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Pearson, the global education and publishing giant, has confirmed it suffered a cyberattack resulting in the theft of corporate data and customer information. The breach was discovered by BleepingComputer, who reported that the attackers gained unauthorized access to Pearson's systems. Pearson, a UK-based company, is a major player in academic publishing, digital learning tools, and standardized assessments, serving schools, universities, and individuals across over 70 countries.

Pearson stated that after discovering the unauthorized access, they acted to stop the breach, investigate the incident, and ascertain what data was affected with forensics experts. They also supported law enforcements investigation. Furthermore, Pearson said they've taken steps to deploy additional security measures onto their systems, including enhanced security monitoring and authentication. BleepingComputer was tipped off that someone used an exposed GitLab Personal Access token to compromise Pearson’s development environment in January 2025. The token was found in a public .git/config file, with the attackers using this access to find even more login credentials, hardcoded in the source code, which they then used to infiltrate the company’s network and steal corporate and customer information.

The company downplayed the significance of the breach, suggesting the stolen data was largely outdated, referring to it as "legacy data." Pearson has not disclosed the number of individuals affected, nor the specific types of information exposed. There was no employee information among the stolen files, it was confirmed.


References :

• DataBreaches.Net: Lawrence Abrams reports: Education giant Pearson suffered a cyberattack, allowing threat actors to steal corporate data and customer information, BleepingComputer has learned.
• BleepingComputer: Education giant Pearson suffered a cyberattack, allowing threat actors to steal corporate data and customer information, BleepingComputer has learned.
• www.techradar.com: Another case of exposed Git configuration files leading up to a larger compromise, this time against education giant Pearson.

Classification:

• HashTags: #DataBreach #Cyberattack #Education
• Company: Pearson
• Target: Pearson Customers
• Product: Academic Publishing
• Feature: Git Configuration Files Exposu
• Type: DataBreach
• Severity: Major