Data Leaks in Online Education: Almost 1 Million Records Exposed

guest · Jul 20, 2020

One Million Online Student Records Exposed by E-Learning Sites
July 20, 2020
https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/one-million-online-student-records/

Nearly one million records containing the personal information of online students have been leaked after cloud misconfigurations by five e-learning platforms, according to WizCase.

The VPN comparison site found four misconfigured and unencrypted AWS S3 buckets and one unsecured Elasticsearch server, compromising the details of countless e-learners, including many children, as well as their parents and teachers.
The personal information (PII) exposed included full names, home and email addresses, ID numbers, phone numbers, dates of birth and course/school information.
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The affected companies include Escola Digital, a Brazilian site that leaked 15MB of data, amounting to 75,000 records, although many came from 2016 and 2017.
South African site MyTopDog exposed over 800,000 records via a misconfigured S3 bucket, including documents related to business partner Vodacom School.

Kazakhstan-based Okoo leaked 7200 records via an Elasticsearch server, while US sites Square Panda (15,000) and Playground Sessions (4100) round-out the affected platforms.
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WizCase urged users who may have had their data exposed in this way to regularly check for unusual activity on their accounts, to be extra cautious when receiving unsolicited emails and never to give out PII over the phone.
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WizCase: Data Leaks in Online Education: Almost 1 Million Records Exposed

What’s Happening with eLearning Companies?
eLearning websites have been growing in popularity as they provide an entertaining and fun way to learn for children and teenagers. However, as some of these platforms are used predominantly by underage users, it’s important for companies to acknowledge the severity of appropriate data protection.

Children’s data protection should be the utmost priority for every company collecting vulnerable information of users under the age of 18. Unfortunately, it seems that not all businesses understand the seriousness and dangers of mishandling such information.
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Whose Data Was Exposed?
1. Escola Digital — Online Digital Courses
2. MyTopDog — Children-Orientated Study Platform
3. Okoo — Online Learning Platform for Children
4. Square Panda — Educational Phonics Learning Online System
5. Playground Sessions — Virtual Piano Lessons for Everyone
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guest · Oct 2, 2020

Edtech Startup Edureka Suffers Server Breach, Data Of 2 Mn Users Exposed
October 1, 2020
https://inc42.com/buzz/edureka-suffers-server-breach-data-of-2-mn-users-exposed/

Indian edtech platform Edureka has suffered a significant data breach, one that left names, addresses and phone numbers of more than 2 Mn users unprotected for over a week.

Cybersecurity experts working with SafetyDetectives, an antivirus review website, first discovered the vulnerability on August 1, and following their protocol, contacted Edureka on August 6 to inform them about the same.
The SafetyDetectices report mentions that the vulnerability was with Edureka’s US-based Elasticsearch server which was left unsecured, without password protection.
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The Bengaluru-headquartered Edureka, founded in 2011 by Lovleen Bhatia, is an online learning platform which offers short term as well as degree-level courses in collaboration with educational institutes. The company’s server is hosted by Amazon Web Services.
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Safety Detectives: Up to 2 million people affected by data breach at Indian e-learning platform

A prominent Indian e-learning platform was discovered to be operating a completely unsecure Elasticsearch server based in the US. The vulnerability meant that more than 25 gigabytes of personal information belonging to around 2 million Edureka users was publicly available until the server was secured.
Almost all affected users are based in India, although some instances of other nationalities were recorded including users in the US.
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Given the fact that Edureka provides professional-grade online courses to people often operating in significant or powerful positions in society, with access to highly-sensitive information, Edureka’s compromised server security could have been devastating to entire organizations such as other universities, companies or government departments.
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