Neopets is a name you’ll probably remember from the early-to-mid 2000s as one of those free online games players could make an account for and chat with their friends. Back in 2014, the company was purchased by JumpStart Games, which was then subsequently acquired by NetDragon in 2017.
As of this year, Neopets hosts over 69 million accounts on their servers, and that community is in a bit of trouble. Initially confirmed via a Neopets representative on Discord, the company tweeted out that a major data breach had occurred yesterday, which you can see below.
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
This was also talked about on the community website JellyNeo. This topic of discussion came after the hacker had offered to sell the “complete database and source code.” Not only does this include emails, passwords, and other personal information, but it also includes live access to the database where a buyer can “modify data, credits, or in-game pets” on a data breach forum.
The above offer had an asking price of four bitcoin, or roughly $100,000 (as of the time of writing). Meanwhile, the team at Neopets had confirmed that emails and passwords were compromised and advised active users to change their credentials as they work to resolve this.
Something important to note is that Neopets offers a paid subscription tier that removes ads onsite and unlocks other premium features, like dedicated forums. Players can also purchase NeoCash to use in the NC Mall (think purchasable currency like Destiny 2’s Silver), which can be used for various items on the Neopets website. The data breach wasn’t explicitly clear on whether paid credit card info was included in this hack, though.
We’ll continue to update as the story develops. Neopets is playable on your online web browser, but be careful, given how things are at the moment. In other news, the RuneScape franchise owner Jagex has acquired Pipework Studios in its first-ever studio investment.
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