Scholastic investigates reports of cyber attack

Education publisher Scholastic is investigating reports that a hacker has stolen data belonging to its eight million users. 

Anne Sparkman told The Bookseller: “Scholastic recently became aware that an unauthorised actor claims to have obtained Scholastic customer data. Immediately upon learning of this claim, our internal security teams began an investigation with leading third-party cybersecurity experts to identify any potential unauthorised access to Scholastic systems. At this time, our investigation is ongoing.”

A report published by the Daily Dot suggests a hacker who goes by the moniker “Parasocial” got hold of customer data including names, email addresses, phone numbers and home addresses.

The hacker reportedly claimed they gained access after stealing log-in credentials from an employee hit with malware.

Sparkman added: “At Scholastic, maintaining the trust that our customers, partners and employees place in us is our highest priority. As such, we take the protection of information and data privacy and security seriously."