Animal Jam Data Breach Passwords Review
Approximately 7 million parent email addresses linked to the accounts.
The breach was quickly cataloged by Have I Been Pwned (HIBP), the widely respected breach notification service, on November 12, 2020 — just one day after researchers alerted WildWorks to the data theft. Animal Jam Data Breach Passwords
Location data from when accounts were created or accessed. Approximately 7 million parent email addresses linked to
, a hacker successfully infiltrated a third-party communication tool (Slack) used by WildWorks employees. By stealing an internal access key, the attacker gained unauthorized entry to Animal Jam’s user databases. WildWorks was alerted to the theft on November 11, 2020, after security researchers found the database posted on the cybercrime forum RaidForums The Password Problem: Hashing vs. Plain-Text Plain-Text The Animal Jam Data Breach: What Happened
The Animal Jam Data Breach: What Happened to the Passwords? In November 2020, WildWorks, the parent company of the popular children’s virtual world Animal Jam, confirmed a massive cyberattack. Hackers compromised approximately 46 million accounts, making it one of the largest data breaches targeting a children's platform. For parents, players, and cybersecurity experts, the primary concern was the exposure of account passwords and the safety of the young user base. How the Breach Happened
Identify every online account that shared the same password as the compromised Animal Jam account. Change those passwords immediately to prevent unauthorized access via credential stuffing. 3. Enable Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
Yes, passwords were part of the stolen data, but they were not stored in plain text. Animal Jam utilized a cryptographic hashing algorithm to protect user credentials. Cryptographic Hashing