The Federal Trade Commission took action against Illuminate Education on December 1, 2025, after the Wisconsin-based company suffered a massive data breach that exposed personal information of more than 10 million students. In late December 2021, a hacker used login credentials from a former employee who had left the company three and a half years earlier.
The breach exposed students’ email addresses, home addresses, dates of birth, student records, and health information. The company had promised schools it would protect student data “like it’s our own” and claimed to use industry best practices. But the FTC found Illuminate failed to implement basic security measures, including storing student data in plain text format until at least January 2022.
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Source: ConsumerAffairs News
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