A teen hacker breached a major school data system, exposing records of 880,000 Texans, impacting Dallas ISD, & raising alarms about cybercrime and AI-driven threats.
DALLAS — It could happen in any school in the country, including right here in North Texas.
Student records containing grades, medical information, personal data and even Social Security numbers are stored online in school databases meant to help educators manage millions of records. But authorities say one teenager found a way into one of the largest of those systems, setting off a breach that exposed sensitive information tied to students and teachers across the country, including in Dallas ISD.
Investigators say Matthew Lane, a teenage hacker interviewed by ABC News during a months-long investigation into cybercrime, used stolen credentials to gain access to PowerSchool, a platform widely used by schools to store student and employee information.
Lane described the rush he got from hacking in stark terms.
“You realize you are good at this thing and can make money, in a bad way, it’s easy money even if it’s dirty,” Lane said.
He also described hacking as an addiction.
“I was addicted to not only drugs, I was addicted to hacking,” Lane said. “That gave me the most natural high ever.”
Authorities say that addiction turned into something far more serious when Lane became involved in the breach of PowerSchool, a company whose student information system is used by school districts nationwide.
The case has now become the subject of a major legal battle in Texas.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed a lawsuit in Collin County accusing PowerSchool of failing to adequately protect sensitive student and teacher data. According to the state, more than 880,000 Texas students and teachers had personal information exposed in the breach, leaving them vulnerable to identity theft and long-term financial harm.
Lane acknowledged the emotional toll his actions had on victims.
“Yeah, I took their sense of security and being,” he said.
According to federal investigators, Lane used stolen credentials to access PowerSchool’s database and then helped move data overseas. Authorities and cybersecurity experts say the consequences of breaches like this can last for years, especially when minors’ personal identifying information is involved.
The impact reached North Texas.
Dallas Independent School District confirmed it was among the districts affected after being notified by PowerSchool that private student information had been accessed in the breach. The district serves more than 140,000 students, making it one of the largest school systems in the state.
One former FBI official described the breach as one of the worst he had seen in terms of lasting impact.
“It was one of the worst I’ve seen here when you talk about financial impact,” he said. “You talk about the forever impact that these students and faculty will have for the rest of their lives.”
PowerSchool, in a statement to ABC News, said it appreciated the efforts of prosecutors and law enforcement who brought Lane to justice and said the company has remained focused on supporting school partners and safeguarding student, family and educator data.
The company said it published a public incident report in March 2025 by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike. According to PowerSchool, the report found that only certain student information system customer environments were affected and found no evidence of fraud, misuse of information, malware or unauthorized activity within the broader PowerSchool environment. The company also said not all PowerSchool SIS customers were affected and that districts and schools not using that particular system were not impacted.
PowerSchool said it takes responsibility for protecting student privacy seriously and said it complies with federal and state student privacy laws, including FERPA. A company spokesperson declined to say how many current and former students and teachers were ultimately affected overall and also declined to say how much the company paid in ransom, though the company has said it made decisions it believed were in the best interest of customers and offered identity protection services.
Lane told ABC News his path into hacking did not begin as an attempt to commit a crime.
Like many young hackers, he said, it started in online gaming communities.
Lane said he got his start on Roblox, a popular platform used by millions of children and teens.
“It’s a very toxic and edgy corner of the internet, and not a lot of people know that,” he said.
In a statement, Roblox said cybercrime is an industry-wide challenge and that the company has taken steps to encourage ethical behavior and strengthen security.
“Cybercrime is an industry-wide challenge, and we have zero tolerance for such acts on our platform. Roblox has a robust safety and security system dedicated to detecting and stopping bad actors, and we deploy cutting-edge anti-cheat technology designed to prevent exploitation across the Roblox ecosystem. We work closely with law enforcement to combat cybercrime and report any suspicious activity to the FBI. While no system is perfect, we continue to evolve our protections every day.”
Cybersecurity experts say that the pathway from gaming to hacking is becoming more common. Fergus Hay, who leads the London-based group The Hacking Games, said gaming has become a training ground where young people develop technical skills, social connections, and risk-taking behavior that can later lead to cybercrime.
Hay said cybercrime is growing rapidly worldwide, with losses reaching $10.5 trillion last year and projected to climb to $24 trillion this year.
“The reason why is because the bad guys have worked out where the kids are developing their skill sets and it’s in gaming,” Hay said. “The overlap between a hacker and a gamer is 100%. Every hacker is a gamer.”
Federal authorities say advances in artificial intelligence are accelerating that trend.
A former FBI official said teens can now use AI to learn coding skills at levels that once took years of training.
“Any teen that really wants to learn how to code just does it with AI, and they are able to code almost to the levels of what we would have considered an expert 10 years ago,” he said.
Experts say that means the barriers to entry are lower than ever, increasing the temptation for young people drawn by money, status and excitement.
“Part of it is to make money, but the other part is that thrill of going in and not getting caught,” a former FBI special agent in charge said.
Lane echoed that sentiment.
“You see this lavish, luxurious lifestyle that these kids, other people, sometimes adults 20 to 40 years old, and you say like as a young kid, ‘I want that,’” he said.
But Lane said the reality eventually caught up to him. He recalled the moment federal agents arrived at his home with a search warrant.
“This man is pounding at my door saying, ‘FBI. We have a search warrant for Matthew Lane. You need to open the door right now,’” he said.
Lane said that instead of fear, he felt relief. He said hacking had left him depressed and suicidal.
“I was so thankful I got caught,” he said. “That stuff affected me so bad. I would have ended up literally dead.”
Authorities and experts say cases like Lane’s are becoming more common and warn parents to pay close attention to their children’s online activity, especially in gaming spaces and private chat groups where young users can be exposed to harmful influences.
“Parents need to plug in. Parents need to lock in. Parents need to understand the world their kids are living in,” Hay said. “Understand the threat of that kid being groomed from their bedroom.”
For Lane, those warnings come too late. He is going to prison.
Now, he says, his mission is to stop other teenagers from going down the same path.
His story serves as a warning about how quickly a child’s online activity can escalate into cybercrime — and how the consequences can follow both victims and offenders for the rest of their lives.