Online broadcaster Livestream suffers possible database breach

Live video streaming platform Livestream has discovered that an unauthorised person may have accessed its customer accounts database.

The database holds information such as a user's name, email address, an encrypted version of their password, as well as phone numbers and the customer's date of birth.

"While we are still investigating the full scope of the incident, it is possible that some of your account information may have been accessed," the company said in an email to users.

The New York-based company said however that customer's credit card information as well as other payment details are not stored in the compromised database.

Whilst Livestream said that it has no indication that encrypted passwords have been decoded, it issued caution to customers, asking them to reset their passwords.

"If you used the same passwords for other accounts, we recommend changing your passwords for those accounts as well," Livestream said.

"We have already implemented additional security measures and will continue to improve our systems to help prevent these incidents in the future."

With partners such as Spotify, Tesla, Nasdaq, The New York Times, BBC, and Nike, Livestream claims it has over 40,000,000 viewers watching events on its platform every month. The National Rugby League (NRL) is one of Livestream's largest Australian partners.

This week it was reported that a database used by Hello Kitty fans had been found online after servers were hit last month. As many as 3.3 million records are said to be in the database, however it was not immediately clear where the database was leaked to, or if the database can be verified for authenticity.

Earlier this month, electronic learning product manufacturer VTech disclosed that nearly 6.4 million child profiles were exposed in its data breach with the majority of them in the US and France. It is not clear, however, where the servers storing the data were located.

Over 41,000 of the breached adult and children accounts were Australian.

Locally, Australian department store, David Jones revealed in October that customer details were stolen as a result of its website being hacked on September 25, 2015.

The retail giant said no customer credit card information, financial information, or passwords were stolen, as it does not store any credit card information or financial information on its website, but said the customer details that were stolen were names, email addresses, order details, and mailing addresses.

The breach came a day after Australian discount homewares chain Kmart revealed it had also experienced breach. The Wesfarmers-owned company said no customer credit card or other payment details had been compromised, however, customer's names, email addresses, home addresses, telephone numbers, and product purchase details had been accessed in the "external privacy breach" that occurred in early September.

Last month, TAFE Queensland also experienced a breach that saw the personal details of thousands of the state's TAFE students exposed.