And you thought it was safe to sign into a test at Pearson Vue. Well you better think again. At least one Pearson online product was hacked exposing student data from 13,000 schools and one million college students. The hack occurred in November 2018, the F.B.I informed Pearson in March 2019, and Pearson, covering itself for as long as possible, finally went public with the disclosure in July 2019.
The hacked product is Person’s aimsweb®, that is used to monitor student reading and math skills. Pearson’s assessment sub-division markets the product with claims that “its robust set of standards-aligned measures, aimswebPlus is proven to uncover learning gaps quickly, identify at-risk students, and assess individual and classroom growth.” A side benefit, especially useful for authoritarian regimes, is that aimsweb® also monitors student online “behavior.”
In a class action lawsuit filed in Illinois federal court, the mother of a pseudonymous minor student, claims that Pearson failed to properly safeguard student information on its AIMSweb platform and then negligently failed to notify individuals and families in a timely manner. Pearson’s offer to them with a year of free credit monitoring is “inadequate to repair the damage done to students, who now face a lifetime of heightened risks.”
Northwest Minnesota, upstate New York, and Shenandoah valley, Virginia school districts were also affected by nationwide data breach. In Minnesota, personnel data for about 2,000 students was released.
Pearson has apologized to those affected and according to a spokesperson, the problem has been fixed.”
While Pearson has contempt for the privacy rights of its customers, it takes extraordinary measures to protect its own assets. Everyone who works on developing, marketing, or grading a Pearson product, or even takes a Pearson test, must sign a confidentiality agreement that subjects then to fines and criminal prosecution for violating Pearson’s intellectual property rights.
Pearson does not accept an apology if you leak a question.
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