Officials in American states intend to investigate a massive breach at digital toy maker VTech Holdings Ltd as security experts warned that hackers are likely to target similar companies that handle customer data.
Attorneys general in Connecticut and Illinois said on Monday that they would probe the breaches, though their representatives declined comment on the focus of their inquiries.
The Hong Kong-based toy maker disclosed the attack on Friday, saying information about nearly five million adults and children had been stolen in an attack on a portal used to download games to its computer tablets.
Technology news site Motherboard reported on Friday that the data belonging to some 4.8 million adults and more than 200,000 children. VTech did not reveal the number of children affected.
Motherboard reported on Monday that the hackers also stole photos and chat logs from VTech's Kid Connect service, which allows adults to use their smartphones to chat with kids using VTech tablet.
VTech did not respond to requests for comment on the state probes or the Motherboard reports, which Reuters could not independently verify. Hong Kong's Cyber Security and Technology Crime Bureau said it did not receive any report from VTech.
Officials in Hong Kong said there is not yet "sufficient information" to say whether children had specifically been targeted in the VTech hack.
Meanwhile, some experts said that they expect to see more breaches involving information collected through digital toys and other web-connected devices, a category of products known in tech circles as the Internet of Things, or IoT.
Tech Insider
