FIVE million customers worldwide have had their personal details stolen after a Hong Kong toy seller became the latest victim of a cyber attack.

VTech, which sells electronic toys and educational material, confirmed that around five million customer accounts - including some in the UK - had been compromised.

It comes a month after thousands of UK customer were caught up in the Talk Talk hack.

VTech has also suspended 13 websites following the hacking of its Learning Lodge app database, which held a lot of customer data such as email addresses and passwords - but no credit card details.

The company learned of the breach after being contacted by a journalist.

Professor Alan Woodward, cybersecurity expert at Surrey University, said it looked like the toy firm may have succumbed to a simple hacking technique known as an SQL injection.

He said: "These breaches are endemic and we have to stop. If that means focusing the minds of these companies through big fines then so be it. It needs to be taken seriously and those responsible held to account."