Edmodo 2017 Data Breach
Platform · Education communication and learning tools · Classroom collaboration platform · Global
Edmodo School Communication Platform Breach (2017): 43 Million Teacher & Student Account Credentials Exposed
Education platform for schools.
Confirmed · ObscureIQ Intelligence
Breach Risk Index i
34/100
Lower riskHigher risk
Moderate: notable exposure with meaningful misuse potential.
Data Sensitivity i
StandardExposed data is largely lower-sensitivity. Standard identity-protection precautions are advised.
43.9MRecords
2017Year
The Breach Risk Index (BRI) is a proprietary 0–100 score rating how dangerous a breach is right now, based on how recently the data has been circulating on the dark web and how valuable it is to attackers.
Breach Summary
Edmodo, a classroom communication and learning platform used by tens of millions of teachers, students, and parents worldwide, was hacked in May 2017. Attackers gained access to the platform's user database through an undisclosed method, exposing approximately 77 million records. The stolen data was later published freely on a hacking forum, affecting over 43.9 million unique accounts. The exposed records included usernames, email addresses, and bcrypt-hashed passwords. Because Edmodo served a large population of minors and school communities, the breach carried heightened concerns beyond typical credential theft. Affected individuals faced risks of phishing, targeted scams mimicking school communications, and account takeovers, particularly for users who reused the same passwords elsewhere. Edmodo notified affected users and required password resets following the breach. The platform's role in storing data tied to children drew scrutiny under U.S. federal education and child privacy laws, specifically the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), though no major regulatory enforcement action specific to this breach has been publicly documented. Edmodo was shut down in September 2022. Anyone who used the platform should treat their former Edmodo credentials as compromised, especially if those passwords were reused on other accounts.
Full threat analysis, exploitation vectors, and principal guidance below.
10 additional sections · verified field analysis · defensive doctrine
Querying breach corpus…
Cross-referencing exposed field types…
Resolving threat-actor attribution…
Compiling principal risk advisory…
43.9M records analyzed
About Edmodo
Edmodo was an education technology platform providing classroom communication, assignment management, and learning tools to teachers, students, and parents. At its peak it served tens of millions of users across school systems globally and was positioned as a social network for education. The platform was shut down in September 2022 after its owner NetDragon announced it was discontinuing the service.
Why They Hold Your Data
Classroom collaboration platforms collect student, teacher, and parent identity data, emails, usernames, class rosters, assignments, messages, and school-linked activity records.
Recent Developments
Edmodo no longer operates. NetDragon Websoft, which acquired Edmodo in 2018, shut down the platform and deleted all user data in September 2022, citing the platform's inability to achieve sustainable growth. The breach predates the acquisition and the shutdown.
Data Points Exposed
3 verified field types
Email Address
Password High
Username
Breach Impact
In May 2017 Edmodo was hacked, with approximately 77 million records exposed including email addresses, usernames, and password hashes. The data was later published on a hacking forum. Because Edmodo served students and teachers — including minors — the breach drew attention to the particular obligations education platforms carry under COPPA and FERPA. Edmodo notified users and prompted password resets. No settlement or major regulatory action specific to this breach has been prominently documented before the platform's 2022 shutdown.
Exploitation & Downstream Threats
• Credential stuffing against reused passwords across other platforms | • Targeted phishing campaigns using exposed email addresses
Principal Risk Advisory
What this means for a principal
An education-sector breach: student, staff and identity records support identity theft and targeted phishing. For a high-profile principal the main risk is credible impersonation and enrichment of existing exposure.
What You Should Do
- Reset any reused passwords and enable MFA on email first, then financial accounts.
- Do not use unofficial 'am I affected' lookups; several are themselves harvesting operations.
How ObscureIQ Can Help
- Corpus confirmation: determine whether and where the principal (plus household and staff) appear in this dataset and which specific fields are exposed for them.
- Exposure mapping: cross-reference the exposed identifiers against broker-available data to size and prioritize the principal's wider footprint.
- ThreatWatch tuned to this incident's identifiers and misuse pattern (impersonation and targeting patterns, not generic credential monitoring).
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