Roblox maker comes out about data breach after Troy Hunt tweets about it

The Roblox Corporation is coming out about a 2021 hack in which personal data of around 4,000 participants of the Roblox Developer Conference was exposed. The announcement came after security expert Troy Hunt drew attention to it.

It is unknown whether the Roblox Corporation was aware of the hack before Troy Hunt, of HaveIbeenPwned.com fame, paid attention to it. According to the tips Hunt received, it concerns the participants of the Roblox Developer Conference in the years 2017 to 2020. In 2021 the dataset was posted on a forum, but did not attract much attention. It appears that the data has recently been reposted and is now receiving more attention. It is not known how the data was obtained.

Troy Hunt devoted a few tweets to it on July 18, asking for more information from potential tipsters. He received that information and the Roblox Corporation has now informed the affected people.

According to Hunt’s tweets, the dataset contains names, dates of birth, email addresses, telephone numbers, addresses and IP addresses. Some even include the t-shirt size. Apparently there are two types of emails going around from Roblox, based on how much information about a person is out there. If it’s just the email address, they’ll get a shorter email that states alongside the announcement that Roblox is “taking steps to ensure incidents like this are avoided in the future.” If more data is required, ‘out of an abundance of caution’ an ‘annual subscription to an identity protection tool’ is offered.

Roblox is a video game in which players can develop games themselves. Microtranscations can also take place within their games, from which the creators receive a percentage. The game is very popular among young children and according to Statistia it has more than 60 million daily active players.