National Math and Science Initiative Facing Class Action Over 2021 Data Breach

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National Math and Science Initiative (NMSI) has been hit with a proposed class action in the wake of a data breach last year that reportedly exposed the sensitive information of nearly 200,000 individuals, most of whom are minor students. 

The 43-page lawsuit says the personal information compromised in the incident included names, test schools, dates of birth, Social Security numbers and student identification information. According to the case, the data breach occurred from September 23 to October 18, 2021 yet NMSI, a Dallas-based nonprofit whose programs “encourage excellence” among Advanced Placement students at public high schools across 36 states, did not ascertain exactly what information was compromised until January 6, 2022. 

From there, the complaint says, NMSI “sat on this information for over a month,” failing to inform the public and those affected by the incident until February 2022. 

“When a data set that is inclusive of the aforementioned [personally identifiable information] is breached, every moment is precious to affected consumers who seek to ensure their data is not weaponized against them through identity theft,” the suit says. “Sitting on this information allowed NMSI to dodge responsibility and inevitably worsened the Data Breach victims’ chances of weathering the storm that NMSI created.” 

As a result of the data breach, proposed class members now face a heightened and imminent risk of fraud and identity theft, and must closely monitor their financial accounts for the foreseeable future, the case argues. 

According to the lawsuit, NMSI operates four programs—Teacher Pathways, Laying the Foundation, AlignEd and College Readiness—through which it acquires personally identifiable information. By obtaining, collecting, using and deriving benefit from proposed class members’ data, NMSI assumed a legal duty to safeguard it, and knew or should have known that it was responsible for protecting the information from unauthorized disclosure, the case says. 

The lawsuit looks to cover all individuals whose personally identifiable information was accessed in the National Math and Science Initiative data breach. 

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