.
What Happened?
On Tuesday, a hacker using the alias TarTarX posted an ad to sell Neopets database on a hacker forum which surfaced as an alternative to popular and now-sized Raidforums. It is worth noting that this is the same forum on which a hacker was selling the Shanghai Police database with billions of Chinese citizen data.
As for the Neopets data breach, the hacker claimed to have stolen the information from the virtual pet website. The hacker offered the entire database for 4 BTC, equivalent to $94,000. The hacker also possessed 460MB of compressed Neopets’ website source code.
About Leaked Data
The hacker claimed they could access the Neopets website database’s live version. If it is true, the hacker can conveniently access the accounts of Neopets’ users. As per TarTarX, the stolen information includes personal data such as:
- Gender
- Zip code
- Full name
- Addresses
- Nationality
- IP address
- Date of birth
- Email address
- Password hashes
Data Breach Details
On 20th July 2022 Neopets also confirmed the data breach by releasing a statement on its Twitter and Instagram accounts. The company informed that there’s a possibility that user data was stolen in a data breach and that they have hired a forensic firm to investigate the incident.
The company didn’t provide further details of the hack. It, however, urged users to change their passwords to protect themselves from cyber crooks.
“Neopets recently became aware that customer data may have been stolen. We immediately launched an investigation assisted by a leading forensics firm. We are also engaging law enforcement and enhancing the protections for our systems and our user data,” Neopets’ tweet read.
This latest data breach is yet another reminder of the importance of using strong passwords and unique usernames. It is also important to be vigilant about strange emails or phone calls asking for personal information, as these could be attempts by hackers to gain access to your account.
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