Mark Keierleber has an interesting and concerning update on the BoardDocs breach previously reported by DataBreaches on June 1: BoardDocs, a software tool used by thousands of school boards to track meeting minutes and store confidential information, has suffered a data breach affecting districts nationally, The 74 has learned. Records at the center of the…
Category: Education Sector
A guilty plea in the PowerSchool case still leaves unanswered questions
On June 6, 19-year-old Matthew D. Lane pleaded guilty in federal court in Massachusetts to one count each of conspiracy to commit cyber extortion, cyber extortion, unauthorized access to protected computers, and aggravated identity theft. The first two charges were related to an unnamed telecom company identified as “Victim 1.” The third and fourth charges…
Help, please: Seeking copies of the PowerSchool ransom email(s)
Help, please: If anyone has a copy of the ransom note sent to PowerSchool in December 2024 or to PowerSchool clients on or about May 7, 2025, please email me a copy or upload it to me on Signal. I want to see not only the body, but the full header and signature. To reach…
PowerSchool hacker pleads guilty, released on personal recognizance bond
He’s just a frail-looking teenager, but he sent threatening emails to get his victims to pay his extortion demands. Today, 19 year-old Assumption College student Matthew Lane waived indictment and pleaded guilty in a Worcester courtroom to hacking an unnamed telecom company and an unnamed edtech vendor, widely known to be PowerSchool. As per the…
Lower Merion School District says a data breach was caused by a computer glitch (1)
DataBreaches cannot read “Lower Merion School District” without recalling the “Webcamgate” scandal of 2010, when the district was discovered monitoring students remotely in their bedrooms on district-issued MacBooks. At the time, they initially denied any misuse of remote access that was part of a security feature. Now the district is back in local news in…
MSCS board renews contract with PowerSchool while suing them
Brian Didlake reports: Memphis-Shelby County Schools board members approved a multi-million dollar contract to continue doing business with a company they’re suing in court. The school board announced it was filing a lawsuit against PowerSchool earlier this month after thousands of students’ personal information was leaked. Now, board members said that was in the past…