If you are anything like me playing Neopets was a significant part of your childhood development. I would come home from primary school of an afternoon and sit at the family computer, satiating my Eyrie with free omelettes then trying my luck at the Money Tree for some free cash. It’s just like real life!
Unfortunately things have gotten a little too real, as Neopets revealed via Twitter today that its website has been hacked and its user database — including email addresses and passwords — has been compromised.
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. (1/3)
— neopets (@Neopets) July 21, 2022
Let’s back up for just one second because I did NOT know Neopets was still a thing that a person could play. I thought the site had long disappeared along with my childhood innocence. BRB just gonna try my old login details…which have probably been compromised in the hack. But hey, my Eyrie will be famished!!
According to BleepingComputer, 69 million members of the site have potentially had personal data compromised by the data breach. Speaking to the publication, the hacker — who goes by the name TarTarX — says they stole the database and approximately 460MB of compressed source code for neopets.com. Big yikes.
Neopets “strongly recommends” its users change their login details.
“If you use the same password on other websites, we recommend that you also change those passwords,” it added.
Some users have countered that because the breach is still live, changing your Neopets password isn’t going to make a huge difference right now.
“This is a live breach. If you change your password now, it will just be added to the data dump,” said one Twitter user.
This is a live breach. If you change your password now, it will just be added to the data dump.
— internet funny man ❂ (@FritzKangaroo) July 21, 2022
Its a live breach my guy, thats not going to do anything theyll just see in real time that the password is different
— Jay 🌠🎪 (@hyunllxx) July 21, 2022
Sounds like a big old mess — and a good reminder to regularly update your passwords for your own safety.
