The education process does not begin and end with the classroom; education continues through work experiences, certifications, and lifelong learning systems. Because of this, the majority of the data collected during a student's life cycle often lives well beyond an initial enrollment into an educational institution. The Kaplan – Data Breach provides an example of how this extended life cycle of student data leads to a longer-term exposure risk associated with today's education models.
In 2025, from publicly available information, there were multiple weeks of unauthorized access to Kaplan's data, during which time certain files were accessed and removed. The intrusion was later contained and investigated, but it highlighted a larger issue: the vast majority of student data have become long-term digital records, rather than temporary in nature.
When a person registers to take an examination or go through certification or vocational training programs, they frequently provide various forms of private identification information. This may include Social Security numbers or other types of government-issued identification used to verify their identity for examinations. Unlike casual online accounts, student data is typically correlated, making it more valuable as well as much harder to replace if compromised.
The defining attribute of an educational platform is the continuity of user engagement. A single user may interact with the same provider multiple times—preparation, certification, career advancement, and continuing education—and this ongoing engagement creates layered user profiles that contain both historical and current data. The length of time that a user interacts with the provider creates a larger and more complex data footprint.
The longer this extended lifecycle, the greater the opportunity for unauthorized access to user data. Data stored for several years ago may still exist in actively used systems or in backup systems; thus, the total amount of potentially exposed information stemming from one incident increases as a result of one's data being retained by various databases for numerous years.
As well, the fact that users most likely cannot recall every aspect of their previous interactions with the provider means that determining their level of personal risk becomes very difficult.
Another facet to be considered is how and with whom education-related systems interface and share data. Education providers utilize a variety of testing organizations, employers, and credentialing organizations in order to deliver services to their users which requires users' data to be exchanged between all these types of organizations. These multiple points of connection (how education-related systems integrate with each other) provide more opportunities for a provider to secure users' data.
However, the value of students' data continues to evolve. In addition to simply identifying the student, this data may become a record of the student's academic performance, professional interests, and career paths. The combination of identifying information with the above will allow for cyber criminals to create targeted occurrences that may appear legitimate. For example, communications referencing real courses or certifications may be more convincing to recipients.
The timeline in which incidents can be detected adds to this problem. Criminals could have access to a network for days or weeks before the intrusion is identified, which creates a larger volume of data that can be stolen than was originally anticipated. This gives more weight to the argument that security should focus on pro-active practices instead of just relying on door-locking practices.
Along with the continued growth of the digital education sector, the responsibility to breach student records grows significantly as well. Organizations need to address not only their current security systems, but also the amount of time those records will be stored and where they will be kept. This involves analyzing every component of the organization (including hardware and software) to ensure that all records can be transferred or removed from any type of legacy system that has had sensitive information in it.
In essence, the digital education trend has created a data environment that has changed from a traditional view to one that includes the transfer of personal student data throughout a student's entire educational and professional journey. Because of this, protecting the data will be on going, and organizations must recognize that the protection of student personal data is not only a short-term objective, but also a component of an ongoing lifecycle. Therefore, establishing the processes to secure this data needs to be continual rather than a one-time event.
