Life360 has confirmed that its subsidiary, Tile, was the victim of a data breach after hackers recently gained access to the Bluetooth-based key finder maker's system.

As reported by The Verge, the perpetrators used stolen employee credentials to access Tile's customer data, including names, addresses, emails, and phone numbers.

The story itself was first revealed by 404 Media, which had direct contact with the hackers. According to the media's conversations with the hacker, the customer information that is now publicly available was obtained from a database used to identify the owners of certain Tile trackers.

In a statement, Life360 CEO Chris Hulls offers further insight into this information leak, explaining that Tile's parent company "recently suffered a criminal extortion attempt." Apparently, hackers sent an email to the company claiming to possess Tile's customer information and attempted to negotiate a ransom payment.

Following this, Life360 investigated and found that Tile's customer support platform had been compromised. Customer information was stolen from here, but fortunately, no sensitive information such as credit card numbers, passwords, or location information was stolen, as this particular support platform did not contain that type of data.

At this time, Life360 believes that the data breach was limited to that particular tile customer support platform and not more extensive.

In an emailed statement to Tom's Guide, a Life360 spokesperson explained that the support platform is for internal use only and is used as part of a multi-step process to initiate law enforcement data requests (404 Media initially (404 Media initially reported that it was intended for law enforcement). He also explained that "Life360 maintains multiple layers of automated and human intervention before responding to law enforcement requests for tile user data. It also challenges the legal sufficiency of the warrant, where appropriate."

He explained.

Typically, when we report a data breach, it is after the company in question has reported what happened to the authorities in the form of a data breach notification. Such a notification often states how many customers were affected, as well as how the affected company will remedy the situation for its customers.

There is quite a lot that companies can do to restore trust with their customers after a data breach, such as offering free access to the best identity theft protection services and free credit monitoring. In this case, however, it is still too early to tell, and it is not known whether the problem is widespread or limited to a small number of tile customers.

Therefore, for the time being, it is up to you to take the necessary precautions to stay safe from the consequences following this data breach. Since it is certain that names, addresses, e-mails, and phone numbers were compromised, other cybercriminals could use this stolen data to launch targeted phishing attacks. For this reason, you should be extremely careful when checking your inbox, as well as when checking your mailbox directly.

Hackers can also send malicious emails containing dangerous malware or even USB flash drives with malware pre-installed. Fortunately, however, Tile's customers' Social Security numbers were not compromised in this breach, so they cannot steal your identity.

As Tile users ourselves, we are following this story closely and will keep you posted as we learn more.