Massachusetts college student Matthew Lane will plead guilty to charges that include cyber extortion after allegedly stealing the personal data of millions and then demanding ransom payments, the U.S. attorney says. 

Lane, a Sterling resident, is a student at Assumption University in Worcester, U.S. Attorney Leah Foley said. He has agreed to plead guilty to charges of cyber extortion conspiracy, cyber extortion, unauthorized access to protected computers and aggravated identity theft. 

Investigators say Lane used stolen login credentials to get customer data from a telecommunications company and a software company used by schools in the United States, Canada and other countries. In the spring of 2024, Lane used an anonymous email address to demand a ransom of $200,000 in Bitcoin from the telecommunications company, charging documents say.

"Make the correct decision and pay the ransom," Lane said, according to the U.S. attorney. "If you keep stalling, it will be leaked. Do not waste time."

Lane later reduced the ransom demand to $75,000 after not getting payment from the first victim, and allegedly told a co-conspirator "we need to hack another ... company that[']ll pay."

The second company received a demand in December that said more than 60 million students and 10 million teachers would have sensitive data - including Social Security numbers, medical information and passwords - leaked if the company didn't pay a Bitcoin ransom of $2.85 million. Lane kept the data on a computer server he leased in Ukraine, the U.S. attorney said.

PowerSchool was not named in the court filings, but a source familiar with the case confirmed the company's involvement. PowerSchool said in a statement on its website that it decided to pay a ransom because "we thought it was the best option for preventing the data from being made public." 

"As alleged, this defendant stole private information about millions of children and teachers, imposed substantial financial costs on his victims, and instilled fear in parents that their kids' information had been leaked into the hands of criminals - all to put a notch in his hacking belt," Foley said in a statement.

WBZ-TV has reached out Lane's lawyer and Assumption University for comment. A plea hearing date has not yet been scheduled.