Everybody remembers Neopets, proper? The firm that permits you to create and maintain digital animals has been a mainstay of sweet sixteen enjoyable because it launched in 1999. Well, I hate to interrupt it to you, however a hacker not too long ago spat in your childhood nostalgia by breaking into the corporate’s database and stealing knowledge on thousands and thousands of consumers.

A cybercriminal who goes by the moniker “TarTarX” has claimed duty for the hack, Bleeping Computer initially reported. On a darkish net discussion board, the legal claimed that they’d pilfered knowledge on 69 million Neopet customers. Portions of the haul had been shared with Bleeping Computer and seem to disclose a wealth of non-public info, together with usernames, actual names, birthdays, zip codes, e mail addresses…you get the image.

TarTarX is now trying to promote the stolen trove for 4 bitcoin (roughly $94,000). The trove may include delicate private info on minors, although Neopets has mentioned the average age of its 100,000 daily active users is now 18-34. The web site requires gamers to be 13 or older to register.

Neopets has since confirmed that they had been hacked. In statements posted to their Twitter and Instagram accounts, the corporate admitted that it “recently became aware that customer data may have been stolen” and that it “appears that email addresses and passwords used to access Neopets accounts may have been affected.” The firm added:

“We strongly recommend that you change your Neopets password. If you use the same password on other websites, we recommend that you also change those passwords. As our investigation continues, we will update you as appropriate.”

Neopets has remained amazingly common because the firm first launched over 20 years in the past. The firm claims that a lot of its each day energetic customers have performed constantly for greater than 15 years. In September, the corporate announced that it had gone Web3, and can be launching an NFT assortment and joining “the Metaverse.” For an organization that sells the phantasm of proudly owning an actual animal, migrating to the Metaverse really makes an honest quantity of sense—so I can’t knock them an excessive amount of for that.