U.S. man sentenced to prison over data breach that included Canadian students’ info
Written by The Canadian Press on October 15, 2025
An American man has been sentenced to four years in prison after pleading guilty to cyber extortion in the mass data breach of a student information system used across Canada.
Court documents show Matthew D. Lane was sentenced in a Massachusetts court Tuesday after he pleaded guilty to charges relating to the cyber extortion of two companies.
The companies were not named in court documents but PowerSchool, a software and cloud storage company for school systems in the U.S. and Canada, confirmed Wednesday that Lane was the person behind its data breach.
PowerSchool had told school boards in Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Alberta and elsewhere across North America that it experienced a data breach between Dec. 22 and 28 of last year.
The company said in May it had paid a ransom in hopes of preventing the public release of the stolen data.
In July, Canada’s federal privacy watchdog said it had discontinued its investigation into the cybersecurity breach, citing its satisfaction with the company’s response and commitment to added security measures.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 15, 2025.
The Canadian Press