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"Great news - the CloudPets data breach didn't include personal audio recordings from most of its users, the company said in a blog post Thursday. The bad news - this doesn't mean that everyone who owns a CloudPet is safe. Users with simple or easily-guessed passwords are still at risk.\nCloudPets are interactive stuffed animals that allow parents and children to send messages to one another through apps connected to the products.\nWhen parents register their CloudPets, they hand over their children's names, an email address and a photo. That data is then stored in the cloud.\nHackers were able to access private passwords, user names and email addresses through a breach that infiltrated 820,000 user accounts from late December to early January, according to cybersecurity expert Troy Hunt on Tuesday.\nHow can parents protect themselves?\n\"Parents should carefully consider the breadth of information they provide about their children with services and apps,\" ZeroFOX Threat Intelligence Chief Research Scientist Mike Raggo told us Wednesday. \"Unless it's required, refrain from providing unnecessary information about your child to cloud services or apps. It may also be wise to create an email account that the parent has access too –  as so many of these online services and apps use it to allow password resets, notifications, and more.\"\nSecurity breaches are becoming all too common. Why does this keep happening?\n\"Companies certainly could be taking more precautions – not only for their consumers, but to ensure regulatory or industry compliance as well,\" Raggo explained. \"Two-factor or two-step verification should be standard for companies using cloud technologies and providing customer login. If account passwords are breached, another factor of authentication protects those users until they have the opportunity to change their password. Additionally, encryption is the standard today, not an option.\"\nThe same attack that targeted CloudPets affected more than 28,000 online databases, but CloudPets claimed its data was encrypted, and assured users that hackers wouldn't be able to read the it under most circumstances. \nThe company said it has wiped all information from the affected database."
<https://www.koco.com/article/cloudpets-data-breach-didnt-include-audio-recordings-the-company-says/9079016>