The districts utilize PowerSchool as its student information system which was subject to a data breach on or around Dec. 22, according to emails sent out to district families and staff. Personnel were first alerted of the breach on Jan. 7 and provided further details on Jan. 9.
Personal information of students and teachers including addresses, medical information family contact information was compromised by the hack. Social security numbers and account passwords were not among the information items accessed.
“This is profoundly troubling news for D-49, as we place the utmost importance on protecting data,” Superintendent Peter Hilts wrote in separate emails to district families and staff.
D-49 and D-14’s data breach was first reported by Gazette news partner KOAA.
PowerSchool is a software provider for K-12 schools and districts that supports over 60 million students and over 18,000 customers worldwide. Services include enrollment, communication, attendance, staff management, learning systems, analytics, and finance assistance.
According to PowerSchool representatives, the breach occurred through unauthorized use of the “maintenance access” tool, which provides remote access for support technicians.
In an email sent to D-11 families Monday, the district’s IT senior executive director Tom Hunt said that an investigation is ongoing to assess the full scope of the incident.
“PowerSchool has assured us that the situation is contained. They are working with leading cybersecurity professionals from CrowdStrike to conduct a thorough forensic analysis and ensure ongoing monitoring,” he wrote.
Respective investigations are also underway in D-49 and D-14 by PowerSchool personnel and law enforcement.
The cybersecurity news website BleepingComputer.com first reported on the PowerSchool hack, saying numerous school districts across North America were impacted. The cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike is expected to release a finalized report by Jan. 17.
Other local districts like Fountain-Fort Carson D-8 and Miami-Yoder JT-60 utilize the PowerSchool program Schoology, which was not impacted by the data breach.
Going forward, PowerSchool will require additional credentials like single sign-on and multi-factor authentication and the use of a virtual private network. PowerSchool also disabled “maintenance access” by default which will only be turned on through an explicit request.
“We understand the gravity of this situation and the trust you place in us to protect your personal information,” Hilts wrote. “We are fully committed to addressing this breach and we will continue to provide updates as we learn more from PowerSchool.”
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