Hong Kong childhood tech firm VTech is hacked, exposing data of 5 million customers and kids

Hong Kong-based kid's technology maker VTech says the personal information of about 5 million of its customers and their children may have been stolen by hackers.

The company disclosed the breach of a customer database late last week, but didn't say how many people could be affected until Monday.

The news comes just as the holiday shopping season is kicking into gear and kid's smartwatches and tablets made by companies such as VTech are expected to be high on children's wish lists. VTech's Kidizoom Smartwatch is predicted to be a top seller this holiday season, while its InnoTab tablets have been popular in the past.

Compromised information in the VTech breach includes the names, birthdates and genders of child users. It also includes adult user information including names, email addresses, passwords, secret questions and answers for password retrieval, IP addresses, mailing addresses and download histories.

The affected database doesn't contain any credit card numbers, or personally identification information such as Social Security or driver's license numbers, VTech says.

Customers from the US and 15 other countries are affected.