Data Breach Exposes Records of 7 Million California Students via ETS Hack

A hacker stole personal data on 7 million California students from Education Testing Service between May and September. Officials began notifying families on Friday.

Hack of ETS Compromises Personal Data of Millions of California Pupils

Personal information belonging to approximately 7 million California public school students was stolen in a cyberattack on the Education Testing Service (ETS), a non-profit organisation that holds contracts with the state's Department of Education, politico.com reported Friday.

The breach exposed the names, addresses, demographic details and disability status of every student enrolled in California public schools across the past three academic years, according to the California Department of Education (CDE).

ETS administers standardised examinations across the United States and internationally. In California, the organisation manages statewide assessments including the Smarter Balanced exam and English proficiency tests.

CDE officials said an "unauthorised party used a compromised login credential" to copy files containing the student data over a period spanning May 22 to September 18. ETS did not detect the intrusion until September 25, several days after the activity had ceased. State officials began notifying affected students and their parents on Friday.

Following the discovery, ETS took the server storing the data offline and disabled the account that had been used to carry out the hack. Law enforcement has been informed and an investigation is under way, officials confirmed.

No information about the identity of the attacker or the current whereabouts of the stolen data has been made public.

Source: Google News MT