Massive Data Breach Includes Personal Information of Local Students

KEOKUK COUNTY – PowerSchool, a software platform used for K-12 schools across the nation, suffered a massive data breach on Dec. 28. PowerSchool works with 18,000 school districts around the world, servicing more than 60 million children, including those at the Keota, Pekin, Tri-County and English Valleys school districts. According to coverage by tech news website Bleeding Computer, the data breach primarily consisted of contact details like names and addresses, but could also include Social Security Numbers, personal information, medical information and grades for some school districts. The company stressed that only some districts were impacted by the data breach. The company also stated that they paid a ransom of an unspecified amount to keep the data from being released, leading the hackers to send a video showing the data being deleted. The company is currently notifying impacted school districts about the incident.

On Jan. 9, Pekin Community School District notified parents about the data breach, revealing that the breach included personal information like Social Security Numbers, birth dates, addresses, medical alerts and additional information from students, the phone numbers of staff, and the Social Security Numbers of approximately ten staff members.

The letter sent by Pekin states that PowerSchool has assured the district that there is no evidence of misuse or public dissemination of the breached data, and that there is reasonable assurances that the data has been deleted without further replication or dissemination. Pekin recommended that parents change passwords, monitor their PowerSchool accounts, beware of unsolicited emails related to PowerSchool or Pekin, and update contact information to receive timely updates. Specific instructions for those eligible for credit monitoring and identity protection services will be announced in coming weeks.

The News-Review also reached out to the other school districts in the area who use PowerSchool. English Valleys stated that the impact of the data breach was minimal, due to the district not keeping track of Social Security Numbers, and that they had not been informed by PowerSchool of anything they needed to do at this time. Tri-County stated that they had been notified about the data breach, but did not know anything else at this time. The News-Review has not heard back Keota, at time of publishing.