Book publisher Pearson sued for exposing 1 million student records to hackers

Pearson, the world’s largest book publisher, is being sued after hackers stole confidential data on more one million students.

In a class action lawsuit filed in federal court in Chicago, Pearson is accused of failing to notice the hack for more than four months until the FBI reported it in March 2019.

The data breach happened in November 2018, and affected one million students in 13,000 schools across 13 states, the lawsuit states. The company should have had safeguards in place to protect the data, according to the lawsuit.

The stolen data confidential student information including first and last names, dates of birth, email addresses and student ID numbers.

Attorney’s for the plaintiffs said the hack is part of a disturbing trend of targeting children’s data and exposing it on the dark web.

“Education technology platforms are popular targets for cyberattacks given the young age and vulnerability of the victims and the sensitive nature of the data stored therein,” the lawsuit states. “Criminals increasingly seek out children’s data because children are less likely to check their credit reports or implement credit freezes, giving criminals longer periods of time to utilize a child’s stolen identity.”