California warns students after ETS contractor breach copies school data
Original title: California warns all public school students of data stolen in contractor breach
Hackers copied records via an ETS file-transfer site from May 22 to September 18; the state is notifying families through November.
California’s Department of Education says contractor Educational Testing Service was breached, exposing data on public-school students enrolled from 2023 through the current year and some students who left since 2006. ETS says the copy occurred through a secure file transfer site and was found on September 25; the account was disabled and the site later replaced. CDE says monitoring has not found the data published, and no group has claimed the attack. Testing and enrollment processing are paused while the review continues.
Unconfirmed: No group has claimed the attack, and CDE has not detailed how ETS reduced the risk of publication.
- Copied fields include names, addresses, SSIDs, disability status, and assessment results.
- Public K-12 enrollment exceeded 5.7 million students in the 2025 school year.
- Family notices began October 16 and will continue through November.
- ETS manages CAASPP and ELPAC testing for California public schools.
Impact: Student identifiers, demographics, and assessment records were copied
- 1.Watch for official CDE notices through November and misuse of student identifiers.
- Vendors
- Educational Testing Service
- Countries
- United States
From the original article
3 min read at therecord.mediaThe CDE released multiple statements over the last week warning the state’s students that assessment contractor Educational Testing Service (ETS) suffered a months-long data breach.
therecord.media
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