Description: The California Office of the Attorney General reported a data breach involving Illuminate Education, Inc. on March 4, 2024. The breach occurred between December 28, 2021, and January 8, 2022, affecting student data but did not include Social Security numbers, credit card numbers, or bank account numbers. Additional notifications were required due to the findings from the investigation.

Description: The California Office of the Attorney General reported that Illuminate Education informed about a data breach affecting Rocklin Unified School District on May 4, 2022. The breach involved unauthorized access to databases containing minor student's names, academic and behavior information, enrollment, accommodation, special education, and demographic information, occurring between December 28, 2021, and January 8, 2022. The number of individuals affected and specifics on the response actions taken beyond notification are unknown.

Description: In 2021, Illuminate Education Inc., an educational technology company providing software for tracking student attendance, grades, and mental health data, suffered a data breach exposing the personal information of **1.7 million New York students**, along with affected students in Connecticut and California. Hackers exploited the credentials of a **former employee** to access unencrypted database files, compromising sensitive data such as **student names, birth dates, and demographic information**. The breach stemmed from the company’s failure to implement basic security measures, including **inactive account deactivation, data encryption, access restrictions, and suspicious activity monitoring**. New York’s Attorney General secured a **$1.7 million settlement** (part of a **$5.1 million multi-state agreement**) mandating stricter cybersecurity protocols, including data encryption, access controls, and anomaly detection systems. The incident underscored vulnerabilities in handling **student data**, eroding trust among schools, parents, and educators.

Description: Illuminate Education Inc. experienced a data breach affecting its educational software solutions, exposing sensitive information of over three million schoolchildren. The compromised data varied but included grades, socio-economic status, and special education details. Notably, Social Security numbers and financial information were **not** exposed, and there is no evidence that the breached data has been publicly released or misused. The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit dismissed a proposed class-action lawsuit, ruling that the plaintiffs failed to demonstrate sufficient intangible harms (e.g., emotional distress, identity theft risk) to establish legal standing. While the breach involved highly personal student records, the lack of financial data exposure or confirmed misuse limited its immediate consequences. The incident primarily raised concerns about privacy violations and potential long-term risks, such as targeted phishing or discrimination based on the leaked educational and socio-economic details.

Description: In December 2021, Illuminate Education suffered a data breach caused by a hacker exploiting inactive credentials of a former employee. The breach exposed sensitive personal and medical data of millions of students, including names, race, disability status, accommodation details, and coded medical information. The investigation revealed critical security lapses: failure to deactivate former employee credentials, lack of monitoring for suspicious logins, unsecured backup databases, and deceptive claims in the company’s Privacy Policy about compliance with security standards. The breach violated California’s KOPIPA and Connecticut’s Student Data Privacy Law, resulting in a $5.1 million settlement with attorneys general from California, Connecticut, and New York. The settlement mandates stricter security controls, monitoring, backup safeguards, and breach notifications to the DOJ, alongside reminders for school districts to review stored student data. The case underscores the heightened legal obligations for tech companies handling student data and the severe consequences of non-compliance.

Description: Illuminate Education, an ed-tech software company providing data and assessment tools for schools, suffered a major data breach in **December 2021 and January 2022**, exposing sensitive information of **approximately 1.7 million current and former students** across **750 schools** in New York alone. The compromised data included **student names, birth dates, student ID numbers, and demographic details**, along with potential health records. The breach resulted from **neglected security measures**, including failure to encrypt student data, decommission inactive accounts, limit account permissions, monitor suspicious activity, and delete data post-contract termination. Prior warnings in **2020** about high-risk server practices were ignored. The company faced a **$5.1 million settlement** with New York, California, and Connecticut, with New York receiving **$1.7 million**. Regulators mandated stricter security protocols, including encryption, access controls, vulnerability tracking, and annual disclosures of collected data categories. The incident marked **Connecticut’s first enforcement under its Student Data Privacy Law**, emphasizing heightened accountability for ed-tech firms handling children’s information.

Description: Education technology provider Illuminate Education Inc. will implement a data security program to settle Federal Trade Commission allegations it failed to protect the privacy and data of more than 10 million students. The proposed order requires the company to delete unnecessary personal information and follow a public data retention schedule. Illuminate must also implement a comprehensive information security program to protect collected personal data. The order stipulates that Illuminate must inform the FTC if it notifies other government entities about data breaches involving consumers’ personal information. Illuminate didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The company neither admitted nor ...

Description: A data breach incident at Illuminate Education, a third-party service provider affected many school districts in Coventry, Connecticut, and New York City. The attacker targeted a Illuminate product, eduCLIMBER which is used by schools to track students’ grades, attendance and behavioral development. The incident exposed the personal information of around 1,700 students enrolled in Coventry Public School and 820,000 current and former students of New York City Department of Education.

Description: IT systems of Illuminate Education, an online grading and attendance system were hacked in January that compromised the personal information of hundreds of students. The information included names, birthdates, ethnicities, home languages and student ID numbers of 820,000 current and former New York City students. The hackers exfiltrated the class and disrupted the studies, so grading and attendance platform had to be shut down.