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: 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…
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…
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…
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…
Nate Raymond reports: A Massachusetts man has agreed to plead guilty to hacking cloud-based education software provider PowerSchool and stealing data pertaining to millions of students and teachers that hackers used to extort the company and school districts into paying ransoms. Matthew Lane, 19, entered into a plea deal on Tuesday to resolve charges filed…