AUSTIN, Texas (KXXV) — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing big tech company, PowerSchool, after a data breach that compromised more than 880,000 students and teachers personal information.
PowerSchool, a California-based provider of cloud-based services for K-12 schools, and its software collects, processes and secures sensitive information that Texas schools require from parents to enroll their students, as well as school employees.
Paxton said in a press release on Wednesday that the, "unprecedented data breach exposed the sensitive personal identifying information and protected health information," of the hundreds of thousands of Texans that have used this software.
The data breach happened in December 2024, when, "a hacker used a subcontractor's account to gain administrative access and transferred large amounts of unencrypted data to a foreign server."
The information that was stolen includes names, addresses, Social Security numbers, medical details, disability records, special education data and bus stops.
“If Big Tech thinks they can profit off managing children’s data while cutting corners on security, they are dead wrong. Parents should never have to worry that the information they provide to enroll their children in school could be stolen and misused. My office will do everything we can to hold PowerSchool accountable for putting Texas students, teachers, and families at risk.”
In the press release, Paxton said this data breach violates both the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act and the Identity Theft Enforcement and Protection Act by misleading customers about the company's security practices and failed to take reasonable measures to protect sensitive information that was entrusted with the company by Texas families and school districts.
Click here to view the lawsuit.
